Despite the central role played by human capital in entrepreneurship, little is known about how employees in entrepreneurial firms are compensated and incentivized. We address this gap in the literature by studying 18,935 non-CEO compensation contracts across 1,809 privately-held venture-backed...

We show that the degree of control exerted by investors over entrepreneurial firms helps explain the design of employee compensation contracts, and in ways that are asymmetric for founders versus hired-on employees. Across 1,809 U.S. venture-backed companies, we find that firms with more VC/less...

Despite the central role played by human capital in entrepreneurship, little is known about how employees in entrepreneurial firms are compensated and incentivized. We address this gap in the literature by studying 18,935 non-CEO compensation contracts across 1,809 privately-held venture-backed...