Publications

Web

Judging | New Venture Competition

capital firms in the US. Also included are some of the most successful Harvard Business School (HBS) entrepreneurs from top companies. Criteria Judging criteria is focused on Customer Value Proposition which... View Details

Web

Launching Tech Ventures | HBS Online

calculate the key metrics for determining if you’ve achieved product-market fit 6-7 hrs Module 3 Venture Capital and Startup Financing Learn how venture View Details

July 2008
Case

Aurora Capital Group - Douglas Dynamics

Aurora Capital, a U.S. Private Equity firm, contemplates whether to acquire Douglas Dynamics, the leading U.S. maker of snow plows. Does a business that is highly dependent on the weather, and is seasonal, make a good LBO candidate? This case provides a good... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Private Equity; Investment; Goods and Commodities; Value Creation

Fast Answer

HBS Course: Starting a Private Investment Firm

Transactions
Reference material that includes an "analysis of the legal, economic, tax, and accounting considerations necessary to successfully structure View Details

September 1998 (Revised July 1999)
Case

Spyder Active Sports, Inc. and CHB Capital Partners (A)

By: John A. Davis, Louis B. Barnes and Peter K. Botticelli

After establishing a small but profitable skiwear business, an entrepreneur decides to sell a minority stake in the firm to outside investors. His goal is to acquire the capital needed to grow the business, even though this will entail a substantial transformation of... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Private Equity; Family Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Entrepreneurship; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry

2012
Other Unpublished Work

Lost in the Clouds: The Impact of Copyright Scope on Investment in Cloud Computing Ventures

By: Josh Lerner and Greg Rafert

Our analysis seeks to understand the impact of changes in copyright scope on investment in new firms. We begin by analyzing the investment effects of the Cartoon Network, et al. v. Cablevision decision in the U.S. and court rulings in France and Germany on venture... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Venture Capital; Internet and the Web; Investment; Business Startups; Copyright; France; Germany; United States; European Union

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2013
Working Paper

Is a VC Partnership Greater Than the Sum of Its Partners?

By: Michael Ewens and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

This paper investigates whether individual venture capitalists have repeatable investment skill and to what extent their skill is impacted by the VC firm where they work. We examine a unique dataset that tracks the performance of individual venture capitalists'... View Details

Keywords: Investing; Persistence; Performance Persistence; Theory Of The Firm; Venture Capital; Organizations; Human Capital; Performance Evaluation

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07 May 2007
Research & Ideas

Rediscovering Schumpeter: The Power of Capitalism

If capitalism was the most influential single economic and social force of the 20th century (and continuing today), there is no better guide to understanding its power and complexity than famed economist Joseph Schumpeter, says Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Education

22 Feb 2000
Research & Ideas

Social Capital Markets: Creating Value in the Nonprofit World

challenges: selecting the mostworthy recipients of funding, relying on young organizations to implementideas, and being accountable to the third party whose funds they areinvesting. They identify relevant venture View Details

Keywords: by Anne Kavanagh

2022
Article

The Effects of Public and Private Equity Markets on Firm Behavior

By: Shai Bernstein

In this article, I review the theoretical and empirical literature on the effects of public and private equity markets on firm behavior, emphasizing the consequences that emerge from disclosure requirements, ownership concentration, and degree of firm standardization.... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Finance And Governance; Financing Policy; Commercialization; Capital Markets; Private Equity; Public Equity; Venture Capital; Innovation and Invention; Cost of Capital

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July 2010 (Revised February 2011)
Supplement

Eden McCallum: A Network-Based Consulting Firm (B)

By: Heidi K. Gardner and Erin McFee

To weather the 2009 financial crisis, Eden McCallum's cofounders must renegotiate partners' compensation, attract independent consultants to meet different client demands, and reassure their Advisory Board that their network-based consulting model remains sound. The... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Crisis; Entrepreneurship; Governing and Advisory Boards; Compensation and Benefits; Partners and Partnerships; Consulting Industry

June 2021
Case

Building the Governance to Take Capital SAFI to the Next Level

By: V.G. Narayanan, Asis Martinez Jerez and Mariana Cal

Asset management firm Capital SAFI wanted to attract new strategic investors and expand to other countries. Having the right corporate governance in place was critical to achieve this goal. View Details

Keywords: Board Of Directors; Transparency; Sustainable Finance; South America; Latin America; Corporate Governance; Governance Controls; Governing and Advisory Boards; Business Organization; Corporate Strategy; Transformation; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry; Bolivia; South America; Latin America

Web

Scaling Technology Ventures - Course Catalog

among others. The course also features an online computer-gaming simulation that enables students to compete against one another as rival SaaS firms vying for users, market position, and capital investment.... View Details

19 Sep 2012
Research & Ideas

Funding Innovation: Is Your Firm Doing it Wrong?

urgent needs of the future. Start-ups, on the other hand, are intensely focused on innovation but are also beholden to the impatience and boom-and-bust cycles of the venture capital industry. In his new... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

1999
Other Unpublished Work

Executive Ownership and Control in Newly Public Firms: The Role of Venture Capitalists

By: Malcolm Baker and Paul Gompers

We study the implications of CEO equity ownership for incentives and control in a sample of 1,011 newly public firms. Before an initial public offering, equity investments by venture capitalists reduce CEO ownership by about half, from an average of 35 percent to 19... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Ownership; Motivation and Incentives; Initial Public Offering; Investment; Venture Capital; Managerial Roles; Cost Management; Governance Controls; Executive Compensation

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Web

Launching Tech Ventures - Course Catalog

Launching Technology Ventures (LTV) is designed for four types of students: Those who will start their own companies. Those who will join early-stage startups (typically in a product manager, business development, sales, marketing, or... View Details

September 2017 (Revised March 2018)
Case

Chai Point: Disrupting Chai

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Ramana Nanda and Rachna Tahilyani

Chai Point is India’s largest organized chai retailer. It has missed its target for retail store openings by approximately 25%, goals that are very important to its investors who are also board members. However, it has developed an exciting new internet-based tea... View Details

March 2020
Technical Note

Intrapreneurship: Leading Innovation Efforts in Established Organizations

By: Karen G. Mills and Annie Dang

“Intrapreneurship” is the use of entrepreneurial management techniques within established companies to create new environments that foster innovation. Mature firms have consistently faced risk of elimination from competitors, shifting consumer preferences, and... View Details

Keywords: Intrapreneurship; Innovation; Corporate Venture Capital; Accelerators; Incubators; Lean Startup; Hypothesis Testing; Business Ventures; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Leadership; Framework; Disruption