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Reference

Fosfuri, A., & Nagar, J. P. (2026). Timing is key: Navigating venture capital funding for science-based startups. Research Policy, 55(3), 105402–105402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2025.105402

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Welcome to Revise and Resubmit, the show where we voyage through the universe of ideas and return with better questions than we started with. 🌌🔭 Today, we turn our gaze to a familiar mystery in the innovation cosmos: why do some breakthroughs, brilliant and luminous at the edge of human knowledge, take so long to find the fuel they need to travel? 🚀🧪

Our featured paper is titled “Timing is key: Navigating venture capital funding for science-based startups” by Andrea Fosfuri and Jay Prakash Nagar, published online on 6 January 2026 in Research Policy, scheduled for April 2026 as Article 105402 in Volume 55, Issue 3. This is not just any outlet. Research Policy stands among the most prestigious journals in our field, and it proudly sits on the FT50 list, a kind of scholarly North Star for impactful research. ⭐📚

The authors explore science-based startups, those daring ventures built close to the frontier of basic research, where discovery is still warm from the laboratory bench. And yet, the paper argues there is a friction, almost like cosmic dust in the machinery of progress, that slows their journey toward venture capital. ⚙️✨ Scientists often pursue technological advancement and precision, while VCs seek the gravitational pull of market validation, especially in early funding rounds when founders may still have strong outside options. 🧲📈

Using a formal model plus PitchBook evidence from more than 10,000 U.S. startups founded between 1990 and 2015, the study reveals a striking pattern: an inverted U-shape. Moderate ties to science can help attract capital, but an extreme scientific focus can delay funding substantially, and those delays echo forward in time, correlating with weaker performance, lower valuations, reduced total capital, and fewer successful exits like IPOs or acquisitions. ⏳📉🏁

If you love research that connects theory, data, and real-world consequence, subscribe to Revise and Resubmit on Spotify, and also follow our YouTube channel “Weekend Researcher” for more episodes that turn dense scholarship into clear insight. 🎧📺 You can also find the show on Amazon Prime and Apple Podcast. 🍏🎙️

And with gratitude, we thank the authors, Andrea Fosfuri and Jay Prakash Nagar, and we also thank Elsevier, the publisher of this important article in Research Policy. 🙏📄

So here is the question to carry with you into the dark, glittering unknown: if timing is the hidden force that decides which discoveries reach the world, what brilliant science might we be losing, simply because it arrives a little too early for investors to believe? ❓🌠