The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it aims to further understand the relationship between entrepreneurs' human and social capital characteristics and funding performance. Second, it examines the moderating effect of venture capital firms (VCFs) on the relationship between entrepreneurial human and social capital and venture's growth. The study uses data from 37 venture capital firms based in Mexico and their 236 portfolio companies.

The study finds that entrepreneurs' human and social capital characteristics differ with regard to their impact on each performance dimension. With respect to the effects that VCFs have on the relationship between entrepreneurs and venture performance, the results are mixed. On the one hand, VCFs endowed with a high stock of human capital do not contribute to ventures' growth. However, when a VCF with high human capital is combined with experienced entrepreneurs, venture growth is enhanced. On the other hand, the level of social capital of VCFs is a contributing factor for venture growth, but appears to become redundant when combined with entrepreneurs' social capital.

The study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature in two ways. First, it introduces several measures of funding performance. To date, most research focuses on the entrepreneurs' ability to attract capital at later stages (e.g. IPO). Accordingly, this research provides a different perspective by focusing not only on the initial stages of funding but also on the different characteristics needed to achieve success in each of these stages. Second, few academic studies examine the combined effects of the human and social capital factors of both entrepreneurs and VCF general partners on portfolio company performance. That is, most extant research only examines these relationships either from the entrepreneur's perspective or the VCF's perspective---overlooking the connection that exists between them. Thus, the major contribution of this study is to consider the human and social capital of VCFs and their differential impact on entrepreneurs' human and social capital and venture performance relationship.