Publications

Career Coach

Pamela Harder

architect behind the Amazon HQ2 $1.1B tech talent investment program. Prior to that, Pam ran Strategy & Business Operations at Clever, a K12 edtech startup in San Francisco. Under her leadership, she... 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

May 2021
Article

Mutual Funds as Venture Capitalists? Evidence from Unicorns

By: Josh Lerner, Sergey Chernenko and Yao Zeng

The past decade saw the rise of both “founder-friendly” venture financings and non-traditional investors, frequently with liquidity constraints. Using detailed contract data, we study open-end mutual funds investing in private venture-backed firms. We posit an... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Investment; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Governance

Find at Harvard

September 2020
Case

Uber at a Crossroads (2017)

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Karen Elterman

This case describes the history of Uber, its business model—including the ways it differed from that of the traditional taxi industry—and its competition with Lyft. The case is set in 2017, a year in which Uber was plagued by even more scandals than usual, though its... View Details

11 Dec 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, December 11, 2018

followed by upward revisions in expectations of risk, suggesting that these expectations may not be rational. Harvard Business School Case 818-097 AirFox (A): Embracing the Blockchain and an ICO In summer 2017, Victor Santos, CEO of AirFox, considered whether to pivot... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

07 Dec 2015
Research & Ideas

The Rise of Personalized Entrepreneurial Finance and Other VC Trends

limit the success of these programs. Q: The news site Quartz published a chart showing the fastest-growing areas of startup investment since 2012: Bitcoin, photo sharing, storage, space travel,... View Details

Keywords: Re: Josh Lerner; Financial Services; Banking

28 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 28

mechanisms of value infusion in the institutionalization of organizations. Publisher's link: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/S0733-558X20150000044011 April 2015 Harvard Business Review The Type of Socially Responsible View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

20 Mar 2025
Blog Post

Scaling Climate Tech Innovation with Lee Scott (MBA 2023)

invested in my favorite startups and then reached out to HBS alumni at those orgs. A handful of these coffee chats turned into interviews. I ultimately decided on a Senior Associate role with Trellis... View Details

Web

HBS Working Knowledge – Harvard Business School Faculty Research

three working Americans with criminal records from the economy? In a case study, Paul Gompers explores the challenges a social justice startup encounters in helping the formerly incarcerated, as well as lessons for other entrepreneurs. 12... View Details

28 Jun 2016
First Look

June 28, 2016

capital partnership or as a business unit? How should it be governed, and how should the investment committee function? Could mechanisms be developed that ensured the expertise of Saudi Aramco's famously conservative engineering resources... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Web

Faculty & Research

senior professionals. Featured Case Intuition Robotics: An AI Companion for Older Adults By: Amit Goldenberg , Elie Ofek and Orna Dan Intuition Robotics, a startup that makes an AI companion robot to alleviate older adults’ loneliness,... View Details

March 2024
Case

Nomad: A License to Bank

By: Paul A. Gompers and Pedro Levindo

In late 2023, Lucas Vargas, CEO and co-founder of Nomad, a fintech that offered financial services in the United States for Brazilian residents, had to decide what to do to ensure the company’s continued expansion. Nomad launched its first product, a U.S. digital bank... View Details

July 2021 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Fynd

By: Ranjay Gulati, Kairavi Dey and Rachna Tahilyani

Fynd is a fast-growing venture that in 7 years since its founding has become India's largest omnichannel retail company with real-time access to over 9,000 stores' offline inventory. It started as a B2B business supporting retailers who didn’t have an online business,... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Business Model; Acquisition; Decision Making; Cost vs Benefits; Growth and Development Strategy; Web Services Industry; Technology Industry; Communications Industry; India; Mumbai

May 2016 (Revised March 2020)
Case

Fasten: Challenging Uber and Lyft with a New Business Model

By: Feng Zhu and Angela Acocella

Fasten, a new ridesharing start-up in Boston, entered the scene in September 2015 hoping its unique vision of transparency for both driver and passenger and strategy to keep riders' fares low and charge drivers a flat $0.99 fee per ride as opposed to the 20-30%... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Transportation; Business Startups; Business Model; Transportation Industry; Boston