We argue that the divergent motivations underlying their creation and goals can contribute to the varying performance of academic spinoffs. Through a quantitative study on a sample of 778 academic spinoffs established by 59 Italian state universities from 2006 to 2015, we show that academic spinoffs established (1) for extrinsic monetary motivations are more likely to generate higher profits, (2) for extrinsic reputational motivations are more likely to grow and (3) for intrinsic motivations are more likely to survive. These relationships are negatively moderated by the founding team's complexity. Based on our study, we aim to articulate new theoretical insights for understanding the goal-performance nexus in academic spinoffs, serving as a springboard for future research on academic entrepreneurship.