Publications
Publications
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(3,182)
- Faculty Publications (1,223)
- January 2018
- Case
Environmental Technology Fund Partners and E-Leather
By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Aldo Sesia
It is 2014 and Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF) Partners, a UK-based venture capital firm, has an opportunity to invest in a privately held UK company that manufactured engineered composition leather extracted from waste leather using an environmentally friendly... View Details
- January 2018 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
ZappRx
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull
In October 2015, ZappRx founder Zoe Barry is deciding between two business models for her health technology start-up. Her product, a software application that aims to expedite the prescription fulfillment process for patients with rare diseases, has attracted interest... View Details
- January 2018 (Revised January 2020)
- Case
STRIVR: Changing the Game in Virtual Reality
By: Rajiv Lal, Matt Denison, Robert Higgins and Scott Johnson
The CEO of a growing virtual reality company that trains athletes must decide whether or not to stay in sports or expand into other areas. View Details
Keywords: Virtual Reality; Strivr; Internet Of Things; Football; Retail; Training; Startup; Start-up; Start-up Growth; ＂Sports Organizations,; Experiential Marketing; Business Startups; Technological Innovation; Sports; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Digital Platforms; Technology Adoption; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States
- November 2017 (Revised September 2020)
- Supplement
Miami's Tech Future (B): Building the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
In 2017, Miami was rated #1 among U.S. cities for startups, but about 40th for “scale-ups” – growth companies. This case shows how leaders of incubators and accelerators supported startups and a culture of entrepreneurship, but also describes some factors limiting... View Details
- November 2017 (Revised September 2020)
- Supplement
Miami's Tech Future (C): Reaching Another Miami
The effects of Miami’s startup scene have not reached many “left-behind” lower-income Black communities, which are disproportionately affected by problems such as segregation and racial discrimination, lack of transportation access, crime, education quality, government... View Details
Keywords: Technology; Change; Transformation; Progress; Scaling; Startup; Community Engagement; Community Impact; Community Relations; Future; Income Inequality; Business; Change Management; Business Startups; Information Technology; Diversity; Race; Equality and Inequality; Social Issues; Business and Community Relations; Miami; Florida
- 2017
- Report
The American Angel: The First In-Depth Report on the Demographics and Investing Activity of Individual American Angel Investors
By: Laura Huang, Andy Wu, Min Ju Lee, Jiayi Bao, Marianne Hudson and Elaine Bolle
Early-stage financing from angel investors is critical to the success of high-growth startups. Recent estimates suggest that annual US angel investment activity may total as much as $24 billion each year, contributing to the growth and success of more than 64,000... View Details
- Article
The IT Transformation Health Care Needs
By: Nikhil R. Sahni, Robert S. Huckman, Anuraag Chigurupati and David M. Cutler
In recent years, health care organizations have made sizable investments in information technology. They’ve used their IT systems to replace paper records with electronic ones and to improve billing processes, thereby boosting revenue. But so far, IT has been of little... View Details
- October 2017 (Revised April 2024)
- Case
Snap Inc. Goes Public (A)
By: Lynn Sharp Paine and Will Hurwitz
Snap Inc.’s chairman must decide how to address investor concerns about the company’s unprecedented plans to issue only non-voting shares in its upcoming IPO. The case is set in early 2017 following the public availability of Snap’s IPO filing with the U.S. Securities... View Details
Keywords: Ethics; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Business and Shareholder Relations; Leadership; Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Venture Capital; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; California
- October 2017
- Supplement
Snap Inc. Goes Public (B)
By: Lynn Sharp Paine and Will Hurwitz
Supplements the (A) case.
