Experimentation, planning, and structure in early-stage ventures: Evidence from pitch decks

An important strategic choice for early-stage ventures is about how to learn about the market. This choice often translates into focusing on either experimentation or planning. These strategies are best supported by different structures. Hence, the fit between strategy and structure should be considered by stakeholders evaluating the venture. We hypothesize that communicating coherent combinations—experimentation and informal structure or planning and formal structure—is positively associated with evaluation and that evaluators with entrepreneurial experience are more sensitive to this coherent choice. We test this argument combining data from a university-based venture competition and an online experiment. We find a robust positive correlation between coherent choice and evaluation. We find no clear evidence that this pattern is driven by evaluators with entrepreneurial experience.