Rapid firm growth fueled by venture capital investments triggers tremendous dynamics in the development of young firms. However, entrepreneurship research frequently ascribes a rather static role to the entrepreneur in his start-up company. The phenomenon of founder turnover-a situation in which entrepreneurs decide to leave their initial job position-has mostly been neglected. Moreover, little is known about the frequency, causes, and the impact of founder turnover. Martin Heibel analyzes founder turnover in German venture capital backed start-up companies. He develops two unique data sets specifically assembled through as experiment and an online survey.