Narrating Multiple Mobilities of Startup Founders

How coherent are migrant biographies? As portrayed in media and literature biographies of highly qualified migrants seem to exemplify the promises of globalization in their trajectories. This paper is based on biographies of migrating founders of born global startups. Born global startups increasingly surfaced since the 1990s with the wave of the „New Economy“. They were new in two ways: Firstly, it became increasingly possible and attractive to found a business with little initial investment (mostly in the areas of services, IT, biotechnology, life sciences). Secondly, these enterprises were set up to work internationally right from the beginning. This chapter is based on a study of biographies of such founders in Switzerland. It explores the role migration and mobility take within their biographies and daily lives, as condition, as strategy and as consequence. And it explores different forms of migration and mobility, as people move from one place to another, live multilocally, lead a virtual team that is spread out over different offices, travel extensively or commute to work crossing national boundaries. Secondly, it asks, how experiences of mobility shape their career opportunities and decisions and explores the relationship between migration and the formation of a company. The founding process becomes visible as „mobility related work“, as it interacts with questions of integration, struggles with personal living conditions, self-development, social engagement and innovation – and different orientation schemes.