Designing a strategic financial framework for digital start-ups

Emerging companies or start-ups are growing rapidly and their number is increasing every day so that the number of knowledge-based and start-up companies in Iran has increased from about 55 companies in 2013 to more than 5965 companies in 2021. The capital element is the main and most productive factor for the success of start-ups and choosing the right financing method to achieve success is inevitable. The start-up literature offers a number of ways to finance entrepreneurs that are often presented in other geographies (often in startups operating in the United States) and those models cannot be accepted as non-native. Developing a strategic local financing framework based on the tacit knowledge gained by emerging digital startups can address this issue. Based on this, the present study aims to fill the existing gaps by designing a strategic financing framework for digital start-ups based on local criteria in order to be effective in the success of digital start-ups. The statistical population of the quality sector includes entrepreneurs and digital business owners, 30 of whom were identified by snowball method and interviewed in a semi-authorized manner. The statistical population of the quantitative section includes 166 digital businesses operating in Tehran science and technology parks that have been selected using Cochran's formula in a simple random method. To collect data, the method of library review and interviews with experts and finally the distribution of questionnaires have been used. The analysis of the findings in the qualitative stage was performed with a thematic analysis approach and the results showed that 101 open codes were categorized in 17 sub-themes and 17 sub-themes were placed in 5 main themes. In the quantitative stage, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling with LISREL software were used. The results showed that five main factors including corporate factors, macro environmental factors, investment factors, business valuation factors and idea and product factors are effective in designing digital business financing strategy.