FOUNDERS AND INVESTORS: ADVANCES IN ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE

Abstract

In this dissertation, I aim to shed light and explore the nature of the relationship between founders of startups and investors who back them. Conducting a series of randomized field experiments, I investigate gender-based preferences in startup culture and whether technology firms perceive accounting expertise as obsolete with the ascent of automation, constituting my dissertation's first and second chapters accordingly. In the third and final chapter, I conduct a follow-up analysis, measuring the success rates of gender-partial and impartial startups, comparing their subsequent performance over the next 15 months post-experiment. Firstly, I find taste-based discrimination against female investors and a strong preference for CPA-totting investors among startups. Upon reviewing the follow-up analysis, the results indicate that startups facing more challenging conditions benefit from operating in a more gender-impartial manner.