Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(118,342)
- Faculty Publications (303)
- February 2011
- Case
Chegg: Textbook Rental Takes Flight
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, William A. Sahlman and Evan W. Richardson
In late 2010, Silicon Valley-based Chegg, the leading online college textbook rental company, is scaling rapidly. The case recounts Chegg's history from its origins as a distant competitor to Craigslist in college classified listings through a pivot into textbook... View Details
- December 2010
- Background Note
Risk and Reward in Venture Capital
This note describes the payoff structure of investment in individual venture capital–backed companies and in venture capital portfolios. Venture Capital investments are characterized by high failure rate (0ver 50%) and a small number of given successes (greater than... View Details
- December 2010
- Article
Management and the Financial Crisis (We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us...)
The financial crisis of 2008-2009 has revealed that our broad model of corporate governance is broken, independent of the shortcomings in the regulatory system. Managers and boards of directors in scores of systemically important firms failed to protect employees,... View Details
- November 2010
- Case
Gilt Groupe
By: Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman and Tamara Obradov
The case explores decisions faced by Gilt Groupe co-founders in 2009 regarding how rapidly to grow, which growth strategies to pursue and how much capital to raise. View Details
- November 2010
- Case
The Firestorm: Super Angelgate
By: William A. Sahlman and Evan Wade Richardson
An overview of key documents surrounding the 2010 “Angelgate” meetings. View Details
- November 2010 (Revised August 2016)
- Case
The Changing Face of Angel Investing
By: William A. Sahlman and Evan Richardson
Angel investors Ram Shriram, Mike Maples, Eric Paley, James Geshweiler, and Jim Southern discuss their investment philosophies and the changing landscape of angel investing. Questions include: • How has angel investing changed in the last few years? • How do you... View Details
- November 2010
- Case
Bling Nation
By: William A. Sahlman and Liz Kind
Bling Nation, a Palo Alto, CA startup, was founded in 2007 as a mobile payment service provider that bypassed industry participants such as Visa and MasterCard. Bling Nation partnered with local community banks and merchants in small towns. The banks provided their... View Details
Keywords: Culture
- November 2010
- Case
Spudnik, Inc.
By: William A. Sahlman and Elizabeth A. Kind
This case describes the plan to finance a revolutionary new television set manufacturing business in late 2009. Yatin Mundkur, a venture capitalist at Artiman Ventures, has recruited a team of veteran eecutives from the optical disk drive business, to design large... View Details
- November 2010 (Revised April 2011)
- Case
WiTricity: Electricity cuts the cord
By: William A. Sahlman and Evan Wade Richardson
Eric Giler, WiTricity CEO, must decide how to grow a company based around an untested but potentially ground-breaking technology for wireless electricity transmission. View Details
- October 2010
- Case
innocent
By: William A. Sahlman and Harry Wake
This case describes a set of issues confronting the founders of innocent, a 10-year old beverage company that dominated the UK smoothie market. The team must decide how to proceed with expansion of the product line and outside the UK and Ireland. They must also decide... View Details
- April 2010
- Teaching Note
Dr. John's Products, Ltd. (TN)
Teaching Note for [803063]. View Details
- November 2009 (Revised August 2010)
- Case
NovoCure Ltd.
By: William A. Sahlman and Sarah Flaherty
Venture capitalist William Doyle must raise $35 million for a portfolio company with a promising, novel cancer therapy, just as global capital markets are imploding in the fall of 2008. NovoCure, Ltd., has developed an electrical-field-based therapy, called Tumor... View Details
- 2009
- Working Paper
Management and the Financial Crisis (We have met the enemy and he is us...)
The financial crisis of 2008-9 has revealed that our broad model of corporate governance is broken, independent of the shortcomings in the regulatory system. Managers and boards of directors in scores of systemically important firms failed to protect employees,... View Details
- September 2009 (Revised November 2010)
- Case
Endeavor: Creating a Global Movement for High-Impact Entrepreneurship
This case describes a critical inflection point in the growth of an international development "mentor capitalist" nonprofit, Endeavor. As Endeavor aims to scale its high-impact entrepreneurship model globally, founder Linda Rottenberg must determine what success looks... View Details
- September 2009
- Case
ZINK Imaging: 'Zero Ink™'
By: William A. Sahlman and Sarah Flaherty
"ZINK Imaging" describes the issues confronting CEO Wendy Caswell as she uses a partnership model to commercialize ZINK's disruptive printing technology platform, ZINK Paper. The case focuses on the frameworks ZINK has used to decide which markets to target and which... View Details
- September 2009 (Revised February 2014)
- Case
Nantucket Nectars: The Exit
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, William A. Sahlman and Noam Wasserman
The founders of Nantucket Nectars are trying to decide whether and how to sell their company. View Details
- January 2009
- Case
Sue Whitman at MBB Financial
This case describes some issues confronting the leader of a major investment bank. She is pleased with the financial performance of her firm but concerned about signs of a bubble in the market. View Details
- October 2008 (Revised October 2009)
- Case
Blink: The European Air-Taxi Service
By: William A. Sahlman and Jackie Donnelly Russell
This case describes a new venture that is about to launch a Pan-European air-taxi service in 2008. View Details
- September 2008 (Revised July 2012)
- Case
Khosla Ventures: Biofuels Strategy
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, William A. Sahlman and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
By 2008, a number of the firm's early cleantech investments were showing promise, and the companies were starting to need significantly more money to create the massive scale required in the energy sector. As Khosla thought about the hundreds of millions of dollars... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Entrepreneurial Finance; New Product Development; Partnerships; Entrepreneurial Management; Venture Capital; Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Investment Funds; Environmental Sustainability; Product Development; Biotechnology Industry; Financial Services Industry
- August 2008 (Revised December 2009)
- Case
Nantero
By: William A. Sahlman, Dan Heath and Caroline Perkins
This case describes a decision confronting the founder of Nantero, a company developing a new semiconductor technology. The company needs to raise additional venture capital. Potential investors have competing visions for the company, and its business model. Some... View Details