The effect of prior entrepreneurial experience on the quality of a business plan proposal in applying for angel investment

The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of start-up and managerial experience on the quality of business plans proposed by entrepreneurs applying for external angel investment. Using the Business model canvas method as a criterion, a quantitative content analysis of 310 business plan proposals was conducted in order to evaluate the ability of entrepreneurs to define the most important dimensions of a business plan. The results showed a positive effect of start-up experience and a non-significant effect of managerial experience on the quality of business plan proposals. It was shown that when defining more complex and dynamic dimensions of a business plan, a U-shaped relation between start-up experience and the quality of a business plan existed. Furthermore, we found that the quality of a business plan partially mediated the relation between prior experience and the acceptance of a business plan in an investor's first prescreen evaluation.