PART I Early-stage financing 1. The contracting and valuation of venture capital-backed companies Will Gornall and Ilya A. Strebulaev 2. Venture capital and innovation Josh Lerner and Ramana Nanda 3. Small firm financing: Sources, frictions, and policy implications Ramana Nanda and Gordon Phillips PART II Later stage financing 4. Private equity financing Victoria Ivashina 5. Buyouts: A primer Tim Jenkinson, Hyeik Kim, and Michael S. Weisbach 6. Gender and race in entrepreneurial finance Michael Ewens PART III Impact and performance 7. Stakeholder impact of private equity investments Morten Sorensen and Ayako Yasuda 8. Risk and return in private equity Arthur Korteweg PART IV Short chapter summaries Short chapter summaries