The impact of higher education on the probabilities of reaching equity investment milestones for Internet start-ups

This paper investigates the relatively unexplored influence of university teaching upon graduate entrepreneurship. Within the fast emerging Internet industry, we study a data sample of 4.953 Internet businesses to evaluate the... [ view full abstract ]

This paper investigates the relatively unexplored influence of university teaching upon graduate entrepreneurship. Within the fast emerging Internet industry, we study a data sample of 4.953 Internet businesses to evaluate the universities’ contribution to the human capital configuration of start-up founding teams through formal technical, business and general education. We analyse the consequent impact on reaching the equity investment milestones of “funding” and “exit”

Our results reveal that universities contribute human capital to the majority of all founding teams, which also leads to significantly increased probabilities of securing investments and exiting businesses. Building on the results, we propose a higher education Internet start-up team typology that highlights the significance of a balanced skillset and the non-linear effect of human capital on the probability in reaching investment milestones.