In the paper “Founder-Inventors and Their Investors: Spurring Firm Survival and Growth” Prof. Häussler and her coauthors (Hennicke, Prof. Müller) show that founders involved in inventive activities display firm-idiosyncratic founder-inventor competences critical to the firm’s performance. This effect is enhanced by venture capital investors. Based on a panel dataset of 1,498 firms they show that founder involvement in R&D increases firm survival and growth. Furthermore, venture capitalists leverage founders’ engagement in inventive activity to achieve even higher growth. The findings imply that continuous application of founder-inventor competences serves to catalyze effective resource orchestration and strengthen new venture performance.