Surviving the Valley of Death: A Synthesis of Two Literatures on Technology Ventures

Technology ventures are critical to societal progress, yet they often do not survive a period known as the valley of death , a structural financing gap between the proof of concept phase and the commercialization phase. Studies of this phenomenon are distributed across the disconnected literatures on entrepreneurial finance and technology entrepreneurship. Our literature review addresses this disconnect by identifying and categorizing the key mechanisms, agencies, and outcomes of venture trajectories in the valley of death. The findings are synthesized in a causal loop diagram showing that the valley of death extends beyond a static financing gap: it involves a dynamic tipping point between two dominant loops, which determine whether a venture attracts sufficient capital to progress through the valley of death or fails to do so.