Research on new venture teams (NVTs) show that most ventures fail within the first year and that the majority of those failures are due to conflicts within the founding team. Scholars in the field of NVTs are calling for quantitative longitudinal methods to further understand how co-founder exits emerge. This study investigates how emotional expressions during conflict within founding dyads influence their team satisfaction and intention to exit the venture. Building on the Emotions as Social Information (EASI) model, we proposed that team satisfaction mediates the effects of both positive (joy) and negative (anger) emotional expressions on founders' exit intentions. In a quantitative longitudinal approach, we analyze emotional expressions captured via facial recognition software during a controlled conflict scenario. Results show that anger during conflict did not raise the subsequent exit intentions, whereas joy significantly lowers the exit intentions of NVTs through enhanced team satisfaction. This research contributes to understanding the antecedents of team member exits in new venture teams, highlighting the impact of positive emotional exchanges on venture stability.
