Grandstanding in the venture capital industry

Abstract

I develop and test the hypothesis that young venture capital firms take companies pubic earlier than older venture capital firms in order to establish a reputation and successfully raise capital for new funds. Evidence from a sample of 433 IPOs suggests that companies backed by young venture capital firms are younger and more underpriced at their IPO than those of established venture capital firms. Moreover, young venture capital firms have been on the board of directors a shorter period of time at the IPO, hold smaller equity stakes, and time the IPO to precede or coincide with raising money for follow-on funds.