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How Venture Capitalists Make Decisions

Pablo Boneu

Over the past 30 years, venture capital has been a vital source of financing for high-growth start-ups. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Gilead Sciences, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Whole Foods, and countless other innovative companies owe their early success in part to the capital and coaching provided by VCs. Venture capital has become an essential driver of economic value. Consider that in 2015 public companies that had received VC backing accounted for 20% of the market capitalization and 44% of the research and development spending of U.S. public companies.

Read more on Venture capital or related topics Venture funding, Start-ups and Entrepreneurship
A version of this article appeared in the March–April 2021 issue of Harvard Business Review.

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