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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(3,592)
- People (5)
- News (1,119)
- Research (1,499)
- Events (12)
- Multimedia (136)
- Faculty Publications (1,014)
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- October 2022 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
Founders First Capital Partners: An Approach to Capital Access Equity
By: Brian Trelstad, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein
In June 2021, Kim T. Folsom, the founder and CEO of revenue-based financing firm Founders First Capital Partners (FFCP), must decide whether to issue another loan to OnShore Technology Group, an up-and-coming software validation company. FFCP provided revenue-based... View Details
Keywords: Finance; Financial Instruments; Financing and Loans; Interest Rates; Investment Return; Revenue; Capital; Financial Services Industry; North and Central America; United States
Trelstad, Brian, Mel Martin, and Amy Klopfenstein. "Founders First Capital Partners: An Approach to Capital Access Equity." Harvard Business School Case 323-013, October 2022. (Revised January 2025.)
- 2012
- Working Paper
The First Deal: The Division of Founder Equity in New Ventures
By: Thomas F. Hellmann and Noam Wasserman
This paper examines the division of founder shares in entrepreneurial ventures, focusing on the decision of whether or not to divide the shares equally among all founders. To motivate the empirical analysis we develop a simple theory of costly bargaining, where... View Details
Hellmann, Thomas F., and Noam Wasserman. "The First Deal: The Division of Founder Equity in New Ventures." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 14-085, March 2014.
- 23 Dec 2014
- Research & Ideas
The Founder of Modern Venture Capital
Georges F. Doriot, an educator and a founder of the modern venture capital industry, is the subject of a new exhibition and website at Harvard Business School, where he spent 40 years. The charismatic professor taught business and... View Details
- 05 Dec 2023
- Cold Call Podcast
What Founders Get Wrong about Sales and Marketing
Keywords: Re: Mark N. Roberge
- 2011
- Working Paper
The First Deal: The Division of Founder Equity in New Ventures
By: Thomas F. Hellmann and Noam Wasserman
This paper examines the division of founder shares in entrepreneurial ventures, focusing on the decision of whether or not to divide the shares equally among all founders. To motivate the empirical analysis we develop a simple theory of costly bargaining, where... View Details
Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Fairness; Equity; Managerial Roles; Negotiation Deal; Ownership Stake; Value
Hellmann, Thomas F., and Noam Wasserman. "The First Deal: The Division of Founder Equity in New Ventures." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 16922, April 2011.
- 29 Nov 2006
- Research & Ideas
Rich or Royal: What Do Founders Want?
the profit motive. However, early in my case writing, I began running into several decisions that founders were making that seemed to conflict with the profit motive. For instance, founders I was studying... View Details
- 04 Apr 2012
- Research & Ideas
When Founders Recruit Friends and Family as Investors
the book has received rave reviews. Publisher's Weekly called it a "seminal work on the startup phase of the entrepreneurial venture captivating," and Dharmesh Shah at OnStartups.com called it "the definitive book on the topic." ("If you are a... View Details
Keywords: by Noam Wasserman
- 07 Mar 2011
- Research & Ideas
Why Companies Fail—and How Their Founders Can Bounce Back
then falling short of meeting it, then the failure rate is a whopping 90 to 95 percent. "Very few companies achieve their initial projections," says Ghosh. "Failure is the norm." Why Start-ups Fail Start-ups often fail because View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel
- 2025
- Book
The Experimentation Machine: Finding Product–Market Fit in the Age of AI
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, I reveal how AI is transforming the way startups find product-market fit and scale.... View Details
Today’s most successful founders know that the startups that learn the fastest will win. In The Experimentation Machine, I reveal how AI is transforming the way startups find product-market fit and scale.... View Details
Keywords: AI; Founder; Startup; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Market Entry and Exit
Bussgang, Jeffrey J. The Experimentation Machine: Finding Product–Market Fit in the Age of AI. Damn Gravity Media, 2025.
- 01 Jun 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
The First Deal: The Division of Founder Equity in New Ventures
Keywords: by Thomas F. Hellmann & Noam Wasserman
- August 2017
- Article
The First Deal: The Division of Founder Equity in New Ventures
By: Thomas F. Hellmann and Noam Wasserman
We examine the trade-off between efficiency and equality within the context of entrepreneurial founding teams. Using a formal theory where founders may have preferences over relative outcomes, we derive predictions about the antecedents and consequences of dividing... View Details
Hellmann, Thomas F., and Noam Wasserman. "The First Deal: The Division of Founder Equity in New Ventures." Management Science 63, no. 8 (August 2017): 2647–2666.
