Captação de recursos financeiros privados por empresas nascentes de base tecnológica: estudo de múltiplos casos de empresas mineiras e paulistas

Abstract

The international literature has highlighted the importance of technological entrepreneurship. In this issue, is highlighted the emergence of New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs) that commercialize new products and new technologies developed in the institutions of science and technology and in the business environment. It is known that raising financial resources is a critical factor for the NTBFs start its operations and establish itself in the market. External sources of financing, in turn, are restricted, due to high risks inherent in such ventures and underdeveloped in Brazil. Studies have highlighted the low rate of survival of NTBFs, arguing that technical excellence does not guarantee success in the market. So, call attention to the quality of management in these emerging companies. Accordingly, several studies have been done in order to relate internal and external dimensions of NTBFs and their performance. The aim of this study was to identify which internal forces, from the standpoint of management and business improvement, are being done by managers in order to support NTBFs capital raising from external sources, particularly business angels, corporate investors, seed capital and venture capital funds. It was studied the process of fundraising in 16 NTBFs of Minas Gerais and São Paulo, through a multicases study using the methods of actionresearch, in-depth semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The research question of this paper is: what efforts and endogenous factors positively influence the fundraising for a NTBF? A theoretical model was developed based on literature, focusing on the business team, the basic factors influencing the process of fundraising and its results. Among the factors influencing observed, stand out as most important: the adoption of a just-do-it strategy by the entrepreneurs, the development capacity of entrepreneurs and the incorporation of new skills in their team, the ability to form strategic partnerships and to use bootstrapping activities, the full dedication of the entrepreneurs to the company, the strategic planning activities, culminating in the preparation of the business plan, prior fundraising from other sources, and the revelation of first cases. From these results a framework was designed summarizing these factors influencing the process of obtaining financial resources from external sources in the early stages of NTBFs