ABSTRACT
The pre-money valuation of startups, as their performance indicator, is critical in entrepreneurial financing, which in turn is significantly shaped by the firm's internal resources. This paper analyzes an integrated theoretical framework to examine whether the valuation of startups can be explained by strategic and firm-level factors identified by Barney's (1991) Resource-Based Theory (RBT) as critical to firm performance. Empirical results from the analyses of 142 German startups support the theory that investors consider important factors to startups' performance in their valuation. Implications of the study involve further research on the impact of social and financial capital within human and physical resources and establishes different determinants important to raise different types of funds-venture capital, angel, seed, and grant-in tech and non-tech startups.