The Lower-Risk Startup: How Venture Capitalists Increase the Odds of Startup Success DAV ID TETEN, ADHAM ABDELFATTAH, KOEN BREMER, AND GYORGY BUSLIG DAVID TETEN ur goal is to understand how ven- METHODOLOGY is a partner at ff Venture ture capitalists (VCs) can system- Capital and founder and atically help startups increase their Our study draws on a wide range of Chair of Harvard Business odds of success, beyond simply research: in-depth interviews with more than School Alumni Angels 50 venture capital investors, entrepreneurs, of Greater New York Oproviding more capital. The primary levers of in New York, NY. a VC to do this are team building, operational startup incubators, and advisory service pro-
[email protected] improvement, perspective and strategic guid- viders; a proprietary database and survey of ance, skill building, customer development, VCs’ portfolio value creation practices; a wide ADHAM ABDELFATTAH analytics, and the VC firm network. We will scan of academic and practitioner publications is the founder and CEO focused on the topics of entrepreneurship and of CircleVibe, a mobile discuss the range of philosophies we found startup in the crowd- among major VCs in their approaches. We venture investing; and the authors’ personal sourcing space and a find that certain operationally oriented VCs experience working in venture capital, ear- consultant on leave from are hiring unusually large teams of operators ly-stage technology companies, and strategy 1 McKinsey & Company and that the firms with this strategy typically consulting. in New York, NY. We should emphasize a key caveat. For
[email protected] have top-quartile returns (above 20% IRR in the relevant time periods).