Futures, subjects and networks
An Inquiry into the investor’s role in valuation and investment processes of startup projects
Keywords:
valuation, future, entrepreneurship, investment, risk, performanceAbstract
This article presents preliminary data of fieldwork carried out in the frame of a broader research project on the process of capital investment in startup projects. Within the economic and non-economic factors that appear when analyzing projects, there is a common denominator for all of them: the problem of the future. This “future” includes a double dimension, on the one hand, it involves an imaginary about the future world and, on the other, an ideal of self-transformation embodied in the investor. The imaginary future speculates on the process of value formation, turning uncertainty into calculated risks. In this speculation, aspects of a moral and ideological nature are involved and intervene to define what is a probable future and what is a desirable one. The uncertainty about the future, the expectations about it, and the definition of which are the most similar projects take place within the framework of interpersonal networks where the ideas and projects that circulate depend strongly on the links and institutional belongings of their members. This article accounts for the ways in which capital produces subjectivities and “futures”, within the framework of the debate of valuation studies and performance studies in economics.
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