We document new facts on the evolution of founder-CEO compensation in venture capital-backed startups. Having a tangible product (“product market fit”) is a fundamental milestone in CEOs' compensation, marking the point where liquid cash compensation increases significantly – well before...

The decision of a venture capitalist to commit capital in a new risky business is a complex decision. Investors need to consider a number of important criteria simultaneously. Based on the postulates of signaling theory and the investment criteria outlined in the extant literature, we propose a...

Investments in new ventures involve financial contracts between an entrepreneur and outside investors. Investors, such as venture capital firms, represent well-diversified investors. In contrast, the entrepreneur must commit a substantial fraction of human and financial capital to the venture....

The existing literature on cluster embeddedness largely neglects the impact of finance on the development of firms' network linkages. This is striking in so far that particularly venture capital is often referred to as "smart money" providing firms not only with funds but also with network...

This paper investigates a model where two corporate venture capital firms (CVCs) decide whether to finance a new venture stand-alone or together, called syndication. The CVCs obtain a cash flow if the venture succeeds. In addition, the venture has a positive or negative effect on an asset of the...

This paper reviews the literature on the role of public equity markets in the innovation ecosystem. The review highlights the importance of public equity markets in funding the research and development activities of young and high growth firms. It also illustrates the dependence of venture...

We find that male participants in Harvard Business School's New Venture Competition who were randomly exposed to more VC investors on their panel were substantially more likely to start a VC-backed startup post-graduation, indicating that access to investors impacts fundraising independent of...

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act of 2012 in the U.S. expanded the capital markets so that entrepreneurs can appeal directly to non-traditional small crowd investors for investment funds. The final rules and forms of the JOBS Act became effective in May 16, 2016. Existing literature...

Venture capital (VC) and growth are examined both empirically and theoretically. Empirically, VC-backed startups have higher early growth rates and initial patent quality than non-VC-backed ones. VC-backing increases a startup's likelihood of reaching the right tails of the firm size and...