Human capital, like shared understanding and shared knowledge, is prohibitively critical to the success of emerging technology (ET) startups. This research investigates four main underlying factors of shared understanding within ET startups namely coconstruction, mutual support, cohesion, constructive conflict, andexplicitly examines the relationship among shared understanding, shared knowledge quality, and team effectiveness. A mixed method study was conducted with a valid sample collected from 52 ET startups at co-working spaces located in Taiwan and Vietnam. The finding of the qualitative study reveals nine items to measure the “shared understanding” construct, which was used for the main study. The empirical results indicated that four proposed factors have significantly impacted shared understanding, which in turn positively affects shared knowledge quality and team effectiveness. Insightful contributions to the solid conceptualisation of shareunderstanding are beneficial references of knowledge managementfor ET startup’s founders in thriving team learning as well as team performance