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- Faculty Publications (200)
- February 2015
- Case
Founder Field Day
By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, Ramana Nanda and Nathaniel Burbank
Branded as the "Millennial firm for Millennials," Mike Rothenberg founded Rothenberg Ventures (RV) in 2012 while earning his MBA at the Harvard Business School (HBS). Over the following 24 months, Rothenberg raised $20 million and built a venture capital firm that made...
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Keywords:
Finance;
Startups;
Seed-investing;
Micro-VC;
Venture Capital;
Business Startups;
San Francisco;
New York (city, NY)
Rhodes-Kropf, Matthew, Ramana Nanda, and Nathaniel Burbank. "Founder Field Day." Harvard Business School Case 815-101, February 2015.
- February 2015 (Revised September 2016)
- Case
Hövding: The Airbag for Cyclists
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Emilie Billaud
In 2012, Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin, co¬founders of the Hövding company, reflect on the evolution of their venture and the way forward. Since 2005, Haupt and Alstin had been working on a new type of bicycle helmet—an "airbag for cyclists." What had begun as a thesis...
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Keywords:
Business Startups;
Entrepreneurship;
Transition;
Leadership;
Conflict Management;
Bicycle Industry;
Sweden;
Europe
Fuller, Joseph B., and Emilie Billaud. "Hövding: The Airbag for Cyclists." Harvard Business School Case 315-056, February 2015. (Revised September 2016.)
- December 2014 (Revised November 2023)
- Case
Codecademy: Monetizing a Movement?
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Lisa C. Mazzanti
Codecademy, an open-platform, online community for learning computer programming, launched in 2011. By 2014, the company had raised a total of $12.5 million in funding and was, on many fronts, an overwhelming success. However, there were still no revenues. The founders...
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurial Management;
Startup Management;
Technology;
Computer Programming;
Coding;
Online Education;
Monetization;
Online Communities;
Marketplaces;
Internet and the Web;
Education;
Entrepreneurship;
Business Startups;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Technology Industry;
Education Industry
Bussgang, Jeffrey J., and Lisa C. Mazzanti. "Codecademy: Monetizing a Movement?" Harvard Business School Case 815-093, December 2014. (Revised November 2023.)
- December 2014 (Revised May 2015)
- Case
Growth Hacking at Bazaart (A)
By: Jeffrey Bussgang and Matthew G. Preble
The four founding members of Bazaart—a young Israeli company whose sole product was its eponymous mobile application (app) which allowed users to create collages from photographs and other images—face an important strategic decision in June 2014. Since its founding...
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Keywords:
Growth Hacking;
Customer Acquisition;
Startup Marketing;
Startup;
Startup Nation;
Business Startups;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Customers;
Marketing;
Social Marketing;
Fashion Industry;
Technology Industry;
Israel
Bussgang, Jeffrey, and Matthew G. Preble. "Growth Hacking at Bazaart (A)." Harvard Business School Case 815-001, December 2014. (Revised May 2015.)
- November 2014
- Case
BRAC in 2014
By: Tarun Khanna, Rachna Tahilyani, Reeti Roy and Aldo Sesia
In the early 1970s BRAC was a startup nongovernmental organization (NGO) working in Bangladesh. By 2014, it was the world's largest NGO. It had a strong presence in Bangladesh and had begun to deliver social development programs in nine other countries. Its founder and...
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Keywords:
BRAC;
Bangladesh;
NGO;
Strategy;
Business Model;
Business Organization;
Social Entrepreneurship;
Innovation and Management;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Social Enterprise;
Social Issues;
Poverty;
Bangladesh
Khanna, Tarun, Rachna Tahilyani, Reeti Roy, and Aldo Sesia. "BRAC in 2014." Harvard Business School Case 715-414, November 2014.
- June 2014
- Case
Stock Options at Celia-Check
By: Brian Hall, Andrew Wasynczuk and Karen Huang
Describes issues facing three young founders of a high-tech start-up, including hiring an experienced CEO and negotiating with a potential VC investor. Focuses on the incentive and compensation aspects of negotiating with job candidates (e.g., what percentage of the...
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- February 2014 (Revised August 2016)
- Case
Strava
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, William A. Sahlman and Sid Misra
Strava is a new fast-growing social network for the avid cyclist and runner. The Strava case traces the entrepreneurial journey of two serial entrepreneurs who have been co-founders in a prior venture, and who have co-founded Strava 3 years ago. The protagonists must...
