High-growth startups drive economic dynamism—and governments around the world back them through acceleration programs. But while we know these programs help businesses grow, what do they do for the people working inside them?
Join us for a special session where we unveil the first systematic evidence that startup acceleration doesn't just boost companies—it transforms careers. Drawing on a unique dataset spanning accelerator programs across the Americas and a quasi-experimental study from Colombia’s ValleE program, we show that employees of accelerated startups enjoy sustained wage growth and access to more leadership, managerial, and entrepreneurial roles.
The secret? A "soft skills dividend"—the development of social and behavioral traits that fuel collaboration and career mobility. And it’s not just about networking or certification—our findings point to something deeper: accelerators as engines of human capital.
Don’t miss this chance to explore how acceleration shapes not just ventures, but the future of work.
Meet our speaker
Juanita Gonzalez-Uribe is Associate Professor of Finance at LSE, specializing in entrepreneurship, private equity and innovation with a regional focus on Latin America, the UK, and the US. She is also a research fellow at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), where she co-organizes the WE_ARE Women in Economics seminar series. As Co-director of LSE’s Financial Markets Group, she helps lead cutting-edge research on global financial markets. She is also the head of PositiveImpactMPG, an advisory initiative focused on impact, sustainability, policy, and corporate innovation. In addition, she serves on the advisory boards of the Startup Coalition and the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, and is a member of the Academic Speakers Bureau.
Her research has been published in top-tier academic journals, including the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Economics. She is the recipient of several prestigious awards, such as the Jaime Fernandez de Araoz Prize for Best Paper in Corporate Finance, the Coller Prize, and the Kauffman Dissertation Award. Her work has also been supported by competitive research grants from the ESRC, IGL, and NBER for Innovation Policy and Entrepreneurship. She holds a PhD in Finance and Economics from Columbia University, as well as a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Mathematics from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia).
More about this event
This event is part of the LSE Festival: Visions for the Future running from Monday 16 to Saturday 21 June 2025, with a series of events exploring the threats and opportunities of the near and distant future, and what a better world could look like. Booking for all Festival events will open on Monday 19 May.
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