- 2022
- Working Paper
Failing Just Fine: Assessing Careers of Venture Capital-backed Entrepreneurs via a Non-wage Measure
By: Natee Amornsiripanitch, Paul Gompers, George Hu, Will Levinson and Vladimir Mukharlyamov
This paper proposes a non-pecuniary measure of career achievement, Seniority. Based on a database of over 5 million resumes, this metric exploits the variation in job titles and how long they take to attain. When non-monetary factors influence career choice, inference... View Details
Keywords: Career Outcomes; Founders; Personal Development and Career; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship
Amornsiripanitch, Natee, Paul Gompers, George Hu, Will Levinson, and Vladimir Mukharlyamov. "Failing Just Fine: Assessing Careers of Venture Capital-backed Entrepreneurs via a Non-wage Measure." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 30179, June 2022.
- August 2019 (Revised October 2019)
- Teaching Note
BulkWhiz: Negotiating as a Startup Founder in the UAE
By: Katherine B. Coffman and Christine Exley
Teaching Note for HBS No. 919-004. View Details
- March 2025 (Revised May 2025)
- Case
Xfund and Sam Altman: Finding Harvard's Best Generative AI Founders
By: Suraj Srinivasan
On May 1, 2024, Xfund Managing Partners Patrick Chung and Brandon Farwell, hosted a high-stakes venture pitch session designed to select one startup for a minimum $100,000 investment. This “Xperiment Stake” competition, dedicated to startups in the Generative AI... View Details
Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Venture Capital; Innovation Leadership; Technological Innovation; Business Startups; Competition; Technology Industry; United States
Srinivasan, Suraj. "Xfund and Sam Altman: Finding Harvard's Best Generative AI Founders." Harvard Business School Case 125-090, March 2025. (Revised May 2025.)
- September 2019
- Supplement
BulkWhiz: Negotiating as a Startup Founder in the UAE
By: Katherine B. Coffman and Christine Exley
Coffman, Katherine B., and Christine Exley. "BulkWhiz: Negotiating as a Startup Founder in the UAE." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Supplement 920-701, September 2019.
- October 2018 (Revised July 2019)
- Case
BulkWhiz: Negotiating as a Startup Founder in the UAE
By: Katherine Coffman, Christine Exley and Alpana Thapar
This case follows Amira Rashad as she founds BulkWhiz, a Dubai-based buy-in-bulk grocery delivery platform. Following its launch in September 2017, BulkWhiz experiences rapid growth of 30 percent per month in the United Arab Emirates. Despite this initial success,... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Start-ups; Startup; Female Entrepreneur; Technology; Decision-making; Negotiations; Co-founders; Fundraising; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Management; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Making; Negotiation; Expansion; E-commerce; Middle East; United Arab Emirates
Coffman, Katherine, Christine Exley, and Alpana Thapar. "BulkWhiz: Negotiating as a Startup Founder in the UAE." Harvard Business School Case 919-004, October 2018. (Revised July 2019.)
- October 2011
- Supplement
Jack Hughes, Founder and Chairman of TopCoder, In-class comments 4/8/11
By: David A. Garvin
TopCoder's crowdsourcing-based business model, in which software is developed through online tournaments, is presented. The case highlights how TopCoder has created a unique two-sided innovation platform consisting of a global community of over 225,000 developers who... View Details
Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development; Technological Innovation; Problems and Challenges; Motivation and Incentives; Competition; Online Technology; Information Technology Industry
Garvin, David A. "Jack Hughes, Founder and Chairman of TopCoder, In-class comments 4/8/11." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 312-709, October 2011.
- 2021
- Working Paper
Venture Capital's 'Me Too' Moment
By: Sophie Calder-Wang, Paul A. Gompers and Patrick Sweeney
In this paper, we document the historically low rate of hiring of women in the venture capital sector. We find that the high-profile Ellen Pao v. Kleiner Perkins gender discrimination trial had dramatic treatment effects. In difference-in-differences regressions, we... View Details
Keywords: Gender Discrimination; Founders; Venture Capital; Selection and Staffing; Gender; Lawsuits and Litigation
Calder-Wang, Sophie, Paul A. Gompers, and Patrick Sweeney. "Venture Capital's 'Me Too' Moment." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 28679, April 2021.
- October 2011
- Supplement
An Interview with Jack Hughes, Founder and Chairman of TopCoder
By: David A. Garvin
TopCoder's crowdsourcing-based business model, in which software is developed through online tournaments, is presented. The case highlights how TopCoder has created a unique two-sided innovation platform consisting of a global community of over 225,0000 developers who... View Details
Keywords: Growth and Development; Technological Innovation; Problems and Challenges; Motivation and Incentives; Competition; Online Technology; Information Technology Industry
Garvin, David A. "An Interview with Jack Hughes, Founder and Chairman of TopCoder." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 312-708, October 2011.
- 26 May 2020
- Cold Call Podcast