This study empirically investigated the factors affecting the performance of venture firms primarily engaged in software product development. Thirteen performance factors were derived through a framework established across business and technological dimensions, as well as internal resource and external strategy dimensions: fitness with market environment, competitive strategy characteristics, external cooperative relationships, adaptability to environmental changes, organizational characteristics, founder-manager capabilities, corporate culture, technology and software product characteristics, technology and product development strategy, technology sales strategy, human resources, R&D capabilities, and intellectual assets. Performance was measured using a comprehensive performance dimension encompassing the four areas proposed by the Balanced Scorecard (BSC): financial performance, customer performance, internal process performance, and learning and innovation performance. Analysis of data collected from 132 firms revealed that among the performance factors proposed in this study, six factors were empirically demonstrated to have a causal influence on software venture firm performance: competitive strategy characteristics, founder-manager capabilities, corporate culture, technology and product development strategy, technology sales strategy, and human resources. Among these, corporate culture was found to have a negative (-) effect on performance.