How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?

We thank Dasha Anosova and Kevin Huang for their research assistance. We thank the Kauffman Fellows Program, the National Venture Capital Association, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Harvard Business School, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business for providing us access to their members and alumni. We thank Phil Wickham of the Kauffman Fellows Program, Bobby Franklin and Maryam Haque of the National Venture Capital Association for their help in disseminating the survey. We thank Shai Bernstein, Felda Hardymon, Michal Kosinski, and participants at the NBER Summer Institute for helpful discussions and comments. We also are very grateful to our many survey respondents. Gornall thanks the SSHRC for its financial support. Gompers, Kaplan, and Strebulaev have consulted to general partners and limited partners investing in venture capital. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

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