The Role of Nonfinancial Assets of the Company in Communication with Investors

The paper is devoted to the relations between the investor and the start-up team while raising venture capital investments, in particular – the role of founders’ human capital in decision-making procedure of the investor. Key aspects that are definitely being assessed by investors are: team/founders, product/service, market/industry, financial results/forecasts. All three aspects – product, market, financial component – are subjected to balanced assessment, while team evaluation is often based on subjective opinion of potential investor. What is a key point for the investor within decision making process? What is the role of company´s team, what importance it has for the investor? Our research aims to answer these questions. In our work we rely on the theory of human capital (Gary Becker) and on the signaling theory (Michael Spence).