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurship;
Cycling;
Biking;
Running;
Sports;
Technology;
Mobile App;
Mobile;
GPS;
Motivation;
Behavioral Science;
Founders;
Term Sheet;
Investment;
Terms;
Silicon Valley;
Lifestyle;
Strava;
Financing;
Fundraising;
Angel;
Valuation;
Growth;
Forecast;
Business Startups;
Business Plan;
Trends;
Forecasting and Prediction;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Corporate Entrepreneurship;
Institutional Investing;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Innovation Leadership;
Innovation Strategy;
Innovation and Management;
Technological Innovation;
Management Succession;
Growth Management;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Market Timing;
Bicycle Industry;
Consumer Products Industry;
Technology Industry;
Sports Industry;
Web Services Industry;
California;
New England
- January 2014
- Case
Maricopa, Inc.: Finding the Right Treatment for Growth
The founders of Maricopa, Inc., a startup that sold proprietary hair-care products directly to salons, were preparing a board presentation to address the young company's inability to meet financial projections. While the products had caught on with customers, the... View Details
Keywords:
Business Startups;
Financial Condition;
Venture Capital;
Financial Strategy;
Financing and Loans;
Expansion;
Planning;
Fashion Industry;
Iowa
Sahlman, William A., Thomas R. Eisenmann, Joseph B. Fuller, and Shikhar Ghosh. "Maricopa, Inc.: Finding the Right Treatment for Growth." Harvard Business School Case 314-065, January 2014.
- September 2013 (Revised November 2013)
- Case
AngelList
By: Ramana Nanda and Liz Kind
In early 2010, Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi posted a list of angel investors on the Venture Hacks blog as a resource for founders looking for funding prior to seeking venture capital. The list quickly evolved into AngelList, a separate matchmaking platform for... View Details
Keywords:
Angel Investors;
Venture Capital;
Entrepreneurial Finance;
Finance;
Entrepreneurship;
Investment;
Financial Services Industry;
United States
Nanda, Ramana, and Liz Kind. "AngelList." Harvard Business School Case 814-036, September 2013. (Revised November 2013.)
- July 2013 (Revised August 2017)
- Case
TaKaDu
By: Elie Ofek and Matthew Preble
In December 2012, Amir Peleg, founder and CEO of TaKaDu, reflected on how to position his young firm for the next fiscal year and beyond. The small Israeli startup had developed an innovative software system that used patented algorithms and statistical analysis to...
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Keywords:
Innovation;
Customer Selection;
Business Marketing;
High-tech Marketing;
Enterprise Resource Planning;
Water Resources;
Water Management;
Utilities;
Product Positioning;
Expansion;
Resource Allocation;
Applications and Software;
Entrepreneurship;
Business Startups;
Business Strategy;
Innovation and Invention;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Utilities Industry;
Australia;
Israel
- February 2013
- Case
18 Months in a Startup: Zaggora.com
By: Tom Nicholas
The founders of Zaggora reflected back on a tumultuous year-and-a-half in which they had generated, from just $40,000 in personal savings, a multi-million dollar sportswear enterprise selling Hotpants to women. These were hotpants not of the 1960s hipster variety, but...
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Keywords:
Internet and the Web;
Growth Management;
Problems and Challenges;
Business Startups;
Brands and Branding;
Innovation and Invention;
Corporate Finance;
Apparel and Accessories Industry;
Sports Industry
Nicholas, Tom. "18 Months in a Startup: Zaggora.com." Harvard Business School Case 813-140, February 2013.
- September 2012 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Entrepreneurial Finance in Finland?
By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and Alexis Brownell
This case describes a new venture attempting to bring early-stage entrepreneurial financing to Finland and other Nordic countries. Entrepreneurship is taking off in Finland, an area that historically has had little venture capital or high-growth start-up activity, but...
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Keywords:
Angels;
Angel Investors;
VC;
Micro-VC;
Accelerator;
Incubator;
Entrepreneurial Finance;
Entrepreneurship;
Venture Capital;
Private Equity;
Business Startups;
Financial Services Industry;
Finland;
Scandinavia;
Europe
Kerr, William R., Ramana Nanda, and Alexis Brownell. "Entrepreneurial Finance in Finland?" Harvard Business School Case 813-068, September 2012. (Revised March 2013.)
- June 2012 (Revised June 2012)
- Case
PunchTab, Inc. Investor Presentation Deck
By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda
This case examines the PowerPoint presentation that Ranjith Kumaran, founder of the start-up PunchTab, Inc., is using for his investment pitches to venture capital firms. Students can discuss the materials that Kumaran has included, his presentation style, and what...
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Kerr, William R., and Ramana Nanda. "PunchTab, Inc. Investor Presentation Deck." Harvard Business School Case 812-172, June 2012. (Revised June 2012.)
