Entrepreneurial Spawning: Experience, Education, and Exit

Abstract

We investigate the career dynamics of high-tech entrepreneurs by analyzing the exit choice of entrepreneurs: to act as a business angel, to found another firm, or to become dependently employed. Our detailed data from CrunchBase indicate that founders are more likely to stick with entrepreneurship as a serial entrepreneur or as an angel investor in cases where the founder had prior experience either in founding other startups or working for a startup, or had a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ education.

Keywords: Venture governance, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial spawning, angel finance, venture capital, exit

JEL Classification: G24, G34, L26