Publications

March 2011
Background Note

Financing New Ventures

By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda

Aid in understanding of financing entrepreneurship. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans

01 Jun 2014
News

3-Minute Briefing: Reza Satchu (MBA 1996)

president of the bank. They wanted to run the bank. They didn't just want to write a book. They wanted to win the Pulitzer Prize. When Asif and I were working on our first business, SupplierMarket, we were funded by Sequoia, KKR, all... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

2023
Working Paper

Founder-CEO Compensation and Selection into Venture Capital-Backed Entrepreneurship

By: Michael Ewens, Ramana Nanda and Christopher Stanton

We show theoretically that a critical determinant of the attractiveness of VC-backed entrepreneurship for high-earning potential founders is the expected time to develop a startup’s initial product. This is because founder-CEOs’ cash compensation increases... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Executive Compensation

SSRN

Read Now

February 2018
Case

Mytrah Energy

By: Tarun Khanna, Ramana Nanda and Rachna Tahilyani

September 2017 (Revised October 2017)
Case

Discover Capital: Closing an Acquisition

By: Robert F. White, William A. Sahlman and Ramana Nanda

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Financing; Finance; Entrepreneurship; United States

09 Sep 2013
News

Teaching Climate Change to Skeptics

November 2011 (Revised May 2012)
Case

SecondMarket—Providing Liquidity for Shareholders of Privately Held iContact

By: William A. Sahlman, Ramana Nanda and James McQuade

In 2011, SecondMarket was an online platform that facilitated secondary transactions of illiquid assets, including private company stock. This case explores reasons for the decline in small-cap IPOs in the United States from the 1990s to the 2000s and how the emergence... View Details

Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations

September 2012 (Revised March 2013)
Case

Entrepreneurial Finance in Finland?

By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and Alexis Brownell

This case describes a new venture attempting to bring early-stage entrepreneurial financing to Finland and other Nordic countries. Entrepreneurship is taking off in Finland, an area that historically has had little venture capital or high-growth start-up activity, but... View Details

Keywords: Angels; Angel Investors; VC; Micro-VC; Accelerator; Incubator; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Business Startups; Financial Services Industry; Finland; Scandinavia; Europe

June 2010 (Revised June 2011)
Case

U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death"

By: Michael J. Roberts, Joseph B. Lassiter III and Ramana Nanda

The case focuses on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the $38 billion of stimulus funding the DOE received to encourage clean tech. They focus on "bridging the valley of death" (i.e., helping young, innovative companies finance technically risky and very capital... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Government and Politics; Innovation and Invention; Programs; Business and Government Relations; Climate Change; Energy Industry; Green Technology Industry

October 2009 (Revised June 2010)
Case

1366 Technologies

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Ramana Nanda and David Kiron

Just months after declaring their intent to become a solar cell equipment supplier, van Mierlo and Sachs were again revisiting the issue of what the company should be. Becoming a successful solar cell manufacturer would potentially be much more lucrative than becoming... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Energy Generation; Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Commercialization; Corporate Strategy; Green Technology Industry

5 Feb 2013
Conference Presentation

Financing Entrepreneurial Growth

By: Tom Alberg, Andrew A. Bogan, Harold Bradley, Robert D. Cooter, Monika Gruter Cheney, Oliver R. Goodenough, William R. Hambrecht, Frank Hatheway, Thomas F. Hellmann, Marianne Hudson, Jared Konczal, Josh Lerner, Robert E. Litan, Diane Mulcahy, Ramana Nanda, Frank Partnoy, Joe Ratterman, Nava Ravikant, Jay R. Ritter, Alicia Robb, David T. Robinson, Allison Schrager, Barry Silbert, E. R. Sirri, Daniel Stangler and Sharon Vosmek

Despite recent innovations in entrepreneurial finance, particularly at the early stage of business creation, many new and young companies continue to face hurdles to acquire capital.

The Kauffman Foundation addressed current challenges and opportunities in... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Entrepreneurial Finance; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; United States

SSRN

August 2018
Technical Note

Evaluating Start Ups

By: William A. Sahlman, Ramana Nanda and Robert F. White

A framework for assessing new business opportunities and the business plans used to describe them is developed. Useful for aspiring entrepreneurs in MBA programs. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Business Plan; Opportunities

01 Dec 1999
News

Business Ethics Fellow Honored

maintained an interest in ethics and its teaching. The Henry B. Arthur Fund for Business Ethics was established in 1987 by Arthur's daughter, Janice A. McCoy Miller (HRPBA '61), and his then son-in-law Bowen H. ("Buzz") McCoy (MBA '62).... View Details

Web

Transitions - Christensen Center for Teaching & Learning

Teaching by the Case Method Transitions Preparing to Teach Leading in the Classroom Pre-Class Arrival Diversity and Inclusion Openings Cold Calling Questioning, Listening & Responding Transitions Closings Timing Participation Engagement... View Details

Article

Seeking the Roots of Entrepreneurship: Insights from Behavioral Economics

By: Thomas Astebro, Holger Herz, Ramana Nanda and Roberto A. Weber

There is a growing body of evidence that many entrepreneurs seem to enter and persist in entrepreneurship despite earning low risk-adjusted returns. This has lead to attempts to provide explanations—using both standard economic theory and behavioral economics—for why... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics; Attitudes; Behavior