Starting a venture? Who you know can help!

Entrepreneurs begin their ventures lacking a lot of things—employees, funding, customers, technology. A large part of their success relies on their ability to get these things, and that depends in large part on the entrepreneur’s ability to network with people and organizations that can provide them with everything from further connections to equipment to good advice.

In this edition of Smith Business Close-Up with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Benjamin Hallen, assistant professor of strategy, talks about his research that explores how entrepreneurs tap into their networks to get investments in their new ventures.

Professor Hallen’s research focuses on how entrepreneurs form network ties with potential resource providers and partners, specifically how entrepreneurs raise equity investments from venture capital and corporate investors. His research has a particular focus on identifying strategies that entrepreneurs may use when they are unknown within an industry and lack prior network ties to investors. Prior to his doctoral studies, Hallen was himself was an entrepreneur, co-founder and CTO of a Web communications company.

Smith Business Close-Up is co-produced by the Robert H. Smith School of Business and Maryland Public Television. The television segment focuses on the latest thinking in business management, and features in-depth interviews with Smith School faculty and other members of the school’s community of business leaders.