Experienced entrepreneurs who support start-ups at a very early stage in the firm foundation process until the launch of the product are called founding angels. They differ from regular business angels in the early point in time of their investment and involvement in the young firm. So far only general description and case studies about the phenomenon of founding angels are available in the literature. This project aims to identify all founding angels in Germany. Then, detailed analysis of the effect of founding angels on the performance of start-ups will be conducted. A special focus will be the innovation output of firms with founding angels in contrast to those without founding angels.