- May 2012 (Revised October 2012)
- Supplement
H-Soft (B-1): Siddharth Kapoor
By: Ramana Nanda
Siddharth Kapoor, the Founder and CEO of H-Soft Mumbai, reflected on his meetings as he walked out of VC Ventures' offices in Mumbai. After a few months of intensely pitching his startup to several different investors, he finally had a term sheet in hand. Despite this...
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurial Finance;
Venture Capital Term Sheet;
India;
Entrepreneurship;
Business Startups;
Venture Capital;
Investment;
Contracts;
Partners and Partnerships;
India
Nanda, Ramana. "H-Soft (B-1): Siddharth Kapoor." Harvard Business School Supplement 812-169, May 2012. (Revised October 2012.)
- May 2012 (Revised October 2012)
- Supplement
H-Soft (B-2): Vikram Sharma
By: Ramana Nanda
Siddharth Kapoor, the Founder and CEO of H-Soft Mumbai, reflected on his meetings as he walked out of VC Ventures' offices in Mumbai. After a few months of intensely pitching his startup to several different investors, he finally had a term sheet in hand. Despite this...
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurial Finance;
Venture Capital Term Sheet;
India;
Entrepreneurship;
Business Startups;
Venture Capital;
Investment;
Contracts;
Partners and Partnerships;
India
Nanda, Ramana. "H-Soft (B-2): Vikram Sharma." Harvard Business School Supplement 812-170, May 2012. (Revised October 2012.)
- May 2012 (Revised October 2012)
- Case
H-Soft Mumbai
By: Ramana Nanda
Siddharth Kapoor, the Founder and CEO of H-Soft Mumbai reflected on his meeting as he walked out of VC Ventures' offices in Mumbai. After a few months of intensely pitching his startup to several different investors, he finally had a term sheet in hand. Despite this...
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Keywords:
Entrepreneurial Finance;
Venture Capital Term Sheet;
India;
Business Startups;
Investment;
Venture Capital;
Contracts;
Partners and Partnerships;
Entrepreneurship;
Negotiation Offer;
Decision Making
Nanda, Ramana. "H-Soft Mumbai." Harvard Business School Case 812-168, May 2012. (Revised October 2012.)
- April 2011 (Revised June 2011)
- Case
Internet Securities, Inc.: Path to Sustainability
By: Lynda M. Applegate, William R. Kerr and Ryan Johnson
Founded in 1994 when the Internet was still a "toy for techies," the case is set in 1998 when Internet IPOs were red-hot. Internet Securities provides hard-to-find financial, business, economic, and political information on emerging markets. Information from over 600...
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Keywords:
Acquisition;
Business Model;
Business Startups;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Venture Capital;
Cash Flow;
Initial Public Offering;
Analytics and Data Science;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Valuation
Applegate, Lynda M., William R. Kerr, and Ryan Johnson. "Internet Securities, Inc.: Path to Sustainability." Harvard Business School Case 811-098, April 2011. (Revised June 2011.)
- 2011
- Working Paper
Entrepreneurship and the Discipline of External Finance
By: Ramana Nanda
I confirm the finding that the propensity to start a new firm rises sharply among those in the top five percentiles of personal wealth. This pattern is more pronounced for entrants in less capital intensive sectors. Prior to entry, founders in this group earn about 6%...
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Keywords:
Business Startups;
Competency and Skills;
Entrepreneurship;
Financing and Loans;
Personal Finance;
Wealth
Nanda, Ramana. "Entrepreneurship and the Discipline of External Finance." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-098, March 2011.
- January 2011
- Case
Aardvark
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Alison Berkley Wagonfeld and Lauren Barley
Aardvark is an online social search service that allows users to pose questions and receive answers from other users in their extended social network. The case explores the process that Aardvark's founders used to design and develop their product based on intensive...
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Keywords:
Business Startups;
Customer Focus and Relationships;
Customer Satisfaction;
Entrepreneurship;
Product Design;
Product Development;
Social and Collaborative Networks;
Internet and the Web
Eisenmann, Thomas R., Alison Berkley Wagonfeld, and Lauren Barley. "Aardvark." Harvard Business School Case 811-064, January 2011.
- 2010
- Working Paper
Corporate Governance When Founders Are Directors
By: Feng Li and Suraj Srinivasan
We examine CEO compensation, CEO retention policies, and M&A decisions in firms where founders serve as a director with a non-founder CEO (founder-director firms). We find that founder-director firms offer a different mix of incentives to their CEOs than other firms....
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Keywords:
Business Startups;
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Executive Compensation;
Retention;
Managerial Roles;
United States
Li, Feng, and Suraj Srinivasan. "Corporate Governance When Founders Are Directors." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 11-018, August 2010.