Publications

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Forthcoming
Article

Networking Frictions in Venture Capital, and the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship

By: Sabrina T. Howell and Ramana Nanda

We find that male participants in Harvard Business School’s New Venture Competition who were randomly exposed to more VC investors on their panel were substantially more likely to start a VC-backed startup post-graduation, indicating that access to investors impacts... View Details

Keywords: Networks; Information Frictions; Venture Capital; Gender; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship

March 1986 (Revised December 1986)
Case

British Telecommunications, PLC

Presents a description of international equity markets, including comparisons of the U.S., Japanese, and British markets and recent trends toward deregulation of these markets. The decision focus of the case is on the initial public offerings of British... View Details

Keywords: International Finance; Initial Public Offering; Capital Markets; Canada; London; Tokyo

December 2012 (Revised May 2014)
Case

Hotel Ivory

By: Arthur I Segel, Nicolas P. Retsinas and Jonathan Lo

Cheick Sanankoua is an MBA student who believes that he has found the perfect investment property, a small, independently owned hotel, on the Ivory Coast. However, he has had trouble raising money for the investment beyond friends and family. Through contacts in the... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Emergent Countries; Investing; Entrepreneurial Finance; Debts; Cash Flow; Quantitative Analysis; Financing; Development Stage Enterprises; Small ＆ Medium-sized Enterprises; Africa; Ivory Coast; Venture Capital; Emerging Markets; Property; Investment; Accommodations Industry; Real Estate Industry; Africa

September 2000 (Revised March 2001)
Background Note

Note on Corporate Venture Capital, A

By: Josh Lerner

Provides an overview of corporate venture investment. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Business Startups; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Financial Services Industry

17 Sep 2018
News

Female Founders Index

April 2019
Technical Note

A Note on Boards in VC-Backed Ventures

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Ramana Nanda, Suraj Srinivasan and Terrence Shu

What is the value of a Board, and why does a company need one? The note documents the formal role of a Board of Directors as going beyond simply acting as legal representation of corporate ownership. Moreover, this role changes as the company moves through different... View Details

Keywords: Founders; Business Startup; Board; Board Of Directors; Business Startups; Governing and Advisory Boards; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship

01 Jun 2003
News

Rock Gift to Support Entrepreneurial Studies

those efforts both now and for the future.” Over the years, Rock, considered a founding father of the venture capital industry, helped form numerous start–ups that went on to become 20th–century success stories, including Intel, Teledyne,... View Details

Keywords: Jeffrey L. Cruikshank; Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools; Educational Services

March 1989 (Revised February 1998)
Teaching Note

Marriott Corp.: The Cost of Capital, Teaching Note

By: Richard S. Ruback

Teaching Note for (9-298-101). View Details

Keywords: Cost of Capital; Accommodations Industry

2022
Working Paper

Do Startups Benefit from Their Investors' Reputation? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

By: Shai Benjamin Bernstein, Kunal Mehta, Richard Townsend and Ting Xu

We analyze a field experiment conducted on AngelList Talent, a large online search platform for startup jobs. In the experiment, AngelList randomly informed job seekers of whether a startup was funded by a top-tier investor and/or was funded recently. We find that the... View Details

Keywords: Startup Labor Market; Investors; Randomized Field Experiment; Certification Effect; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Human Capital; Job Search; Reputation

SSRN

Read Now

May 1999
Teaching Note

Car Wash Partners, Inc. TN

By: Paul A. Gompers

Teaching Note for (9-299-034). View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Investment; Strategy; Negotiation Deal; Venture Capital; Service Industry

August 2012
Teaching Note

Messer Griesheim (A) (Abridged) and (B) (TN)

By: Josh Lerner and Eva Lutz

Teaching Note for 813-018 and 809-057 View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Venture Capital; Energy; Family Ownership; Energy Industry; Europe

December 2004 (Revised January 2006)
Case

Simon's Hostile Tender for Taubman (A)

Simon Property Group launched a hostile tender offer for upscale Taubman Centers. This case discusses issues of Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) valuation, financial policy, and corporate governance, as Robert Taubman and his company's independent directors must... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Valuation; Investment; Acquisition; Corporate Governance; Real Estate Industry

April 2004
Case

Case Vignette: The Salesman Saga

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

A venture capitalist faces a situation in which a struggling portfolio company has found a promising vice president of sales through a recruitment agency. The candidate would be an excellent fit for another one of the investor's companies--one that is doing much... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Corporate Governance; Venture Capital; Ethics; Recruitment

September 1998 (Revised November 1998)
Case

Walnut Venture Associates (D): RBS Deal Terms

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Business Plan; Research; Software; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry

March 1998 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Xedia and Silicon Valley Bank (A)

By: Paul A. Gompers and Jon Biotti

Xedia, a networking equipment manufacturer that helps provide high-speed Internet service for corporate clients through access routing, wants a bridge loan to fund daily operations until it raises its next round of equity financing. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Equity; Financing and Loans; Negotiation; Production; Internet; Banking Industry

September 2023
Supplement

Accelerating with Caution: Forecasting and Managing birddogs’ Growth (B)

By: Mark Egan

As 2017 was drawing to a close, birddogs’ founder and CEO, Peter Baldwin, was working with his CFO Jack Sullivan to prepare for 2018. Their task at hand? To predict the demand for their product in the coming season, determine the appropriate investments in working... View Details

Keywords: Working Capital; Forecasting and Prediction; Expansion; Production; Apparel and Accessories Industry