Human actions and behaviours are influenced and driven by external and internal factors such as the legal and economic environment, the social networks, the needs, the background, the traits, the attitudes of human beings. Part of the research on Technological Entrepreneurship has highlighted how these factors affect and influence the set of actions that form the entrepreneurial process. Many contributions, for example, analyzed the characteristics of the entrepreneurs, the nature of the technological innovations, the influence of the ecosystem, the role of finance investors and institutions, the importance of the strategic planning, the management of intellectual property: all the crucial factors that influence the success and the survival of high-tech companies. In this paper we focus on the role of human agency within the creation and the development of small high-tech companies and, in particular we focus on the motivations that drive this agency. The ignition spark of the entrepreneurial process is the nexus of two phenomena: the presence of lucrative opportunities and the presence of enterprising individuals. During last years, lot of attention has been dedicated to the first part of the nexus, the construct called opportunity and its exogenous/endogenous nature. Less attention to the topic of enterprising individual and specifically to the motivations that drive her/his professional choice. The motivational side of the entrepreneurial career is relevant because the type of entrepreneurial motivation may determine the goals and aspirations for the firm. The aims of the paper are 1) to contribute to the exploration of the entrepreneurial motivations, focusing on the specific contest of high tech small firms, 2) to highlight their relevance for the entrepreneurial decision and for the development of the company, and 3) to propose a hierarchical assessment of the personal motivations. In this work a motivation is defined as the activator of a goal oriented behaviour. The research questions are thus: 1) What are the relevant entrepreneurial motivations that drive the entrepreneurial choice within high-tech emerging ventures? 2) How and why motivations change in the phases of life of the firm?