Voi Technology and Investors' Gut Feel

Abstract: This thesis investigates early stage investors' investment decision making criteria when evaluating investment opportunities in potentially disruptive start-ups. The method chosen was a single case study with 5 interviews with investors in the e-scooter sharing company Voi Technology. We found that our interviewed investors' general investment decision criteria were both financial and non-financial, as presented in our frameworks by S. Paul et al. (2007) and Klonowski (2010). It was also discovered that investors in the seed stage neglected their general investment decision criteria and relied mostly on non-financial criteria, gut feel and intuition. This discrepancy is explained by a shifted approach towards risk due to emotional attachment to the entrepreneur, lack of accounting data and the belief that Voi Technology is on a disruptive path. This thesis suggests that the frameworks presented in S. Paul et al. (2007) and Klonowski (2010), are not applicable in the seed stage of financing and only to a limited extent in series-A stage, when investors evaluate potentially disruptive start-ups.