Venture Labor

Why employees of pioneering Internet companies chose to invest their time, energy, hopes, and human capital in start-up ventures. In the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, employees of Internet startups took risks—left well-paying jobs for the chance of striking it rich through stock options (only to end up unemployed a year later), relocated to areas that were epicenters of a booming industry (that shortly went bust), chose the opportunity to be creative over the stability of a set schedule. In Venture Labor, Gina Neff investigates choices like these made by high-tech workers in New York City's “Silicon Alley” in the 1990s. Why did these workers exhibit entrepreneurial behavior in their jobs—investing time, energy, and other personal resources that Neff terms “venture labor”—when they themselves were employees and not entrepreneurs? Neff argues that this behavior was part of a broader shift in society in which economic risk shifted away from collective responsibility toward individual responsibility. In the new economy, risk and reward took the place of job loyalty, and the dot-com boom helped glorify risks. Company flexibility was gained at the expense of employee security. Through extensive interviews, Neff finds not the triumph of the entrepreneurial spirit but a mixture of motivations and strategies, informed variously by bravado, naïveté, and cold calculation. She connects these individual choices with larger social and economic structures, making it clear that understanding venture labor is of paramount importance for encouraging innovation and, even more important, for creating sustainable work environments that support workers.

This book contributes to the ongoing discussion around so-called precarious or venture work, as the proportion of those employed by start-ups and thinly-capitalized firms continues to grow. Filling a gap in literature, the author explores the relationship between venture co-workers and examines how they cope with economic uncertainty, moving away from the previous focus on entrepreneurs and investors. Presenting empirical data from several life science start-ups in Sweden, this book illustrates the impact of institutional and regulatory changes in the finance industry, and demonstrates how these effects can ultimately reshape the meaning of employment.

An international commercial law attourney offers an explanation of the legal theory and reality of organizing, negotiating, managing and protecting international joint ventures (IJVs). He provides examples and problem-solving tips, from avoiding cultural misunderstandings to legal liability.

Written by an experienced business lawyer in the technology, scientific and engineering community, this publication is for the engineer with an innovative high-tech idea or concept who needs those crucial business insights and strategies to move that idea forward. It offers key analysis on how to leave a current employer, gain access to technologies and potential talent, and considers other issues that can reduce problems down the road. It even includes a step-by-step guide for accessing and protecting intellectual property at the earliest stages. To assist in the fundraising process, this resource explores all the available options to capitalize a business – from self-funding, to bootstrapping, to angel investors, to venture capital to government grants, to bank loans, to joint ventures. It also looks at the best ways to form a company so as to take advantage of various tax and business strategies, discusses compensation of employees with stock options or restricted stock plans, explains how an emerging company can expand internationally, and covers some key exit strategies such as an IPO or a merger/acquisition. It covers most everything a new technology business will face including hiring, firing, contracts, leases, loans, and product warranties. As you read, you will find this book is full of the stuff that engineers love: statistics, data, tools, spreadsheets, and research. But it also full of the anecdotal evidence and practical advice needed to stay the course. Now is a tremendous time for entrepreneurship. Although there have been periodic slowdowns in the economy, if you believe in a future, high-tech is the future in which to believe. This book is part of the Taylor & Francis/CRC Press series "What Every Engineer Should Know About... . Like the other books in the series, it is designed to provide you with important knowledge that will help you along your career path. This one will also help you make that path your own.

Experts in public economics and financial economics discuss the special role of venture capital and if public policy should promote the venture capital industry; empirical and theoretical perspectives are developed. The existing literature in both public economics and financial economics often fails to consider how appropriate and effective public policy may be in promoting the venture capital industry. Public economics has dealt extensively with the effect of taxes and subsidies but has neglected the unique role of venture capitalists as active investors who provide not only funding but added value. Financial economics has emphasized the special role of the venture capitalist but has not focused on the real effects of venture capital in industry equilibrium or the role of public policy. This volume in the CESifo Seminar series brings together experts in public and financial economics to develop a theoretically and empirically informed international policy perspective for an era in which policymakers increasingly look to venture capital as a source of jobs, innovation, and economic growth. The chapters in part I analyze data on the levels of venture capital fundraising in Europe, problems in the bank-oriented beginnings of German venture capital finance in the 1970s, and the inefficiency of Canadian labor-sponsored venture capital funds. Part II looks at the effect of venture capital on labor market performance, the importance of exit opportunities, and the effect of information inflows on the venture capital cycle. The chapters in part III take the perspective of public economics, reviewing the role of public policy in addressing potential market failures, improving the quality of venture capital investments, and affecting entrepreneurial business activity through tax policy.