Startup to IPO: Understanding Changes in Key Personnel in Technology-based Startups through a Longitudinal Open-Source Database

风险资本资助的、以技术为基础的创业公司（vtef）被广泛认为是美国经济中最具活力的公司之一。然而，除了极少数例外，人们对这些公司的发展知之甚少。该项目采用了一种新颖的数据收集方法——从互联网存档网站“时光机”（the Wayback Machine）中提取信息，该网站自1996年以来定期访问网站并以可搜索的形式保存这些信息——以汇编1996年至2014年期间公开发行股票的600家vtef和600家在此期间未完成公开发行股票的类似vtef的数据。来自《the Wayback Machine》的有关管理团队、投资者、科学顾问、公司描述和位置的信息将与风险资本融资日期和Dataverse专利数据库的信息相结合，以建立每个公司的历史。结果将是公司管理团队组成的全面历史，公司的自我描述，总部的位置，以及创始人在这些公司成立，接受风险投资，最终失败，生存或首次公开发行股票的过程中不断演变的管理角色。公司的成长是基于创始人带来的能力、从环境中招募的资源（人员、风险资本等）和内部建立的资产（专利等）。然而，除了一些重要的例外，这个公司建立过程的动态很大程度上是一个黑盒子。这个项目构建的数据库将打开这个黑盒。调查的主题包括：在公司的发展过程中，首席财务官的职位是何时填补的？当关键的高层管理团队（TMT）成员加入公司时，是否存在一个模式？创始人什么时候被替换，或者在公司内部被重新安置，比如从首席执行官到首席技术官？TMT和董事会的变动是否因技术、地区或公司命运（如收购、破产或IPO）而异？最近，公共政策辩论想知道为什么女性在创业公司中的代表性不足。这个项目允许每个公司的所有经理和董事会成员的性别识别。有了这些数据，我们可以追踪从公司成立到IPO或其他流动性事件的性别问题。解决这些实证问题的能力可以检验和改进当前关于创业型企业形成和成长的理论。更广泛的影响：对数据集的分析结果将对寻求了解和改善新公司绩效的风险资本家和企业家有价值。对于政策制定者了解企业发展过程，该项目将为旨在鼓励建立和改善此类企业增长的干预措施提供社会科学的见解。最后，我们预计学者们将以不可预见的方式使用这些数据，因为它将成为其他项目的研究投入。

Venture capital-financed, technology-based entrepreneurial firms (VTEFs) are widely acknowledged to be among the most dynamic firms in the U.S. economy. Yet, with only a very few exceptions, little is known about the how these firms evolve. This project uses a novel data collection method -- extracting information from the Internet archiving website, "The Wayback Machine," which since 1996 has periodically visited websites and preserved them in searchable form -- to compile data from 600 VTEFs that made a public stock offering between 1996 and 2014 and 600 comparable VTEFs that did not complete a public offering during this period. Information about the names and biographies of the management team, investors, scientific advisors, firm description, and location from "The Wayback Machine" will be combined with dates of venture capital funding and information from the Dataverse patent database to build histories of each firm. The result will be a comprehensive history of the composition of firm management teams, the firm's self-description, the headquarters' location, and evolving managerial roles of the founders as these firms are formed, receive venture capital, and, finally, fail, survive, or have an initial public offering of stock. Firm growth is based upon the capabilities the founder(s) bring, those resources recruited from the environment (personnel, venture capital, etc.), and those assets built internally (patents etc.). With a few important exceptions, however, the dynamics of this firm-building process is largely a black box. The database that this project builds will open this black box. Among the topics to be examined are: When in the firm's evolution is the position of Chief Financial Officer filled? Is there a pattern to when key Top Management Team (TMT) members are added to the firm? When are founders replaced or are they relocated within the firm, e.g., from CEO to CTO? Do TMT and Board of Director changes vary by technology, region, or by fate of the firm, e.g., acquisition, bankruptcy, or IPO? Recently, public policy debates have wondered why women are under-represented in entrepreneurial firms. This project allows gender identification of all managers and board members for each firm. With this data, we can track gender issues from the firm's founding to an IPO or other liquidity event. The ability to address these empirical questions can test and improve current theories of entrepreneurial firm formation and growth.Broader Impacts:The results of analysis of the data set will be valuable to venture capitalists and entrepreneurs seeking to understand and improve the performance of new firms. For policy-makers understanding the firm development process this project will provide social scientifically-informed insight into interventions meant to encourage the establishment and improve the growth of such firms. Finally, we anticipate scholars will use this data in ways that cannot be foreseen as it becomes a research input to other projects.