What do I take with me?: the mediating effect of spin-out team size and tenure on the founder-firm performance relationship created by Rajshree Agarwal , Benjamin A. Campbell , April Mitchell Franco and Martin Ganco

We extend the knowledge-based perspective to consider the impact of spin-out founders on knowledge transfer to new ventures. We argue that existing theory largely ignores the founder’s role as a team catalyst who mobilizes a team and transmits the team’s knowledge to a new venture. We address this gap by building theory on the role of a spin-out founder as a facilitator of co-mobility and whose impact on firm outcomes is mediated by the size and organizational experience of the recruited team. The support for our hypotheses, through use of linked employee–employer U.S. Census data from the legal services industry, has theoretical and practical implications for the knowledge-based view and human resource strategies for both existing and entrepreneurial firms.