Are the Life and Death of an Early Stage Venture Indeed in the Power of the Tongue? Lessons from Online Crowdfunding Pitches

While presenting an initiative to potential backers, the entrepreneur can choose the extent to which she presents herself, versus presenting the idea. We investigate this decision and its effect on the success of fundraising on a leading crowdfunding platform (Kickstarter). We employ a textual quantification method validated by robustness tests. Our dataset was collected using custom software and includes over 20,000 online business pitches and their results. We find that in Kickstarter fundraising, entrepreneurs' descriptions matter - projects (especially art related) that frequently mentioned the entrepreneurs' name experienced higher rates of success, controlling for relevant variables. Many entrepreneurs are interested to learn how to deliver a successful fund-raising pitch on crowdfunding platforms. We investigate the decision to mention frequently the entrepreneur's name and its effect on the success of fundraising on a leading crowdfunding platform (Kickstarter). We collected information about 20,000 online business pitches and their results. We find that in Kickstarter fundraising, entrepreneurs' descriptions matter - projects (especially art related) that frequently mentioned the entrepreneurs' name experienced higher rates of success. We conducted an experiment that indicated that projects whose entrepreneur mentioned herself more substantially, were associated with higher level of trust and higher level of perceived knowledge of the entrepreneur