Keywords

entrepreneurial success, venture capital funding, traits for success

Abstract

What characteristics do entrepreneurs believe make them successful? We interview entrepreneurs and venture capitalists (VCs) to determine traits that each of these groups perceive as necessary for entrepreneurial success. We show that entrepreneurs cite traits inherent to their nature (for example, hard working, persistent, risk-taker) significantly more than VCs. We also test to see if entrepreneurs are able to identify factors that VCs consider most important for the funding decision. We find that entrepreneurs who do not have previous VC funding experience differ significantly from VCs in what factors are important for VC funding; whereas, entrepreneurs with previous VC funding experience did not differ from VCs in identifying important funding-decision factors. Overall, our results demonstrate that even though entrepreneurs believe factors they are born with are most important to achieve success, they still learn through experience.

Original Publication Citation

Black, E. L., F. G. Burton, A. M. Traynor, and D. A. Wood. 2005. Are entrepreneurs born or made? Views of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. ICSB Conference Proceedings.

Document Type

Conference Paper

Publication Date

2005

Publisher

ICSB Conference Proceedings

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Accountancy

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

Download

Included in

Accounting Commons

Share

COinS