Brandon Freiberg

I'm Brandon, a PhD Candidate at Columbia Business School.

I study entrepreneurial psychology and motivation from a distinctly macro perspective, asking questions such as what causes more risk-taking and optimistic entrepreneurs to launch startups, and how does this relate to the performance of ventures we might expect in different contexts? For example, my Job Market Paper examines how hot markets cause less optimistic and more risk averse entrepreneurs to launch startups, resulting in less differentiated businesses, which shut down more quickly without signs of early success, are more likely to achieve small successes such as acquisitions, but less likely to achieve large successes such as IPOs. Contextually I tend to study growth-oriented technology entrepreneurs, and empirically I use natural language processing and AI to assess entrepreneurial traits from their digital footprints.

Previously, I've received an MBA from Harvard Business School, founded a startup, worked as an investor, and was a consultant at McKinsey.

I enjoy nature, games and hackathons.