Abstract: Abstract: It is very important to inspect entrepreneurs’ personal characteristics and assess their social capital when the venture capital investors make the investment decision. Using 110 high-tech start-ups as a sample, the impacts of the entrepreneur’s personal characteristics and their social capital on the likelihood for getting venture capital are empirially investigated. The results show that the social networks, especially political ties are the vital elements of entrepreneurs’ social capital, and both of them have a positive and significant effect on the likelihood for getting venture capital. However, the level of education and the abroad experience of entrepreneurs have not significant effect on the likelihood, and the more members in an entrepreneurial team, the more unlikely for the start-up to be backed up by the venture capital.

Key words: start-up, personal characteristic, social capital, venture capital