The dynamics of entrepreneurial careers in high-tech ventures : experience, education, and exit

Douglas Cumming, Uwe Walz, Jochen Christian Werth

We investigate the career dynamics of high-tech entrepreneurs by analyzing the exit choice of entrepreneurs: to found another firm, to become dependently employed, or to act as a business angel. Our detailed data resting on the CrunchBase online database indicate that founders stick with entrepreneurship as a serial entrepreneur or as an angel investor only in cases where the founder (1) had experience either in founding other startups or working for a startup, (2) had a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ education, or (3) achieved substantial financial success upon a venture capital exit transaction.

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Year of publication:	December 11, 2015
Authors:	Cumming, Douglas J. ; Walz, Uwe ; Werth, Jochen
Publisher:	Frankfurt am Main : SAFE, Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe
Subject:	entrepreneurship \| entrepreneurial spawning \| angel finance \| venture capital \| exit \| systemically important financial institutions \| Risikokapital \| Venture capital \| Unternehmensgründung \| Business start-up \| Entrepreneurship \| Entrepreneurship approach \| Hochtechnologie \| High technology \| Unternehmer \| Entrepreneurs \| Business Angels \| Business angels \| Unternehmensfinanzierung \| Corporate finance