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Coincidentally, Motricity's chief technology officer also is someone who doesn't have a college degree: Jud Bowman. In 2004, Bowman's company, Pinpoint, merged with Power By Hand of Nashville, Tenn., to create Motricity.

Certainly, in some fields, having a bachelor's or advanced degree is crucial for a CEO.

John Plachetka, co-founder and CEO of Chapel Hill drug discovery company Pozen, said he never could have raised financing for his company without his piece of parchment.

"If you don't have an advanced degree, you almost can't play in the game," said Plachetka, who has a doctor of pharmacy degree.

Moreover, at some companies, working up through the ranks to become CEO wouldn't happen to someone without a degree.

"A lot of companies will screen," said Andy Dreyfuss, director of career management at Wake Forest University's Babcock Graduate School of Management. "If you don't have a degree, they won't talk to you about certain roles.

"We believe education creates opportunities."

CEOs who have prospered without a college degree say they are convinced that it was the right choice for them, even though it wasn't always an easy choice.

"I had to let my parents down," said Chris Evans, founder and former CEO of Accipiter, an Internet software company that was one of the Triangle's success stories during the dot-com boom. "I'm not sure I have lived it down. They had six kids and five of the six kids have college degrees. I'm the failure of the family."

Motricity's Bowman, now 25, attended Stanford for two weeks before taking a leave of absence.

"A lot of times people ask me, 'So when are you headed back to Stanford?' I still get that, and I think it's sort of surprising," he said. "I think it's gotten to a point now where I don't even think about it anymore. I can't imagine being anything other than an entrepreneur."

(Staff writer Anne Krishnan contributed to this story.)

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