Please answer the following questions about yourself and your venture capital firm (VC). Where specified, you will also be asked to answer some questions related to an investment – a new venture organization (NVO) – that you have been involved with for more than one year.

Your responses will remain strictly confidential and will be used only in aggregate for research purposes.

PART 1

The following questions refer to your background and experience in venture capital and the industry of your investment (NVO)

1. Gender: Male Female

2. Age: years old

3. Education:

High School Graduate

Some College

College Graduate

Post-Graduate Degree

4. Please indicate your job title and the unit or department for which your work:

Job Title:

Unit/Division:

5. How many years experience do you have with this firm? years

6. Are you a partner? Yes No

7. How many years experience do you have in the venture capital field? years

8. Have you ever run your own business? Yes No

If yes: Was this business

Successful

Marginally successful

Not successful

Was this business in an industry related to the NVO? Yes No

The following questions refer to your venture capital firm (VC)

9. In what year was the firm founded?

10. How many full-time employees are there in the VC firm? employees

11. How many partners are there in the VC firm? partners

12. Currently, what is the geographic mix (region by percentage) of overall investment in new ventures?

USA: % International %

In the USA: Local : % Regional: % National: %

13. Please rate the extent to which the following methods are used by your firm to gather information about competition and the environment on a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 indicates it is never used and 7 indicates it is frequently used.

	Never Used	Frequently Used
a. Routine gathering of opinions from customers
b. Formal tracking of the policies and tactics of competitors
c. Forecasting sales, customer preferences, technology, etc.
d. Special market studies
e. Informal discussions with personal contacts
f. Other:

	Very willing	Very Unwilling
14. How willing is your firm to take risks compared to other firms in this industry?

15. Listed below are statements that represent two extremes of decision-making styles. Please select the number in the scale that best describes how much you would lean toward one decision style versus the other.

Decisions aimed at the resolution of crisis are most common		Decisions aimed at exploiting opportunities
There is an emphasis on the immediate future in making managerial decisions		Long-term goals (5+ years) and strategies are emphasized
There is a strong proclivity to low risk projects (with normal and certain retuens)		The firm has a strong proclivity for high risk projects (with chances For high retuns)
Due to the nature of the environment it is best to explore it gradually via incremental behavior		Bold, wide ranging acts are viewed as useful and common practice
Administrative and product/market strategies have not been explicitly conceptualized		Strategies are precisely conceptualized strictly guide decisions

16. Please rate the following factors involved in deal screening.

	Not Important	Very Important
a. Market Attactiveness
size of market
market need
market growth potential
b. Product Differentiation
uniqueness of product
technical skills
profit margins
patentability of product
c. Managerial Capabilities
management skills
marketing skills
financial skills
references of entrepreneur
d. Resistance to Environmental Factors
protection from competitive entry
protection from obsolescence
protection against downside risk
resistance to economic changes

Part 2

The following questions refer to the new venture organizations (NVOs). Please select a NVO that you have been involved with for more than one year.

1. Venture Name (optional):

2. Location: 3. Zip Code:

4. Industry: 5. SIC/SITC Code:

6. Founding Date of the NVO (year):

7. Date of your firm’s investment in the NVO (year):

8. Amount of your firm’s investment: $

9. Share of the NVO held by your firm: %

10. Number of full-time NVO employees:

11. Percentage of full-time NVO employees that are scientists or engineers: %

12. Indicate type of investment: Debt Equity Other:

13. In addition to capital, which of the following has your firm provided to the NVO?

(Check all that apply)

Use of Staff Equipment or space Clerical/Technical Managerial assistance

14. What significant changes have occurred in the new venture organization since your firm invested (briefly identify)?

Management/Personnel:

Finance:

Product/Technology:

Markets:

Other:

15. Please rank the following objectives of the NVO according to your preferences:

	Very unimportant	Very Important
a. To be technically innovative
b. To have an effective internal administrative control system
c. To have a strong R&D department
d. To have an effective information gathering system to monitor the technical environment
e. To have an effective information gathering system to monitor the non-technical environment

16. IMPORTANT: How is the NVO performing compared to your initial objectives and expectations?

	Far below	On Target	Far Above	Avg. Yearly % Growth
a. Sales				%
b. Net Income				%
c. Cash Flow				%
d. R.O.I.				%
e. Market Share				%
f. Technical/Product Quality				%
g. Overall				%

17. Please rate the extent to which the following devices are used by your organization to gather information about the performance of the new venture organization.

	Rarely used	Frequently used
a. Comprehensive management information system
b. Quality control measures (sampling, etc.)
c. Cost control by fixing standard costs
d. Formal appraisal of personnel

18. In assuring the compatibility in decision-making between your firm and the NVO, to what extent are the following mechanisms used?

	Not used	Used extensively
a. Joint committees set up to allow for joint decision-making
b. Task forces (temporary bodies) for collaborating on a specific project
c. Liasion personnel to coordinate the efforts for specific projects

	Inadequate	Extemeley good
19. How do you rate the collaboration between your firm and the NVO in responding to difficult problems brought about by competition or changes in business conditions?

20. To what extent are the following decisions made by your firm alone, jointly with the NVO or by the NVO alone.

	VC Alone	Jointly	NVO Alone
a. Production
b. Marketing
c. R&D
d. Capital Budgeting
e. Long-Term Strategies

	Resticted access to information	Open Communication
21. How would you characterize the communication in general between your firm and the NVO?

22. Please select the number in the scale that best describes the actual conditions that the NVO faces:

	Strongly disagree	Strongly agree
a. The firm must change its marketing practices frequently to keep up with the market
b. The rate of product obsolescence is very high
c. Action of competitors are unpredictable
d. Demands and tastes are almost unpredictable
e. The modes of production/service change often
f. The firm is highly diversified and operates in several unrelated industries
g. There is very little threat to the NVO’s survival

23. How severe are the following challenges?

	Not a threat	Substantial threat
a. Tough price competition
b. Competition in product quality or novelty
c. Dwindling market for products
d. Scarce supply of labor/materials
e. Government interference

Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. Your insights are sincerely appreciated and will remain anonymous.