即使在一个规范交易和自动信用评级的世界，良好的财务决策仍然取决于判断。选择和谁一起投资，在风险投资这个不确定的世界，显得尤为重要，因为，许多投资项目为了分担风险和共享信息都是以合作形式达成的。哈佛商学院的玉海轩和保罗·冈帕斯，以及哈佛大学的Vladimir Mukharlyamov已经搜集近12,000宗交易中的3,500名早期投资者的信息，并形成一个数据库，来寻找发现为什么特定群组的投资者会互相吸引，以及该关系如何影响其财务性能（表现）。
投资者显然更喜欢与其有共同点的合作伙伴。在同一家公司工作的人比与那些从未一起工作过的人合作投资的可能性高出60%。投资者属于同一少数民族，或在同一所大学的学习，一起合作的可能性高出20％左右。对合作投资人能力方面的偏好（要求）比较弱（根据个人能力来搭伙的倾向并不明显），拥有最好大学学位的投资者更容易合作的可能性只高出9%。
（友好）关系是选择合作伙伴的一个薄弱根据。作者审查了通过首次公开募股（IPO）而退出投资的投资者纪录。 IPO是许多初创企业的圣杯（目标），但成功的可能性将降低22％，如果联合投资人为同一所大学的校友，或者是降低18％，如果他们过去为同一雇主服务。但种族本身，对投资成功没有影响。但是就一对少数民族投资人而言，这就是一个不同的故事了（结果就不同了）。来自同一少数民族的投资者带组合公司（集团公司）实现首次公开募股，其可能性将降低25%（如果合作人来自东亚，那么这个可能性仍然是较低的）。数据表明，相似投资者组合的较差业绩很少是源于不好的公司，更多的是源于初始投资后共同作出的错误决策。不同的意见帮助投资者作出更好的判定。
伙伴关系基于能力，而不是相似度，其投资往往做得更好。如果一对投资者中的一位拥有领先大学的学位，那么，其选定的公司上市的可能性就增加了9％，如果另一位也能力出色，那么成功的可能性就又增加了11％。当然，这样的投资者仍然必须首先找到对方。由纽约大学斯特恩商学院的Alexander Ljungqvist领导的研究表明，在有影响力的网络阵营的风险投资公司表现得更好，因为他们有更多的机会加入联合组织(辛迪加)投资。这些结论的意义似乎是，投资者应易于广交朋友，但不能仅仅因为友谊就参与投资。
EVEN in a world of algorithmic trading and automated credit scoring, good financial decisions still depend on judgment. Choosing whom to invest alongside is particularly important in the uncertain world of venture capital, where many deals are syndicated, in order to share risk and information. Paul Gompers and Yuhai Xuan of Harvard Business School and Vladimir Mukharlyamov of Harvard University have put together a dataset* of 3,500 early-stage investors in almost 12,000 deals to examine why specific pairs of investors are drawn to each other, and how that affects their financial performance.
Investors clearly prefer partners with whom they have something in common. People who have worked at the same company are over 60% more likely to co-invest than those who have not. Investors who belong to the same ethnic minority, or studied at the same university, are around 20% more likely to pair up. The bias towards co-investors on measures of ability is weaker: investors with degrees from the best universities are just 9% more likely to get together.
Rapport is a poor basis for selecting partners. The authors examine investors’ record at exiting investments through an initial public offering (IPO). An IPO is the holy grail for many start-ups, but the odds of success are 22% lower if a co-investing pair are alumni of the same university, and 18% lower if they share a past employer. By itself, ethnicity has no effect on investment success. In a pair, it is a different story. Co-investors from the same ethnic minority are 25% less likely to bring a portfolio company to an IPO (and the odds are still lower if the partners are East Asian). The data suggest that the poorer results of similar investors stem less from selecting bad companies, more from bad decisions taken together after the initial investment. It may be that a diversity of views helps investors to make better calls.
Partnerships based on ability, not similarity, tend to do better. If one investor of a pair has a degree from a leading university, this adds 9% to the possibility of their selected firms reaching an IPO; if the second does too, that adds a further 11%. Of course, such investors still have to find each other. Research led by Alexander Ljungqvist of New York University’s Stern School of Business has shown that VC firms in influential network positions perform better, as they have more opportunity to take part in syndications. The moral seems to be that investors should make friends easily, but not invest for friendship’s sake alone.