Snap Inc.’s chairman must decide how to address investor concerns about the company’s unprecedented plans to issue only non-voting shares in its upcoming IPO. View Details
Snap Inc.’s chairman must decide how to address investor concerns about the company’s unprecedented plans to issue only non-voting shares in its upcoming IPO. View Details
Keywords: Ethics; Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Governing and Advisory Boards; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Business and Shareholder Relations; Leadership; Management; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Venture Capital; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States; California
- September 2017 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
Public Entrepreneurs? Picking a Path
By: Mitchell Weiss and Matthew Segneri
Direct entry into government remained an uncommon post-HBS path, with only 1%–2% of recent classes going directly into the public sector. But, for public-minded MBAs, government wasn’t the sole province for public problem-solving. MBAs could join or launch companies... View Details
Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Careers; Tri-sector Athlete; Job Searching; Government Innovation; Govtech; CivicTech; Civic Technology; Civic Innovation; Government Technology; MBA Class Of 2017; Social Enterprise; Social Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Government Administration; Job Search; Jobs and Positions; Innovation Leadership; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; United States
- September 2017 (Revised March 2023)
- Case
Careem: Raising a Unicorn
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Alpana Thapar
This case follows two ex-McKinsey consultants, Magnus Olsson and Mudassir Sheikha, who in search of their true purpose decide to found Careem, a Dubai-based ride-hailing service. Following its launch in July 2012, Careem experiences rapid growth of 30% per month in the... View Details
- September 2017 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
Dinesh Moorjani and Hatch Labs
By: Christopher Stanton, Shikhar Ghosh, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga
This case is about Tinder. It discusses different business models and ways of structuring the initial team. With a $6 million investment from IAC/Interactive in 2010, Dinesh Moorjani founded Hatch Labs to build mobile apps. His mission was to attract entrepreneurial... View Details
- September 2017 (Revised March 2018)
- Case
Chai Point: Disrupting Chai
By: Shikhar Ghosh, Ramana Nanda and Rachna Tahilyani
Chai Point is India’s largest organized chai retailer. It has missed its target for retail store openings by approximately 25%, goals that are very important to its investors who are also board members. However, it has developed an exciting new internet-based tea... View Details
Keywords: Strategy; Venture Capital; Stock; Business Model; Mobile Technology; Technological Innovation; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Food; Selection and Staffing; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Resignation and Termination; Compensation and Benefits; Resource Allocation; Product Positioning; Distribution Channels; Product Design; Supply Chain; Governing and Advisory Boards; Food and Beverage Industry; Retail Industry; Asia; India; Karnataka; Bangalore
- 2017
- Chapter
Venture Capital Data: Opportunities and Challenges
By: Steven N. Kaplan and Josh Lerner
This paper describes the available data and research on venture capital investments and performance. We comment on the challenges inherent in those data and research as well as possible opportunities to do better. View Details
- August 2017 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
Busbud: Building a Data Company
By: Srikant M. Datar, Alistair Croll and Caitlin N. Bowler
The case features the work of LP Maurice (HBS '08) as he decides to take on the fragmented bus travel industry and launch an online business that aggregates and shares bus schedules for routes around the world. His first challenge: finding that the data he needs is... View Details
- July 2017 (Revised November 2017)
- Case
Propel
By: Mitchell Weiss and Sarah McAra
In 2014, Jimmy Chen, a former product manager at Facebook, founded the start-up Propel to build software for low-income Americans. After conducting in-depth behavioral research, Chen and his small team in New York City began to develop technology to address the... View Details
Keywords: Public Entrepreneurship; Govtech; Food Stamps; EBT; Mobile App; User Research; Financial Services Referrals; Grocery Marketing; Customer Discovery; Social Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Business Model; Research; Social Enterprise; Poverty; Welfare; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; United States
- July 2017 (Revised July 2018)
- Case
Upwork: Creating the Human Cloud
By: Dylan Minor and David Yoffie
Stephane Kasriel, the new CEO of Upwork, the leading platform for freelance labor, needs to decide on how to redesign its business model. While the firm has been growing rapidly since the merger of Odesk and eLance, the newly combined firm continues to face problems of... View Details
- 2017
- Article
New Venture Milestones and the First Female Board Member
By: Alicia DeSantola, Lakshmi Ramarajan and Julie Battilana
We explore the antecedents of the addition of the first woman to the boards of directors of entrepreneurial ventures. Building on research on resource dependency, we propose that new ventures are most likely to add the first woman to their boards at three developmental... View Details
- June 2017
- Case
AT&T Versus Verizon: A Financial Comparison
By: V.G. Narayanan and Joel L. Heilprin
This case asks students to prepare a report comparing the financial and operating performance of AT&T and Verizon. Taking the perspective of a communications industry analyst, they must also consider the differences between and implications of the companies' business... View Details
- June 2017 (Revised October 2017)
- Case
Uber in 2017: One Bumpy Ride
By: Suraj Srinivasan, Jay W. Lorsch and Quinn Pitcher
Uber Technologies Inc., the popular ride-hailing company, entered 2017 having doubled its bookings in 2016 and achieving a valuation of nearly $70 billion, making it the largest venture capital-backed company in the world. Co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick embodied... View Details