Facial appearance has been associated with leader selection in domains where effective leadership is considered crucial, such as politics, business and the military. Few studies, however, have so far explored associations between facial appearance and entrepreneurship, despite the growing expectation that societies project on entrepreneurs for providing exemplary leadership in activities leading to the creation of disruptive start-ups. By using computer vision tools and a large-scale sample of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs from Crunchbase, we investigate whether three geometrically based facial characteristics - facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), cheekbone prominence, and facial symmetry - as well as advanced statistical models of whole facial appearance, are associated with a) the likelihood of an individual to emerge as an entrepreneur and b) the performance of the company founded by that individual. We find that cheekbone prominence, facial symmetry and two whole facial appearance statistical models are associated with the likelihood of an individual to emerge as an entrepreneur. In contrast to entrepreneurship emergence, none of the examined facial characteristics are associated with performance. Overall, our results suggest that facial appearance is associated with the emergence of leaders in the entrepreneurial endeavor, however, it is not informative about their subsequent performance.

在政治、商业和军事等被认为有效领导力至关重要的领域，面部外观与领导者选择有关。然而，迄今为止，很少有研究探讨面部外观与创业之间的关联，尽管社会越来越期望企业家在导致颠覆性初创企业创建的活动中提供模范领导力。通过使用计算机视觉工具和来自 Crunchbase 的企业家和非企业家的大规模样本，我们调查了三个基于几何的面部特征——面部宽高比 (fWHR)、颧骨突出度和面部对称性——以及整个面部外观的高级统计模型，与 a) 个人成为企业家的可能性和 b) 该个人创立的公司的业绩有关。我们发现颧骨突出、面部对称性和两个整体面部外观统计模型与个人成为企业家的可能性有关。与创业出现相反，所检查的面部特征都与绩效无关。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，面部外观与创业努力中领导者的出现有关，但是，这并不能说明他们随后的表现。面部对称性和两个整体面部外观统计模型与个人成为企业家的可能性有关。与创业出现相反，所检查的面部特征都与绩效无关。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，面部外观与创业努力中领导者的出现有关，然而，这并不能说明他们随后的表现。面部对称性和两个整体面部外观统计模型与个人成为企业家的可能性有关。与创业出现相反，所检查的面部特征都与绩效无关。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，面部外观与创业努力中领导者的出现有关，然而，这并不能说明他们随后的表现。