Working Papers:

• The Look of Success: AI-Measured Face Factors and Venture Financing (August, 2025)

with Liudmila Alekseeva (KU Leuven), Silvia Dalla Fontana (ESCP Business School), and Lin Peng (Baruch College, CUNY)   

Abstract: This study presents the first large-scale analysis of face-based impression factors in the venture capital (VC) industry. Using machine learning to extract key impression factors from founders’ photos, we find that perceived trustworthiness, dominance, and youthfulness significantly predict VCs’ initial funding decisions, with relative importance varying by founder gender, team composition, and industry. These factors also predict the funding amount, follow-on financing, and longer-term outcomes, such a unicorn status and acquisitions. Therefore, even experienced investors rely on facial cues when evaluating founders, and such cues serve as imperfect but informative signals of venture success.

Presentations:  Labor and Finance Group Conference (scheduled)

• Exploring the Success of Second-Time Entrepreneurs (September, 2024)

Abstract:  How do past entrepreneurial outcomes inform us about entrepreneurship? Does failure breed failure like success breeds success? This paper aims to deepen our understanding of the risks associated with entrepreneurship by studying serial entrepreneurs. It specifically explores the relevance of entrepreneurial experience in shaping future venture outcomes. By comparing first-time entrepreneurs to second-timers, it provides evidence that the latter have an edge over the former in many respects. More importantly, it underlines that experiencing failure is detrimental neither to future success nor to access to financing. Thus, this suggests that experience has value for entrepreneurs.

Presentations:  6th Dauphine Finance Ph.D. Workshop (2023),  Durham Job Market Paper Conference (2023), 7th Entrepreneurial Finance Association (ENTFIN) Conference (2023), HEC Paris Finance Ph.D. Workshop (2023),  CEPR IMO-ENT Conference (2023),  Annual Corporate Finance Days (2023), Dauphine Finance Seminar (2023),  Catolica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics (2024),  University of Bristol (2024), Queen Mary University of London (2024),  Institut Mines-Télécom Business School (2024), University of St. Gallen (2024), UQAM- Ecole des Sciences de la Gestion (2024), HEC Montréal (2024),  Université Laval (2024),  Michigan State University (2024), Copenhagen Business School (2024), ESSEC Business School (2024), 13th MSUFCU Conference (2024).

• From In-Person to Online: the New Shape of the VC Industry (February, 2025)

with Liudmila Alekseeva (KU Leuven), Silvia Dalla Fontana (ESCP Business School), and Hedieh Rashidi Ranjbar (University of Melbourne)

R&R Journal of Corporate Finance 

Abstract:  This paper asks whether geographical clustering and in-person interactions are still essential features of the venture capital (VC) industry in the age of online communications. Exploring how VCs respond to an unexpected interruption in face-to-face meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic, we document that they break their traditional norm by investing in more distant startups. This evolution goes along with several changes in selection criteria and VCs' syndication process. Overall, our study reveals that online interactions cannot perfectly substitute for in-person meetings and helps us understand how VCs revisit their investment model. 

Presentations: WEFI Ph.D. Workshop (2022), IESE Brownbag Seminar (2022), Imperial College Seminar (2022), SFI-USI Summer School (2022), Dauphine Finance Seminar (2022), HEC Paris Finance Ph.D. Workshop (2022), Stanford Remote Work Conference (2022), AFA Poster Session (2023), Columbia Private Equity Conference (2023), 5th Future of Financial Information Conference (2023), LBS Private Capital Symposium (2023), Erasmus School of Economics Seminar (2024), KU Leuven Brownbag Seminar (2024).

Coverage:  PE Findings Issue 19 (by Coller Capital)  

• On the Stigma of Failure Under Subjective Beliefs  [draft available upon request]

Abstract:  Behavioral biases and agency frictions are essential to the financing of new ventures. In this paper, I develop a moral hazard model with subjective beliefs that captures distinct forms of behavioral biases and identifies conditions under which an entrepreneur will experience the stigma of failure. I show that while overconfidence protects entrepreneurs from the direct consequences of being stigmatized, optimism alone should not. Hence, investors are more likely to finance negative NPV projects when optimistic entrepreneurs are mistaken for overconfident ones. Such suboptimal decisions also appear when investors are optimistic, in which case entrepreneurial overconfidence fosters the excess financing of negative NPV projects. On the contrary, when investors are pessimistic, entrepreneurial overconfidence reduces the underfinancing of good projects. As economic conditions may influence beliefs, I also discuss macroeconomic implications and provide empirical predictions.

Presentations:  11th AEI Congress Montpellier (2019),  37th International Conference of the French Finance Association - Ph.D. Workshop (2021), Dauphine Finance Seminar (2021)

Other Writings:

• Family Firms and Innovation, Family Business and Long-Term Investment Chair, White Paper Series, November 2024 

Abstract: This paper reviews the literature on family businesses and innovation to clarify how family firms contribute to innovation. It describes the peculiarities of family firms through different theoretical perspectives and provides an overview of related empirical studies. Due to their complex nature and unique features that can facilitate but also hurt innovation, it is not always straightforward to predict how family-run businesses would approach innovation. Overall, the literature suggests that family firms invest less in innovation than nonfamily firms but might more efficiently convert inputs into outputs. It also reveals that family businesses prefer to pursue incremental strategies and seem reluctant to collaborate externally. Family firms’ heterogeneity is also explored but requires further attention from scholars.

Non-Active Working Papers:

• Surf VC Investment Waves at Your Own Risk, with John H Lewis Jr 

Abstract: Considering how volatile the venture capital (VC) industry is, it is essential to understand the relationship between the timing of a VC investment and its performance in a wave context. In this paper, we investigate this relationship by defining VC investment waves similarly to M&A waves.   We argue that investments made before or early in a wave provide higher chances of success than those made in a wave or any other period. We show that venture capitalists with industry experience and high specialization are more likely to invest earlier in waves when they are well connected by their network in an industry. Without industry connections, they delay their investments and invest during a wave, reducing their likelihood of success.

Presentations: ECBA 2019 - Entrepreneurship: Cognitive and Behavioral Approaches Workshop (2019),  Dauphine Finance Seminar (2020)