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Entrepreneurial Teams: Prior Industry Experience and Early-Stage Growth

Management Science · Academic Paper · 20 Aug 2026 · Empirical research · Paywalled · Editor's rating: No stars

Startups whose founding teams have diverse prior industry experience grow faster (16% more employment).

Summary

Career backgrounds of initial employees in a full US startup cohort measure team skills.

Editor's opinion

Narrow entrepreneurship-team-composition finding, not a firm-strategy lever.

Key concepts

founding team · industry experience diversity · startup growth

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