Publications

07 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 7

marketplaces. Rothman had five food delivery startup options to choose from, a philosophy on how to analyze marketplace businesses, and a few weeks to make his first ever investment as a Partner at Greylock.... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2018 (Revised October 2018)
Teaching Note

Valuing Snap After the IPO Quiet Period (A), (B), and (C)

By: Marco Di Maggio and Benjamin C. Esty

Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 218-095, 218-096, and 218-116. View Details

Career Coach

Annette Rodriguez-Ferrer

Annette Rodriguez brings over 20 years of seasoned expertise in private equity, across business services, consumer services, and healthcare. She has dedicated her career to building teams and investing in and developing best-in-class... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing; Impact Investing

September 2017 (Revised January 2025)
Case

Dinesh Moorjani and Hatch Labs

By: Christopher Stanton, Shikhar Ghosh, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

This case is about Tinder. It discusses different business models and ways of structuring the initial team. With a $6 million investment from IAC/Interactive in 2010, Dinesh Moorjani founded Hatch Labs to build mobile apps. His mission was to attract entrepreneurial... View Details

Keywords: Returns; Incubator; Mobile App; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; Business Model; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Talent and Talent Management; Valuation; Equity; Finance; United States; North America

March 2022
Case

DealShare: Social E-Commerce for the Indian Mass Market

By: Krishna G. Palepu and Malini Sen

Launched in September 2018, e-retail startup DealShare has created a tech-enabled model for the Indian mass market that allows customers to buy together, save money on good quality goods, and at the same time have fun. It targets customers who are still getting used to... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Disruption; Trends; Talent and Talent Management; Customer Focus and Relationships; Value; Cost vs Benefits; Value Creation; Internet and the Web; India

08 Nov 2011
First Look

First Look: Nov. 8

and discuss how the combined effect of increased market concentration and cost synergies can be assessed efficiently. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/12-031.pdf Investment Cycles and View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

05 Dec 2023
Cold Call Podcast

What Founders Get Wrong about Sales and Marketing

Keywords: Re: Mark N. Roberge

2024
Working Paper

Priors, Experiments, Learning and Persuasion in (Bayesian) Entrepreneurial Finance

By: Ramana Nanda

At the heart of entrepreneurial finance lies a persuasion challenge: regardless of the strength of an entrepreneur’s belief in the potential of their idea, they typically need to convince investors to provide the financial capital required for its... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Business Startups; Communication Intention and Meaning; Prejudice and Bias

SSRN

Read Now

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang

Launching Technology Ventures
Launching Technology Ventures (LTV) is designed for students who are actively working on their own startups or who will work at early-stage startups. The course material is, in particular, focused on new businesses in the... View Details

03 Nov 2022
Op-Ed

Feeling Separation Anxiety at Your Startup? 5 Tips to Soothe These Growing Pains

You’re the founder of a growing startup and it seems like just yesterday that you were a team of five, sharing a co-working space with one table and five chairs. There was an open flow of communication in the room and unless someone’s... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

June 2024 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Driving Scale with Otto

By: Rebecca Karp, David Allen and Annelena Lobb

This case asks how startup founders make scaling decisions in light of their priorities for their business and for themselves. Otto was a technology company that applied artificial intelligence technology to sales. It deployed natural language processing to find sales... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Natural Language Processing; B2B; B2B Innovation; Scaling; Scaling Tech Ventures; Business Startups; AI and Machine Learning; Finance; Sales; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology Industry; United States; Cambridge; New York (city, NY); Spain

2024
Chapter

Managing, Preserving, and Unlocking Wealth through FinTech

By: Grace Headinger, Lauren Cohen and Zhaoheng Gong

In nearly every generation, a sentiment like Einstein’s has been expressed as a cautionary tale to constrain the development and application of technology. In spite of these calls, technology has time and again proven its utility and ability to improve across and upon... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Technological Innovation; Finance

Read Now

12 Nov 2024
HBS Case

Inside One Startup's Journey to Break Down Hiring (and Funding) Barriers

Launching a social justice startup takes more than a moving story. Ask Harley Blakeman, the 32-year-old founder of Honest Jobs. He has perfected his elevator pitch, but that doesn’t mean launching his business has been easy. A... View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Employment

E. Scott Mayfield

Scott Mayfield is a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration in the Finance Unit at the Harvard Business School. Prior rejoining the faculty in 2011, Professor Mayfield was an assistant professor and member of the Finance Unit at HBS from 1997 to... View Details

TeachingInterests

Strategy and Technology (Elective Curriculum)

By: David B. Yoffie

This course explores the unique aspects of creating effective management and investment strategies for technology-intensive businesses. What strategies can win in markets with strong network effects? How can firms leverage technology to build multi-sided platforms?... View Details

March 2022
Case

Metric

By: Christina Wallace, Rebecca Cink and Maria Lappas

Megan Murday, the founder of Metric, an environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) analytics startup, must decide which customer segment to target as a beachhead market. She received positive feedback from a Swiss venture capital (VC) firm, indicating their... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Marketing; Mission and Purpose; Customers

February 2024 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Taffi: Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia

By: Paul A. Gompers and Fares Khrais

Taffi was a tech-enabled fashion styling startup founded by Shahad Geoffrey in Saudi Arabia in 2020. Within three years of operating, Geoffrey had pivoted the business multiple times. In 2023, Geoffrey was attempting the business’s most ambitious pivot yet, shifting... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Fashion Industry; Technology Industry; Saudi Arabia; Arabian Peninsula