Chuck Eesley discusses venture financing and raising money. The three main topics covered are the amount of funding, the structure of the deal, and sources of capital.

Chuck Eesley — About Me:

My research focuses on the influence of the external environment on entrepreneurship. Specifically, I investigate the types of environments that encourage the founding of high growth, technology-based firms. Although I build on previous literature that explains why entrepreneurs are successful on the basis of individual characteristics, network ties, and strategy, my major contribution is to demonstrate that institutions matter. I show that effective institutional change influences who starts firms, not just how many firms are started.

Studying the implications of institutional change for entrepreneurship is difficult because it requires that institutions vary while other aspects of the environment remain constant. Thus, I have repeatedly studied entrepreneurship in a single country (China, Japan, and the U.S.) before and after a major institutional change that has intentionally or unintentionally altered the landscape for people who seek to found new firms.

My research is divided into three streams: (1) how formal institutions (policies, legal structures and regulations) influence entrepreneurship, (2) how informal institutions (accepted practices and norms) shape entrepreneurial opportunities, (3) how the environments of particular industries influence the success of entrepreneurial teams.

My Bio:

I am an Assistant Professor at Stanford University in the Department of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E). My research and teaching interests focus on institutions and technology entrepreneurship. I want to find out which individual attributes, strategies and institutional arrangements optimally drive high growth entrepreneurship, and ultimately economic growth.

In particular, my research focuses on the determinants of high-growth, innovative firm creation across institutional contexts. I examine how the environment influences entrepreneurs and firms. My work spans two outcomes in particular: individual decisions to choose high-tech entrepreneurial activities and the strategies and outcomes of the firms that are established. I received the 2010 Best Dissertation Award in the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management and am recipient of the 2007 Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation’s Dissertation Fellowship award. My work has been generously funded by Sequoia Capital, the Kauffman Foundation, the MIT Entrepreneurship Center and Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP).

I earned my B.S. from Duke University and doctorate from the MIT Sloan School of Management.