Research

Why Is It So Difficult to Find a Cofounder? How Do I Find One?

Harvard Business Review article: Why Cofounder Partnerships Fail — and How to Make Them Last

Academic article: Gray, S., Howell, T., Sackett, E. (2024). Talking past each other: Construal Level, Utilitarian Motives, and Entrepreneurial Team Formation. Forthcoming at Organization Science

Startup teams work best when members bring both complementary skills and strong interpersonal fit—but finding cofounders who offer both is rare. This study explains why: lead entrepreneurs tend to focus on skills and resources, while potential cofounders care more about whether they’ll get along personally. As a result, promising partnerships often fall through. However, lead entrepreneurs can attract better cofounders by highlighting interpersonal compatibility, not just qualifications. These insights are backed by data from cofounder platforms, experiments, and real-world networking events.

How Do Entrepreneurs Choose Cofounders?

Gray, S., Howell, T., Strassman, J., Yamamoto, K. (2024). Credentials or Chemistry? Entrepreneur Gender and Cofounder Selection. Forthcoming at Academy of Management Journal

How do entrepreneurs choose cofounders? How do entrepreneurs prioritize between the interpersonal fit and complementary skillsets of potential cofounders? And do women entrepreneurs prioritize different qualities than men entrepreneurs? In this study, we show that men entrepreneurs almost always prioritize skillsets over interpersonal fit. In contrast, women entrepreneurs adapt to situational factors, such that sometimes they prioritize interpersonal fit and other times they prioritize skillsets, depending on the situation they are in. In supplementary analyses, we find that entrepreneurs who prioritize cofounder skillsets are more likely to receive funding, but those who prioritize interpersonal attraction are more likely to form lasting teams. 

When/How Can Solo Founders Succeed? 

Harvard Business Review article: Don’t Buy the Myth that Every Startup Needs a Co-Founder

Academic article: Howell, T., Bingham, C. and Hendricks, B., 2022. Going alone or together? A configurational analysis of solo founding vs. cofounding. Organization Science, 33(6), pp.2421-2450.

The choice of whether to remain solo or find co-founders is one of the most important and fundamental decisions each entrepreneur must make. Past research finds that larger founding teams outperform smaller teams on average; however, it also suggests that conflict and drama among co-founders is one of the primary sources of failure. Using in-depth qualitative data collected over many years, we examine the conditions under which it might make sense to solo found rather than find co-founders. Our findings reveal how solo-founders strategically use co-creators rather than co-founders to overcome challenges, retain control, and mobilize resources in unique and unexpected ways. 

Do Founders Tune Out Their Teams?

MIT Sloan article: Do Founder CEOs Tune Out Their Teams? 

Academic article: Hendricks, B., Howell, T. and Bingham, C., 2019. How much do top management teams matter in founder‐led firms?. Strategic Management Journal, 40(6), pp.959-986.

As firms mature, their founders are often replaced with seasoned executives. When founders stick around, their surrounding team members are often viewed as necessary to help compensate for the founder’s managerial weaknesses. But do founders actually listen to the advice of the seasoned executives who surround them? Or do they shrug it off and march to the beat of their own drum? To better understand this, we collected and analyzed data on more than 2,000 companies. This examination uncovered surprising insights relevant for leaders of large and small organizations, which you can read more about at the sources below:

Coworking Spaces: What Are They?

MIT Sloan article: Coworking Spaces Offer a Post-Pandemic Alternative 

Academic article: Howell, T., 2022. Coworking spaces: An overview and research agenda. Research Policy, 51(2), p.104447.

In the past decade, coworking spaces have emerged as a new and promising phenomenon. Due to its prevalence, popularity, and potential for disruptive change, coworking is increasingly relevant to the workplace, yet its implications are largely unstudied given the rapid rise of the phenomenon. Overall, more data and analysis is needed to inform owners, policy makers, and remote workers regarding the effects of coworking. My research addresses this gap. Specifically, I explore whether coworking “works’, or in other words, whether (and how) it adds value for its members. You can read more about this at the link below:

Entrepreneurs and Heuristic Thinking

Bingham, C.B., Howell, T. and Ott, T.E., 2019. Capability creation: Heuristics as microfoundations. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 13(2), pp.121-153.

While much research suggests that capabilities are critical for firms, little is known about the individual-level origins (“microfoundations”) of capabilities. Using in-depth nested case studies, we explore how firms develop an internationalization capability. The setting is six entrepreneurial firms from three culturally distinct countries. Our data show that executives begin by seeding the process with imperfect heuristics and then managers continue development by elaborating their understanding of what task to perform and how to perform it. Importantly, managers across hierarchical levels support the development of their firm's internationalization capability by abstracting key heuristics away from any one experience such that the capabilities become less routine over time. Overall, we contribute to the microfoundations movement in strategy and to the literature on organizational learning.

Black Women in Entrepreneurship

Law, C., Howell, T., Bingham, C., Bermiss, S., (2025). From Joiners to Founders: Startup Employment and Underrepresented Entrepreneurs (Strategic Management Journal, 46(7): 1639-1665)

Black women are underrepresented in entrepreneurship. However, using data from Venture For America (VFA), we find that Black women are much more likely to start companies after working as an employee in a startup. We suggest that this employment acts as a learning and apprenticeship opportunity that gives individuals the confidence to start their own companies. While this is true for all individuals (regardless of race or gender), we find that Black women that worked as employees in a startup were much more likely than any other group to found their own company afterwards. More specifically, Black women appear almost twice as likely to found their own company than other demographic groups, even the most historically dominant group - white males.  

Are Immigrant Entrepreneurs More Likely to Start Unicorn Companies? 

