Publications

2022
Working Paper

The Transformation of Self Employment

By: Innessa Colaiacovo, Margaret Dalton, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr

Over the past half-century, while self-employment has consistently accounted for around one in ten of the United States workforce, its composition has changed. Since 1970, industries with high startup capital requirements have declined from 53% of self-employment to... View Details

Keywords: Self-employment; Startup Investment; Occupational Choice; Financing; Small Business; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Financing and Loans

SSRN

Read Now

2016
Working Paper

Are 'Better' Ideas More Likely to Succeed? An Empirical Analysis of Startup Evaluation

By: Erin L. Scott, Pian Shu and Roman M. Lubynsky

This paper studies the uncertainty associated with screening early stage ventures. Using data on 652 ventures in high-growth industries, we examine whether experienced entrepreneurs, executives, and investors can predict the outcomes of early stage ventures by reading... View Details

Keywords: Commercialization; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups

SSRN

Read Now

December 2021
Supplement

Troverie (B)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Olivia Graham

Resolves the questions raised in Troverie (A); recounts pivots and efforts to raise capital from strategic investors and sell Troverie; and shares the founder's post-mortem reflections on what went wrong and what he might have done differently. View Details

Keywords: Startup; Failed Startup; Luxury Goods; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Failure; Luxury; Fashion Industry; United States

September 2024
Case

XYZ Robotics

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Brian Mao Fu, Shu Lin and Jamie Gong

Founded in 2018, XYZ Robotics was a China-based startup specializing in robotic picking solutions and 3D machine vision products. Amid an economic downturn and intense competition, the company faced considerable financial challenges and needed to determine the best way... View Details

Keywords: Robotics; Startup; 3D Systems; China; China

24 Feb 2021
News

Why 2021 May Turn Out to be a Great Year for Tech Startups

December 2023
Supplement

Revenue Recognition at Stride Funding: Making Sense of Revenues for a Fintech Startup

By: Jung Koo Kang

18 Nov 2020
Video

Taking it to the Street: Health Care Startups Bet on Success Despite COVID-19

September 2023
Case

Breaking Barriers: How Brex is Shaping the Future of Financial Services for Startups

By: Marco Di Maggio, James Barnett and Susie L. Ma

In 2020, Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, co-founders and co-CEO’s of the fintech company Brex, needed to determine how to balance their vision with the desires of their investors. They intended to expand Brex’s offerings to include other products that served... View Details

Keywords: Business and Stakeholder Relations; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurial Finance; Financial Services Industry

One of the most popular conversations I have with entrepreneurs I work with is how to improve their recruiting and hiring strategy. I love when they dive into this topic early on because it’s one of the hardest parts of running any company, no matter how small or... View Details

09 May 2024
News

Your Startup Should Be an 'Experimentation Machine,' According to This Harvard Business School Professor

2024
Working Paper

Bringing Science to Market: Knowledge Foundations and Performance

By: Justine Boudou and Maria Roche

Possessing unique knowledge is widely considered a critical source of competitive advantage. In this paper, we examine the relationship between the extent to which founders exploit their own technologically unique knowledge and subsequent new venture performance. Using... View Details

Keywords: Firm Performance; Knowledge Foundations; Exits; Academic Startups; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Research; Information Publishing; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship

Read Now

26 Mar 2015

The Real Students of HBS Webinar Series: Working on a Startup at HBS Webinar

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a student at HBS? Our monthly series, "The Real Students of HBS", is designed to help you find out. In this webinar we'll hear from students who are working on a startup while at HBS. View Details

August 2014
Case

Rent the Runway (Abridged)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Brent Goldfarb and David A. Kirsch

Two months after a successful launch In November 2009, the cofounders of Rent the Runway (RTR), a website that rented designer dresses, are debating whether to grow their startup at a measured pace and focus on improving operational effectiveness, or raise a new round... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Electronic Commerce; Fashion; Expansion; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Fashion Industry

Web

Data for Impact: Impact Measurement from Startup to Fortune 500 C-Suite - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Data for Impact: Impact Measurement from Startup to Fortune 500 C-Suite Course Number 1641 Associate Professor Benjamin N. Roth Assistant Professor Natalia Rigol Spring; Q3Q4; 3.0 credits Paper Educational Objectives... View Details

2013
Book

Managing Startups: Best Blog Posts

By: Tom Eisenmann

Harvard Business School Professor Tom Eisenmann annually compiles the best posts from many blogs on technology startup management, primarily for the benefit of his students. This book makes his latest collection available to the broader entrepreneur community. Divided... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Startup; Prototyping; MVP; Minimum Viable Product; Freemium; SaaS; A/B Testing; Business Model

13 Nov 2005 - 16 Nov 2005
Conference Presentation

Private Benefit from Public Good? Startup Strategies for Participation in an Open Standards Community

Keywords: Business Startups; Strategy; Standards

09 Aug 2019
Blog Post

Making the Switch from CPG to a Self-Driving Car Startup through my Summer Internship

accurate – April rolled around and, like clockwork, so did an internship opportunity at Cruise, a self-driving car company (hence my futuristic commute). After WesTrek, I realized I wanted to work in San Francisco at a tech startup... View Details

2017
Working Paper

The Need for Speed: Effects of Uncertainty Reduction in Patenting

By: Mike Horia Teodorescu

Patents are essential in commerce to establish property rights for ideas and to give equal protection to firms that develop new technologies. Young firms especially depend on the protection of intellectual property to bring a product from concept to market. However,... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Natural Language Processing; Machine Learning; Patents; Business Startups; Risk and Uncertainty; Outcome or Result; Green Technology Industry