Why do university spin-offs attract more venture capitalists?

This paper provides empirical evidence that young university spin-offs are more likely to receive venture capital than other technological start-ups. In addition, this fact is explained mainly by the lack of managerial skills among the founders of certain university spin-offs. The data used has been obtained from a questionnaire answered by 64 Spanish technological firms founded between the years 1993 and 2005. Forty of the firms are university spin-offs; the remainder are independent technology-based start-ups. The results support the complementary-assets view that academic entrepreneurs use venture capitalists as a means of gaining access to managerial skills. These results are maintained even when we control for financial constraints, levels of debt and intellectual-property protection. Although these latter variables explain why certain high-tech firms are more likely to receive venture capital, we do not find statistical evidence that they explain the differences between university spin-offs and technological start-ups in terms of being backed by venture capitalists. The results therefore suggest that universities and policy makers can stimulate the creation and growth of university spin-offs by facilitating contact and trust between venture capitalists and academic entrepreneurs, mostly with respect to those cases in which there is a severe lack of managerial skills