Publications

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February 2022
Teaching Note

AptDeco: Circular Economy Furniture Marketplace

By: Ayelet Israeli

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 521-069. AptDeco, a used furniture marketplace, was growing rapidly in the tri-state area. The co-founders were confident that the business model, financial position, and unit economics positioned AptDeco for scaling in the massive $120... View Details

Keywords: E-Commerce Strategy; Mobile; Word-of-Mouth; Word Of Mouth; Word-of-mouth Marketing; Internet Marketing; Growth Strategy; Platform; Platforms; Two Sided Markets; Two-sided Market; Two-sided Marketplace; Two-Sided Markets; Two-sided Network; Black Entrepreneurs; Black Leadership; African Americans; African-American Protagonist; Circular; Peer-to-peer Markets; Furniture Industry; Growth Hacking; Monetization Strategy; Growth Management; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Marketing Channels; Digital Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Acquisition; Retention; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Expansion; Brands and Branding; E-commerce; Retail Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Technology Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; North America; New York (city, NY); New York (state, US)

12 PM – 1 PM EST, 05 Dec 2017
Webinars: Career

The Startup Rules of Three

Do you have a brilliant idea for a startup? Becoming a successful entrepreneur requires more than just an inspiring concept and a plan for development. There is a reason as many as 75 percent of venture capital-backed startups fail, and nearly 95 percent of all... View Details

January 2007 (Revised May 2008)
Case

National Logistics Management: Founder Decisions

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins

Scott Taylor, CEO & founder of NLM, is a serial entrepreneur faced with an important decision. As his industry consolidates, he knows that his company must grow quickly, yet he believes he has reached the limit of what organic growth can achieve. Should he accept the... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Growth and Development Strategy; Supply and Industry; Supply Chain

Find at Harvard

11 Apr 2019
Blog Post

Kel Jackson, MBA 2019: "[My Job] Matters. I Didn't Want a Role that Would Box Me In."

Birmingham, Alabama, native Kel Jackson describes himself as “the kid who would find things around the house to tinker and build with.” When he was 16, the young entrepreneur founded RCM RC Products—a business that designed, sourced,... View Details

Keywords: Manufacturing

2024
Working Paper

Contributing to Growth? The Role of Open Source Software for Global Startups

By: Nataliya Langburd Wright, Frank Nagle and Shane Greenstein

How does participating in open source software (OSS) communities spur entrepreneurial growth? To address this question, we analyze novel data matching accounts from GitHub—the largest OSS hosting platform—to the universe of global software venture-backed firms... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Open Source Distribution; Entrepreneurship; Business Growth and Maturation; Human Capital; Valuation; Corporate Strategy

SSRN

Read Now

17 Jul 2012
News

Act Bigger than You Are

06 May 2013
News

Crowdfunding tries to grow up

March 2022
Case

The Future of Start-Up Chile

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ruth Costas and Pedro Levindo

In 2021, public accelerator program Start-Up Chile, which ten years earlier had created a global buzz, might be losing its competitive edge to similar programs or one-year visas for digital nomads offered by other countries. The case follows SUP’s CEO, Angeles Romo, as... View Details

11 May 2016
Cold Call Podcast

Who Owns Space?

Keywords: Re: Matthew C. Weinzierl

27 Oct 2014
News

The power of peers

Profile

Lara Hodgson

Lara O’Connor Hodgson thought she’d found the entrepreneurial dream while running Nourish, the successful startup she launched in 2009. But it was Nourish’s very success that triggered Hodgson’s next and even more successful venture,... View Details

17 Dec 2020
Video

Top 5 Cold Call Podcast Episodes for 2020

April 1998 (Revised June 1998)
Case

Road Well Traveled, The (Condensed)

Presents the conclusions of a 1992 mail survey of Harvard MBAs who started their own businesses. Questions focused on 4 areas: 1) development of the business concept, 2) sales and marketing, 3) finance, and 4) building a staff. The entrepreneurs surveyed include 24 in... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

11 Sep 2009
Working Paper Summaries

Financing Constraints and Entrepreneurship

Keywords: by William R. Kerr & Ramana Nanda

March 1999 (Revised February 2000)
Case

Ken Hakuta: AllHerb.com

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Nicole Tempest

Ken Hakuta had been an entrepreneur all his life. Having started a number of consumer-oriented ventures, he became well-known as "Dr. Fad," the initiator of the "Wacky Wallwalker" toy craze in the 1980s. Wishing to strike out in an exciting new direction in 1998, he... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Health; Information Publishing; Leadership Style; Problems and Challenges; Web Sites

Find at Harvard

15 May 2012
News

Best Buy scandal brings lessons about corporate governance

28 Aug 2020
Video

Fadi Ghandour

Fadi Ghandour, Founder of Dubai-based courier company Aramex and a leading entrepreneur in the Gulf, explains that his company purposefully recruited Arabs from the region rather than Western expatriates as he wanted long-term commitment and loyalty, and knowledge of... View Details

February 2011 (Revised September 2013)
Case

Sarvajal: Water for All

By: John D. Macomber and Mona Sinha

Entrepreneur wrestles with business model using SMS and RFID technology, franchising, and leasing to rapidly grow off-the-grid water purification business without subsidies. The company seeks to provide potable water services to rural and urban India where the public... View Details

Keywords: Business Subsidiaries; Business Model; Communication Technology; Private Sector; Social Entrepreneurship; Cost Management; Rural Scope; Emerging Markets; Infrastructure; Problems and Challenges; Information Infrastructure; India

June 2007 (Revised June 2011)
Case

TA Energy (Turkey): A Bundle of International Partnerships

By: William R. Kerr, Daniel J. Isenberg and Ant Bozkaya

Stimulates discussion of entrepreneurship in emerging economies, especially for entrepreneurs returning to their home countries to start businesses with global technologies and partners. Focuses on the partnership tensions between global firms and local... View Details

Keywords: Family Business; Developing Countries and Economies; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Globalized Firms and Management; Partners and Partnerships; Conflict and Resolution; Turkey