With Anavir Shermon, Brad Hendricks, and Chris Bingham (Revise and Resubmit at Strategic Management Journal)

This paper explores whether companies founded by immigrants are more likely to become "unicorns" – i.e., be valued at $1 billion or more. We perform multiple studies using different datasets and samples. Our findings consistently show that companies founded by immigrant entrepreneurs are much more likely to become unicorns relative to companies without an immigrant founder. 

Do founders need adult supervision?

With Dave Welsh and Brad Hendricks  (2nd Round Revise and Resubmit at Journal of Applied Psychology)

Founders are more likely than other leaders to break with norms and engage in risky or irresponsible business behavior. However, having a strong second-in-command can help rein in these tendencies and promote more responsible decision-making. Our study of over 4,000 firm-years confirms this pattern and identifies the situations where second-in-commands are especially effective at keeping founders in check.

When Do Solo Founders Succeed?

With Todd Hall (Revise and Resubmit at Strategic Management Journal)

This paper explores when and how solo founders can perform as well as or better than cofounders. We theorize (and find) that co-founded ventures will perform better than solo-founded ventures on average, but that solo-founded ventures can overcome these performance disadvantages through strategic action.

Is Offering Equity to Employees More Effective at Attracting Technical or Nontechnical Talent?

With Steve Gray and Rylan Miller (Revise and Resubmit at Strategic Management Journal)

Hiring the right people—especially technical talent—is a major challenge for startups. This study shows that offering equity can help attract more applicants, particularly early-career technical workers and late-career nontechnical ones. Drawing on real job data and an experiment, the research finds that equity works in part because it gives candidates a stronger sense of ownership and purpose. These insights can help startups tailor their hiring strategies to better appeal to different types of candidates.

Does Hierarchy Help With Experimentation in Startups?

With Todd Hall, Anavir Shermon, and Ryan Allen (Revise and Resubmit at Organization Science)

Startups often face a key decision: stay flat or add layers of management. While hierarchy is often seen as a barrier to innovation, this study shows that in startups where innovation involves constant product tweaks and coordination across teams, adding managerial layers can actually help. More layers improve a startup’s ability to adapt its product by making it easier to manage complex, cross-functional work. Based on data from nearly 4,000 U.S. e-commerce startups, the study finds that hierarchy supports innovation when coordination needs are high—like when products are complex or teams are highly specialized.

How do nontechnical entrepreneurs attract technical cofounders?

With Steve Gray (Reject and Resubmit at Strategic Management Journal)

How can entrepreneurs attract technical cofounders to their new ventures? To answer this question, we rely on data from multiple sources, including in-depth interviews and large-scale data. The central argument in our study is that because technical cofounders have higher opportunity costs relative to other cofounders, entrepreneurs need to de-risk the opportunity in order to attract them. Thus, whereas most entrepreneurs talk about finding a technical cofounder, a better way to conceptualize the process is earning a technical cofounder.

Native American Entrepreneurship

With Shon Hiatt and Trent Williams (Under Review at Administrative Science Quarterly)

This study shows that how groups responded to historical trauma can shape their business decisions today. Focusing on Native American tribes, the research finds that tribes with a legacy of resisting colonization are more likely to pursue bold, unconventional business strategies, such as launching casinos in legal gray areas. These patterns are influenced by how well the tribes have preserved their cultural identity, boundaries, and governance structures. The findings highlight how past collective experiences continue to shape entrepreneurial behavior in the present. 

Boomerang founders: What happens when the founder comes back?

MIT Sloan article: Boomerang CEOs: What Happens When the CEO Comes Back? 

Academic article: Howell, T., Bingham, C., & Kolev, K. (2025). Boomerang founders: What happens when the founder comes back? Reject and Resubmit at Strategic Management Journal, preparing for resubmission.

Founder successions represent critical junctures for firms. What remains unexplored, however, is what happens when the firm rehires a founder as CEO (e.g., a “boomerang founder”). To better understand the consequences of bringing back a founder, we collected and analyzed data on the performance of 167 boomerang CEOs of companies listed on the S&P Composite 1500 index from 1992 to 2017. We then compared their tenures with those of more than 6,000 other (non-boomerang) CEOs over the same period. This comparative investigation revealed some nonobvious insights and critical implications for leaders of large and small organizations, which you can read about at the sources below:

How Can Rural Entrepreneurs Compete for Funding?

With Justin Kent (Revise and Resubmit at Journal of Business Venturing)

Rural entrepreneurs often receive less funding than their urban counterparts, even when their ventures are similar. This study explores how rural startups can overcome that disadvantage by either blending in (imitating urban ventures to appear more legitimate) or standing out (leveraging their rural identity as a unique advantage). The research offers practical strategies for rural founders seeking to level the playing field in startup funding.

How long should a founder remain CEO?

Harvard Business Review article: How Long Should a Founder Remain CEO? 

Academic article: Hendricks, B., Howell, T., Bingham, C. (2023). The Founder Premium Revisited (Preparing for Submission)

Do founder-CEOs have an expiration date? With several high-profile founders recently stepping down from their companies, some have begun asking whether the move could herald a new era, in which founders voluntarily step aside rather than sticking around for decades or waiting to be ousted. To explore the value added by a founder-CEO, we analyzed stock price and financial performance data from more than 2,000 publicly traded companies. We found that on average, founder-led firms outperform those with non-founder-CEOs — but that the difference dwindles to zero just three years post-IPO, after which founder-CEOs actually start detracting from firm value. Given these findings, we offer three strategies to help investors, boards, and executive teams support founders in transitioning out of the CEO role when the time is right.