Founder Replacement and Startup Performance

Abstract

We provide causal evidence that venture capitalists (VCs) improve the performance of their portfolio companies by replacing founders. Augmenting a database of U.S.-based, VC-backed startups founded from 1995-2008 with hand-collected information regarding turnover, we exploit shocks to the supply of outside executives via 14 state-level changes to the enforceability of employee non-compete agreements. Although naive regressions of startup performance on founder replacement would suggest a negative correlation, this may be due to selection as founders are likely to leave or be pushed out of poorly-performing startups. Indeed, instrumented regressions reverse the sign of this e ect, suggesting that replacing founders instead improves the performance of venture-backed startups. Replacement helps more when founders are C-level executives or when they leave the startup after relinquishing their role. The evidence points to the replacement of founders as a specific mechanism by which VCs add value.

Keywords: Executive turnover, venture capital, financial intermediation, entrepreneurship

JEL Classification: G24, G34, L2, M12