This project aims to analyze the connection between employees, entry strategies and innovation performance in newly established firms. Two analyses will be conducted. The first analyzes the influence of firm characteristics, such as the chosen entry strategy, on individual employment stability. The second study investigates the influence of employees’ and founders’ combined human capital on a new firm’s innovation performance.In order to be able to conduct these analyses appropriately we construct a linked-employer-employee dataset in the first step. This dataset will combine employee information from the German Federal Employment Agency and company information from the KfW/ZEW Start-Up Panel.