You Can’t Make an Omelette without Breaking Eggs: The Impact of Venture Capitalists on Executive Turnover

We present evidence on venture capitalists' (VCs) impact on turnover of executives for a sample of nearly 47,000 German high-tech start-ups between 1995 and 2004. We confirm that the presence of VCs increases the probability of a change in the initial executive team. Additionally, we take a closer look on the subsample of venturebacked firms. We find that a small distance between the VCs and the companies they finance and a larger total stake in the company owned by VCs increase the probability of changes in the initial executive teams.

Heger, Diana and Tereza Tykvova (2007), You Can’t Make an Omelette without Breaking Eggs: The Impact of Venture Capitalists on Executive Turnover, ZEW Discussion Paper No. 07-003, Mannheim.