Obsessive passion and the venture team: When co-founders join, and when they don't

We investigate how potential co-founders' perceptions of a founder's obsessive passion (OP) influence the decision to join a venture team. Using a conjoint experiment with a primary sample of 116 founder-entrepreneurs and validating it with an additional sample of 59 founder entrepreneurs, we found that potential co-founders were more likely to join if they perceived that the founder had OP for developing ventures. Potential co-founders were less likely to join if they perceived OP for founding ventures. Further, we found significant interactions between perceived OPs, as well as interactions between perceived OP and potential co-founders' own OP.

Automated summary

This research investigates how potential co-founders' perceptions of a founder's obsessive passion (OP) influence their decision to join a venture team. The results from a conjoint experiment with a sample of 116 founder-entrepreneurs, further validated with an additional sample of 59 founder entrepreneurs, reveal that potential co-founders are more likely to join if they perceive that the founder has obsessive passion for developing ventures, while they are less likely to join if they perceive obsessive passion for founding ventures. Furthermore, significant interactions are found between perceived obsessive passions as well as between perceived obsessive passion and potential co-founders' own obsessive passion.