Contracting and Control in Venture Capital

Paul A. Gompers

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Background Note | HBS Case Collection | February 1998

Contracting and Control in Venture Capital

by Paul A. Gompers

Abstract

Discusses the control mechanisms and contracts utilized by venture capitalists. The emphasis is on understanding potential conflicts of interest and how the contracts mitigate those conflicts.

Keywords: Venture Capital; Governance Controls; Contracts; Business or Company Management; Conflict of Interests;

Format: Print

17 pages

Educators Purchase

Citation:

Gompers, Paul A. "Contracting and Control in Venture Capital." Harvard Business School Background Note 298-067, February 1998.

About the Author

Paul A. Gompers

Eugene Holman Professor of Business Administration

Finance

Entrepreneurial Management

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Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | January 2020

Valuation in Entrepreneurial Settings

Paul Gompers

Citation:
Gompers, Paul. "Valuation in Entrepreneurial Settings." Harvard Business School Technical Note 220-057, January 2020. View Details

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Article | Journal of Financial Economics | January 2020

How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?

Paul A. Gompers, William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan and Ilya A. Strebulaev

We survey 885 institutional venture capitalists (VCs) at 681 firms to learn how they make decisions across eight areas: deal sourcing, investment selection, valuation, deal structure, post-investment value-added, exits, internal firm organization, and relationships with limited partners. In selecting investments, VCs see the management team as more important than business-related characteristics such as product or technology. They also attribute more of the likelihood of ultimate investment success or failure to the team than to the business. While deal sourcing, deal selection, and post-investment value-added all contribute to value creation, the VCs rate deal selection as the most important of the three. We also explore (and find) differences in practices across industry, stage, geography, and past success. We compare our results to those for CFOs (Graham and Harvey 2001) and private equity investors (Gompers, Kaplan, and Mukharlyamov forthcoming).

Keywords: Venture Capital; Value Creation; Capital Structure; Entrepreneurship; Decision Making;

Citation:
Gompers, Paul A., William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan, and Ilya A. Strebulaev. "How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?" Journal of Financial Economics 135, no. 1 (January 2020): 169–190. View Details

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Course Overview Note | December 2019

Introduction to Entrepreneurial Finance - 2020

Paul A. Gompers

Citation:
Gompers, Paul A. "Introduction to Entrepreneurial Finance - 2020." Harvard Business School Course Overview Note 220-050, December 2019. View Details

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Contracting and Control in Venture Capital

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