Deep Smarts

APPENDIX

The Entrepreneurship Study

IN 2000, we began a study of start-up companies in Silicon Valley. We were particularly interested in how knowledge was transmitted to founders of new companies from experienced coaches: venture capitalists; “mentor capitalists,” or cashed-out entrepreneurs who invested time and money working with start-ups; and managers of incubators. Eventually, the study expanded to Boston (where many of the incubators were found), India, and East Asia (Singapore and Hong Kong). After the collapse of the dot-com boom, we decided to reinterview each of our respondents. These interviews took place mostly in 2001; a few were conducted in early 2002. We thus have a sort of naturally occurring experiment, a “before-and-after” ...