Publications

March 2020
Case

Thingtesting: Launching a Brand Discovery and Testing Digital Community

By: Ayelet Israeli and Jill Avery

Thingtesting, a brand discovery and testing digital community devoted to uncovering and exploring direct-to-consumer brands, had just received seed funding and was contemplating a second year of growth. The new year brought many challenges, as founder Jenny Gyllander... View Details

2012
Case

Robert Whelan and the Student Loan Crisis (A)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Olivia Leskinen

Robert Whelan and the Student Loan Crisis (A) 2009 AL Fellow Bob Whelan developed an idea with partners that was a seed before his fellowship year and seemed to address a significant national challenge - college financing - with a creative concept and experience from... View Details

Martin Sinozich is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in both MBA and Executive Education programs. For first-year MBAs, Martin teaches in Field Global Immersion, a required course that... View Details

February 2014 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Go Beyond Investing

By: Lynda Applegate, Vincent Dessain, Emilie Billaud and Daniela Beyersdorfer

In 2013, Brigitte Baumann, founder of the Pan-European angel investing provider Go Beyond Investing, reflected on the evolution of her venture and the way forward. Her company, which offered deal flow and training to novice and experienced angel investors and ran... View Details

Keywords: Equity; Investment; Business or Company Management; Growth Management; Leadership; Financial Services Industry; Europe; Switzerland

21 Feb 2005
Research & Ideas

The VC Quandary: Too Much Money

School. Intel Capital, the chipmaker's venture division, has scaled back somewhat from the hyper investment levels of 2000, "but I've always thought it was really important in the View Details

Keywords: by Julie Jette; Financial Services

16 Nov 2021
Blog Post

How HBS Supported My Career Transitions During and After Graduation

would entail. I also learned about E-Commerce with Professor Israeli and about Managing Tech Ventures with Professor Bussgang. I sharpened my Negotiating skills with Professor Wasynczuk and dove into Clayton... View Details

Career Coach

Joe Blair

Joe Blair is Co-Founder & General Partner at Bay Bridge Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage climate technology startups. Joe has spent the last 15 years of his career building and investing in the climate... View Details

January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Brigad: The Future of Work

By: Nien-he Hsieh, Elena Corsi and Daniela Beyersdorfer

In 2019 Florent Malbranche, CEO and co-founder of the French tech startup Brigad, pondered the next growth steps. Founded in 2015, Brigad’s objective was two-fold: to help restaurants and bars find qualified staff for punctual shifts, and to make it easier for... View Details

Keywords: Platform Business; Gig Economy; Regulation; Entrepreneurship; Marketplace Matching; Growth and Development Strategy

Leverage AI to be a 10x Founder

Today’s most successful founders know that the startups that learn the fastest will win. In The Experimentation Machine, HBS professor, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist Jeffrey J. Bussgang reveals... View Details

25 Feb 2025
Blog Post

Making a Broader Impact with Multiple Disciplines: Santosh Iyer (MBA 2020)

Santosh Iyer (MBA 2020) is originally from Toronto, Canada, where he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Engineering Science and Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto. Today, he serves as a Venture Partner at... View Details

May 2017 (Revised September 2018)
Supplement

Hilti Fleet Management (B): Towards a New Business Model

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Oliver Gassmann and Roman Sauer

The (B) case tackles the implementation and scaling process of fleet management over the years. Finally, the case explores current challenges facing the BMI. View Details

November 2024 (Revised July 2025)
Case

Polish Agro: Where Do We Grow From Here?

By: Willy C. Shih, Lena Duchene and Daniela Beyersdorfer

By July 2024, Polish Agro had grown into one of Poland’s fastest-growing agribusinesses, with €230 million in revenue, 82 employees, and operations across Northern Poland. The company supported farmers with essential agricultural inputs like fertilizers and seeds,... View Details

2022
Working Paper

The Routledge Handbook of Digital Consumption, Chapter 41: The Internet’s Effects on Consumption: Useful, Harmful, Playful

By: John A. Deighton and Leora Kornfeld

This chapter considers how digital culture has changed over the past decade, as the internet has grown its scope and user base. Billions around the world connect daily to an ever-expanding set of applications. A framework for thinking about digital effects is offered:... View Details

Keywords: Digital Culture; Internet and the Web; Consumer Behavior; Society

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October 2019 (Revised August 2020)
Case

The Predictive Index

By: Lynda M. Applegate and James Weber

Mike Zani and Daniel Muzquiz needed to decide next steps to create a new category in the human resources consulting industry and scale their company.
Zani and Muzquiz, serial entrepreneurs, acquired Predictive Index in 2014. Previously, as clients of the... View Details

Keywords: Human Resources; Selection and Staffing; Talent and Talent Management; Recruitment; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Change Management; Disruptive Innovation; Digital Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy; Consulting Industry; Service Industry; United States

January 2025
Case

Untapped Global: Financing Africa's Missing Middle

By: Raymond Kluender and Emanuele Colonnelli

In November 2024, Jim Chu, founder and CEO of Untapped Global, faced mounting internal tensions over the company’s strategic direction. Untapped had developed a data-driven revenue-based financing (RBF) model to address the “missing middle” problem—the $5.2 trillion... View Details