Publications

1999
Chapter

Aspects of Financial Contracting in Venture Capital

Keywords: Venture Capital; Contracts

1999
Chapter

How Small Companies Should Handle Advisers

Keywords: Business Ventures; Power and Influence

1999
Chapter

Some Thoughts on Business Plans

Keywords: Business Plan

1999
Chapter

The Financial Perspective: What Should Entrepreneurs Know?

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Corporate Finance

1999
Chapter

The Horse Race Between Capital and Opportunity

Keywords: Capital; Opportunities

1999
Chapter

Why Sane People Shouldn't Serve on Public Boards

Keywords: Governing and Advisory Boards

1999
Book

The Entrepreneurial Venture

By: William A. Sahlman, Howard H. Stevenson, Michael J Roberts and Amar V. Bhide

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Ventures

1999
Simulation

Launching a High-Risk Business CD

By: William A. Sahlman and Michael J. Roberts

Keywords: Business Startups; Risk and Uncertainty

December 1998 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Knot, The

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Matthew C. Lieb

An online wedding resource company is seeking an equity investment to grow the business. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Venture Capital; Value Creation; Internet and the Web; Finance; Expansion; Strategic Planning; Service Industry; Consulting Industry

October 1998
Case

Conduit Communications

By: William A. Sahlman and Jon Biotti

Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; United Kingdom

October 1998 (Revised August 1999)
Case

Amazon.com--Going Public

By: William A. Sahlman and Laurence E. Katz

Amazon.com, an early pioneer in electronic commerce, prepares its initial public offering in the face of turbulent market conditions. Joy Covey, Amazon.com's CFO and the case protagonist, discusses the risks and opportunities of going public and the nature of... View Details

Keywords: Going Public; Risk and Uncertainty; Business Model; Financial Strategy; Business Strategy; Initial Public Offering; Electronics Industry; Retail Industry

October 1998 (Revised May 2001)
Case

Preview Travel (A)

By: William A. Sahlman, Nicole Tempest, Daniel H Case III and Robert Keller

Preview Travel was a leader in the online travel industry, having generated $80 million in bookings in 1997 and growing at a 34% compound annual growth rate per quarter. This case describes the evolution of Preview Travel's business plan and financing strategy and... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Business Model; Initial Public Offering; Valuation; Internet and the Web; Business Plan; Capital; Financial Strategy; Travel Industry; United States

October 1998 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Preview Travel (B)

By: William A. Sahlman and Nicole Tempest

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Business Model; Initial Public Offering; Internet and the Web; Business Plan; Capital; Financial Strategy; Travel Industry; United States

August 1998
Case

HIMSCORP, Inc.

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Laurence E. Katz

Himscorp is an industry consolidation of records storage companies providing management and retrieval services of active medical records to healthcare institutions. Kent Dauten, a former general partner at Madison Dearborn Partners with 15 years of venture capital and... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Initial Public Offering; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Growth and Maturation; Decision Choices and Conditions; Consolidation; Information Industry

August 1998
Case

Record Masters

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Laurence E. Katz

Kent Dauten, a former general partner at the Chicago private equity firm of Madison Dearborn Partners, has engaged in a search to personally sponsor a buyout in which he can play an active management role. He has received a selling memorandum for Record Masters, a... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Leveraged Buyouts; Valuation; Negotiation Deal; Investment

March 1998 (Revised December 2005)
Case

Beta Golf

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael J. Roberts and Laurence E. Katz

The Beta Group is a technology incubator in Menlo Park, CA that has successfully built a portfolio of businesses in the medical, consumer products, and industrial technology sectors by systematically matching proprietary technologies to unmet market needs. Beta has... View Details

Keywords: Business Strategy; Investment; Financial Strategy; Information Technology; Commercialization