Do Individual Ambidexterity and Career Experience Help Technological Startup Founders Acquire Funding?

In an extension of the entrepreneurship literature's long-standing emphasis on the role of human capital in attracting startup funding, we propose that tech-based startup founder’s ambidexterity and experience-based human capital have direct and interactive effects on new venture funding. Drawing on the human capital perspective, we consider ambidexterity an ability-based human capital that helps entrepreneurs navigate new venture environments and carry out entrepreneurial tasks more effectively. We compiled a unique dataset by gathering data from Crunchbase, social media sites, and entrepreneur’s online communications posted on Reddit. On the basis of text analyses on 115 startup founder’s public discourse using a purpose-built dictionary to measure ambidexterity, our empirical results confirm that founder ambidexterity has positive effects on tech startup funding and that these effects are moderated by founder’s experience-based human capital in terms of prior career experience and startup creation experience. This finding is complemented by semistructured interviews with venture capitalists providing evidence that funders consider founder ambidexterity in their investment decisions. Implications for literature and practice are discussed.