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Failing Just Fine: Assessing Careers of Venture Capital-backed Entrepreneurs via a Non-Wage Measure

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Abstract

This paper proposes a non-pecuniary measure of career achievement: seniority. Based on a database of over 130 million resumes, this metric exploits the variation in how long it takes to attain job titles. When non-monetary factors influence career choice, assessing career attainment via non-wage measures, such as seniority, has significant advantages. Accordingly, we use our seniority measure to study labor market outcomes of VC-backed entrepreneurs. Would-be founders experience accelerated career trajectories prior to founding, significantly outperforming graduates from same-tier colleges with similar first jobs. After exiting their start-ups, they obtain jobs about three years more senior than their peers who hold (i) same-tier college degrees, (ii) similar first jobs, and (iii) similar jobs immediately prior to founding their company. Even failed founders find jobs with higher seniority than those attained by their non-founder peers.

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  • Graham J. Abbott & Natee Amornsiripanitch & Paul Gompers & George Hu & Will Levinson & Vladimir Mukharlyamov, 2023. "Failing Just Fine: Assessing Careers of Venture Capital-backed Entrepreneurs via a Non-Wage Measure," Working Papers 23-17, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedpwp:96629
    DOI: 10.21799/frbp.wp.2023.17
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    career progression; entrepreneurship; venture capital;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G00 - Financial Economics - - General - - - General
    • J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs

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