Organizational Blueprints for Success in High-Tech Start-Ups: Lessons from the Stanford Project on Emerging Companies

Abstract

This longitudinal study examines nearly 200 high-technology start-ups in California's Silicon Valley, from 1994-2001. Evaluating interviews with founders and CEOs, the authors found that work and employment blueprints depended on variables such as: attachment, coordination/control, and selection. Using these three dimensions, a typology of employment blueprints consisting of the following five models: star, engineering, commitment, bureaucracy, and autocracy or direct control, is determined. Findings indicate that organizational blueprints vary among venture-based companies, and that changes occur from one pure model type to another, which, in turn, cause changes in senior management start-ups. The results of the research suggest that founders' employment models cause long-lasting effects on the company's endurance and performance; also, changes in organizational blueprints are destabilizing to young technology start-ups. The authors conclude by suggesting lessons for entrepreneurs and managers. (CBS)