how to compare, analyze and decide on potential investments

This paper aims to study the decision-making criteria that weight on the Portuguese Venture Capital firm’s investment decision, as well as to create a framework which may enable the comparison between different projects as what regards their potential given eighteen selected criteria. The framework’s development was supported by previous literature and the collection of primary data, gathered throughut interviews and inquiries conducted with twelve players of the Portuguese Venture Capital industry. In line with the findings of Hisrich and Jankowicz (1990), Kaplan and Strömberg (2000) and Kaplan, Sensoy and Strömberg (2009), this paper confirms the dominant importance for the Portuguese Venture Capital firms of the criteria Management Team and Product and Market Opportunity over the remaining selected criteria, when faced with an investment decision