Dorian Proksch, Wiebke Stranz, Andreas Pinkwart

• While the media portrayal of the US entrepreneur is dominated by the young tech-savvy college dropout, the German entrepreneur is often characterised as an experienced engineer with a PhD. But is this really the case? Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data of 90 venture capital-backed new technology-based firms, this paper explores two research questions: How do the backgrounds and competencies of German high-tech founders differ and do these differences affect the success of the venture? Cluster analysis revealed three representative types of German entrepreneurs: the scientist, the practice-oriented technician, and the business professional. Surprisingly, the scientist ranks lowest in social, business and managerial competencies as well as having the lowest success. However, this founder type raises the highest iestments. In contrast, the practice-oriented technician is the most successful. The results of this study offer support to iestors in improving their investment strategy.