Jockeys, Not Horses(말보다 기수)- 과연 창업팀은 초기투자에서 가장 중요한 요소인가?: 스타트업 IR에서의 콘텐츠 구성과 산업별 차이 분석

Early-stage startups lack performance data and financial information, making it difficult for investors to assess their value through objective performance indicators. Therefore, previous studies have consistently shown that founder and Team capabilities, rather than technology or performance, are key investment criteria in the early stages. Specifically, in the early stages, the founder and team's experience and execution capabilities have a greater impact on investment decisions than quantitative performance indicators, a trend confirmed in domestic venture capital cases. In this context, the entrepreneurial pitch serves as a key source of information for assessing a startup's potential and credibility, and the emphasis on Team capabilities in the pitch can serve as a crucial clue for investor decision-making. This study conducted a quantitative content analysis of the IR presentations of Korean TIPS startups. This analysis analyzed the elements (problem, market, technology, team, and finance) that founders primarily emphasized in their presentations and compared differences in content emphasis across industries. To this end, actual IR presentation texts were segmented into semantic units, categorized into five content categories based on a predefined codebook, and the frequency of mentions in each category was quantified. The analysis revealed that most IR presentations focused heavily on technology and market-related content, while team capabilities were relatively underemphasized as an independent content element. This finding contrasts with existing theoretical discussions that emphasize the importance of entrepreneurial and team capabilities in early-stage investments. While team capabilities have been discussed as a key criterion for early-stage investment decisions, this importance may not directly translate into a higher frequency of explicit mentions. Furthermore, industry-specific comparisons revealed that biotech startups prioritized technology verification and expertise, while ICT startups tended to place a greater emphasis on market scalability and commercial viability. This suggests that the content emphasized in entrepreneurial pitches is structured differently based on the legitimacy standards and investment logic required by each industry. This study quantitatively analyzed the actual content of entrepreneurial pitch presentations to empirically identify the structure and emphasis of content in early-stage startup IR presentations. This study expands academic understanding of entrepreneurial pitches and offers practical implications for developing pitch strategies based on industry characteristics.