Business Startups - Publications - Faculty & Research

27 Jul 2022
News

Alumna-Led Reproductive Health Startup Raises $4.7 Million

Victoria Thain Gioia (MBA 2015) Photo courtesy Perelel A recent article in Forbes reports that reproductive health startup Perelel, cofounded by Victoria Thain Gioia (MBA 2015), has raised a $4.7 million seed round led by Unilever... View Details

12 Sep 2016
News

HBS Alumni Startups Are Raking in VC Funds

New data shows that HBS alumni are leading the b-school pack in raising venture capital to fund their startups, according to an article on the website Business Because. According to data compiled by PitchBook, 1,069 HBS MBAs have founded... View Details

Keywords: Finance

February 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

AGENTS.inc: Pathways to Growth at an AI Startup

By: Frank Nagle, Manuel Hoffmann, Karoline Ströhlein and Susan Pinckney

The case describes the history of AGENTS.inc. Despite being a small startup, with only four employees, that had never had a funding round, the company boasted an impressive client portfolio including multiple Fortune 500 companies. While AGENTS.inc had been an early... View Details

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August 2019 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital–backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management; Technology Industry

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April 2015 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Instacart and the New Wave of Grocery Startups

By: John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

Instacart is testing an Uber-style solution to the challenge of building a home-delivered grocery business. It is backed by $220 million of venture funding. Will this model succeed where businessses like Webvan failed? What are the questions that this exploratory... View Details

Keywords: Food Retailing; Outsourced Grocery Delivery; Online Ordering; Dynamic Pricing; Data Analytics; Marketing Strategy; Food; Distribution Channels; Business Startups; Food and Beverage Industry; California

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07 Aug 2014
News

General Electric Wants to Act Like a Startup

17 May 2016
News

How to Know If Joining a Startup Is Right for You

August 2021
Case

Mylestone: Can Multiple Pivots Preserve the Life of a Death Tech Startup?

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Marilyn Morgan Westner

Dave Balter and Jim Myers co-founded Mylestone, a death tech startup that applied technology to transform how grieving people memorialize the dead. The startup addressed a cultural problem and promised to solve a pressing need in the antiquated, multi-billion dollar... View Details

Keywords: Pivot; Startup; Business Model; Cryptocurrency; Ethical Decision Making; Emotions; Growth and Development Strategy; Ethics; Market Entry and Exit; Customer Relationship Management; Loss; Change Management; Relationships

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18 Nov 2020
News

Founders, Apply the Scientific Method to Your Startup

31 Mar 2022
Blog Post

Setting Interns Up for Success at Your Startup

startup, and their successful experience bringing an HBS intern into their Business Intelligence team. Meet Mori Mori is a technology company focused on innovations in the food, agriculture, and packaging industries. Mori’s proprietary... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

12 Nov 2013
News

Cities, startups tap the wisdom of crowds for sustainability

18 Oct 2021
News

Alumnae-founded Fintech Startup Secures $29M in New Financing

Photo via Harvard Innovation Labs Lara O’Connor Hodgson (MBA 1998), cofounder of Now, recently spoke to Yahoo Finance Live to discuss its recent $29 million funding round. Hodgson cofounded Now in 2010 with former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams as a way... View Details

19 Mar 2015
News

Startup Raises $40M to Keep Small Businesses’ Cash Flowing

22 Feb 2022
Cold Call Podcast

How to Scale a Startup Marketplace for Used Furniture

Keywords: Re: Ayelet Israeli; Consumer Products

19 Oct 2022
Op-Ed

Cofounder Courtship: How to Find the Right Mate—for Your Startup

early on—rookie mistakes can set back (or kill) a business before it’s barely out of the gate. Read Khalid Halim’s thoughts on Hypergrowth and the Law of Startup Physics for more on this point. “Unless you... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

2024
Working Paper

Catalysts for Climate Solutions: Corporate Responses to Venture Capital Financing of Climate-tech Startups

By: Shirley Lu, George Serafeim and Simon Xu

We study whether incumbent firms increase their product focus on climate solutions in response to venture capital (VC) financing of climate-tech startups. Using large language models to measure a firm's focus on climate solutions, we find that incumbents in similar... View Details

Keywords: Climate Finance; Climate Change; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Environmental Sustainability; Business Startups

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April 2019 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Ripple: The Business of Crypto

By: David B. Yoffie and George Gonzalez

The case explores Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s mission to disrupt the global payments industry by leveraging the cryptocurrency XRP. Students will learn about Bitcoin and the blockchain industry, as well as Ripple’s unique crypto business model. The case provides an... View Details