Do People Matter in Venture Capital and Private Equity?

Professor Kaplan will present the results of his recent research.

First, he will address a long standing debate among venture capitalists (VCs): should you bet on the jockey (the management team) or the horse (product/market/opportunity) when selecting an investment?

Second, while there are many anecdotes or stories about what CEO abilities and talents lead to strong performance, there is almost no systematic, large sample, empirical work on which abilities and talents really matter. Professor Kaplan will discuss the results of his research that uses a new data set to address those questions.