The article presents an analysis about the performances and discursive strategies mobilized by high-tech start-up entrepreneurs looking for financial support. We conducted an ethnographicfieldwork about a specific situation: a competition of start-ups that occurred in São Paulo, Brazil, in which entrepreneurs that were recently qualified by a companyspecialized in the development of start-ups competed for the attention of investors. In a micro sociological level, supported by Erving Goffman’s theory, the research reveals that the investigated entrepreneurs based their performances in the persona of “future billionaires”, and that they produce a discourse about “imaginary businesses”. By restoring the main elements of the social representation of start-up entrepreneurs looking for capital, we aimed to infer how agency, meanings and social relations are imbricated in the process of creating new high-tech firms.
Entrepreneurship; Culture; Microsociology; Investment; Firm; Start-up