Creators or adopters: Entrepreneurial team experience and AI startup emergence

This study investigates how the experience of entrepreneurial teams influences the emergence of startups based on artificial intelligence (AI), distinguishing between startups that create proprietary AI technologies and startups that adopt existing AI tools for specific applications. Building on the upper echelons theory, we examine whether specific types of experience (entrepreneurial, industrial, and/or academic) and diversity within founding teams shape the strategic orientation of startups. Using a unique data set of over 500 European AI startups that received venture capital funding, our analysis shows that experience diversity is positively associated with the likelihood of founding an AI creator startup. This effect is strengthened when academic or entrepreneurial experience is prevalent among team members. The findings offer new insights into the formation of AI ventures and suggest policy directions that can be followed to support AI-driven innovation across different economic sectors.