Performance differences between firms are generally attributed to organizational factors – such as routines, knowledge, and strategy – rather than to differences among the individuals who make up firms. As a result, little is known about the part that individual firm members play in...

A growing literature on the genealogy of new firms has demonstrated a powerful link between the career history of founding teams and the future performance of the organizations they create. Yet there is no consensus on what historically contingent material individuals actually carry from one...