Syracuse U. Whitman School of Management, United States
Emerging research examining former founders as potential wage workers predominantly underscores a “founding penalty,” where candidates with entrepreneurial backgrounds face disadvantages in the job market. This research, however, illuminates a notable exception within the context of technology ventures. Contrary to the general trend, we contend that technology ventures value the founding experience, recognizing the human capital that former founders bring to the table. This research further explores how the former founders perceive and evaluate job opportunities within technology ventures. Adopting the human capital perspective, we propose that technology ventures regard former founders favorably, initiating proactive outreach towards them, yet, the level of reciprocated interest from these former founders may be limited. We also delve deeper into the moderating effects of environmental munificence and uncertainty. Leveraging a unique and proprietary dataset of 275,962 email interactions across 1,879 technology ventures and 28,979 job candidates, we find support for our hypotheses. Our study extends the literatures on human capital theory, entrepreneurial resource mobilization, and the career decisions of former founders.