Journal of Management and Marketing Research Founder human capital, Page 1 Founder human capital and small firm performance: an empirical study of founder-managed natural food stores Gerry Segal Florida Gulf Coast University Dan Borgia Florida Gulf Coast University Jerry Schoenfeld Florida Gulf Coast University ABSTRACT The authors investigated the effect of founders’ human capital on the performance of their small firms. In our model, founder human capital had two dimensions: (1) level of education and (2) industry managerial experience. The authors hypothesized that higher levels of founder education and more years of founder industry managerial experience led to better firm performance. A survey of founder-managed natural food stores validated our hypotheses. Keywords: human capital, education level, managerial experience, firm performance, natural food stores.