Valuation em startups: análises dos discursos utilizados no programa Shark Tank

Abstract

Startups started out from an innovative, agile and lean business model. It started out in an environment of uncertainty and validation, and they seek external capital to develop. In negotiations between entrepreneurs and high-risk investors, Valuation is used to assign a fair value to company assets and assist in the investor's decision-making process. A set of data was constructed from the television programs Shark Tank USA on ABC and Shark Tank Brazil on Sony, with the aim of understanding whether the sharks' speeches on Valuation influence investment decisions. The main methodology used in the study was discourse analysis along with other scientific techniques. It was found that of the 196 startups analyzed, the sharks in 78 companies made references to Valuation in their speeches, while in 118 companies they did not. It was also found that of the 94 companies that did not receive financial contributions from the sharks, the words Valuation and Pre-operational were the most frequently used in their speeches as justification for not investing. Results point to statistically more assertive projections of intended versus formalized valuations made in the United States compared to those made in Brazil. And finally, of the 54 Brazilian pitches that received investment proposals in the program, 33 companies are still active, 19 of them had some kind of "confirmation" of formalization after the program in their communication networks and 14 either didn't go ahead with the proposal or no evidence of formalization was found; 7 companies have closed down and no evidence of formalization was found in all of them and 14 companies had no information found. Only PIT GROOMING had irrefutable evidence of a formal partnership between the company and the shark. Startups started out from an innovative, agile and lean business model. It started out in an environment of uncertainty and validation, and they seek external capital to develop. In negotiations between entrepreneurs and high-risk investors, Valuation is used to assign a fair value to company assets and assist in the investor's decision-making process. A set of data was constructed from the television programs Shark Tank USA on ABC and Shark Tank Brazil on Sony, with the aim of understanding whether the sharks' speeches on Valuation influence investment decisions. The main methodology used in the study was discourse analysis along with other scientific techniques. It was found that of the 196 startups analyzed, the sharks in 78 companies made references to Valuation in their speeches, while in 118 companies they did not. It was also found that of the 94 companies that did not receive financial contributions from the sharks, the words Valuation and Pre-operational were the most frequently used in their speeches as justification for not investing. Results point to statistically more assertive projections of intended versus formalized valuations made in the United States compared to those made in Brazil. And finally, of the 54 Brazilian pitches that received investment proposals in the program, 33 companies are still active, 19 of them had some kind of "confirmation" of formalization after the program in their communication networks and 14 either didn't go ahead with the proposal or no evidence of formalization was found; 7 companies have closed down and no evidence of formalization was found in all of them and 14 companies had no information found. Only PIT GROOMING had irrefutable evidence of a formal partnership between the company and the shark.