How Does Active Involvement Benefit Investors? Evidence From 85 Billion Cell Phone Signals

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Degree type
PhD
Graduate group
Finance
Discipline
Finance and Financial Management
Subject
Venture Capital
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01/01/2024
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Fu, Xiaoyong
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Abstract

I investigate the reputation effects of active involvement, specifically examining how venture capitalists’ (VCs’) on-site meetings with portfolio companies affect VCs’ reputations and future deal flow. By analyzing cell phone signals collected around VC and startup office buildings from 2018 to 2023, I measure VCs’ involvement intensity and deal flow quality. Using exogenous variation in travel ease, I show that increased VC involvement leads them to receive better online reviews from entrepreneurs, attracting more and higher-quality new entrepreneurs to pitch, ultimately improving future investment outcomes. Furthermore, I document six stylized facts about VC involvement: (1) VCs visit underperforming portfolio companies more frequently; (2) the frequency of visits increases when portfolio companies are closer; (3) early-stage investments receive more frequent visits; (4) VCs and nontraditional investors (CVCs, PEs, hedge funds) visit at similar frequencies, while accelerators and incubators visit more often; (5) deals with more co-investors involve more overall visits, but each investor visits less frequently; and (6) larger VCs visit less frequently per deal.

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Taylor, Lucian
Date of degree
2025
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