ESRC -The Second Most Important Pitch: How Digital Start-Ups Must Navigate the Endorsement Economy to Scale

The Second Most Important Pitch:
How Digital Start-Ups Navigate the Endorsement Economy

This project addresses an ‘evaluation hurdle' which plays a major - but as yet unacknowledged - role in the growth of new digital ventures. Much attention has been given to date to the first equity pitch start-ups give to investors. While important, this is only the first step in securing a future for the enterprise. Preliminary evidence suggests that there are additional strategies that ventures must devise if they are to survive and prosper in the longer term. These include overcoming a new valuation hurdle, in the form of a second pitch made to industry analyst experts, to secure their endorsement. In this research we throw light on how firms overcome this new valuation hurdle through bringing together the study of innovation and entrepreneurship with insights from ‘Valuation Studies’.