Publications

January 2002
Case

Metromove.com Business Plan

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Sheila Marcelo

Enables analysis of a business plan in a volatile market. Also enables analysis of the decisions entrepreneurs must make as they start a new business, develop the concept, choose partners, and find funding. View Details

Keywords: Business Plan; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Business or Company Management; Partners and Partnerships

October 2000 (Revised November 2000)
Case

New Economy Ethics: YouKnowIt.com

By: Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. and Kim Slack

Entrepreneur Janice Schwartz is hoping to grow her start-up company by creating a technical advisory board and compensating members with discounted company stock. Schwartz is considering six candidates that can help her online education company in a variety of ways: as... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Crime and Corruption; Customers; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Governing and Advisory Boards; Media; Networks; Internet

Career Coach

Irtaza Ali

Irtaza started his career in investment banking at Credit Suisse New York, after completing undergrad at Wharton. At Credit Suisse he covered industrials and aerospace & defense companies. He then returned home to Pakistan to join Next View Details

11 May 2016
News

World Bank Vice President and Treasurer: Negative Rates Not the Answer

Bank in September 2015, previously serving a five-year term as director-general of Nigeria’s Security and Exchange Commission from 2011 to 2015. An alumni profile of her during that stint details her transformative efforts at the Commission: Oteh's bold decisions have... View Details

28 Aug 2014
Op-Ed

Government Can Do More to Unfreeze Small Business Credit

(Editor's note: This is the third in a series of articles based on a Harvard Business School working paper by Karen Mills that analyzes the current state of availability of bank capital for small business.) Access to credit is critical to... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills; Banking

10 May 2004
Research & Ideas

Rethink the Value of Joint Ventures

mobilizing capital and tax planning globally and this can come at the expense of the local partner. Imagine the conflicting objectives in trying to put a price on a component purchased by the joint venture from a related party of the... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

01 Oct 2020
What Do You Think?

Are CEOs the Wrong Leaders for Stakeholder Capitalism?

has enough leverage to practice it. Boards of directors play an important role in championing the cause of stakeholders of all kinds. DF in AZ put it this way: “If a company promises a fundamental shift towards shareholder capitalism but... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

27 Jul 2022
News

Alumna-Led Reproductive Health Startup Raises $4.7 Million

Victoria Thain Gioia (MBA 2015) Photo courtesy Perelel A recent article in Forbes reports that reproductive health startup Perelel, cofounded by Victoria Thain Gioia (MBA 2015), has raised a $4.7 million seed round led by Unilever Ventures. The business was borne of... View Details

28 Oct 2015
News

Paddle8 Collects $34 Million

Keywords: Arts, Entertainment

Shirish Nimgaonkar

successful exits. Shirish was also a Managing Director at a global investment bank, where he advised several leading high growth technology companies across US, Europe and Asia on this growth strategy, mergers and acquisitions, capital... View Details

March 2021 (Revised May 2021)
Supplement

Blue Meridian Partners (B): Pivoting in a Crisis

By: V. Kasturi Rangan

The (B) case situated in 2020 describes the many quick decisions taken by the fund in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the calls for social justice, and raises the question of whether and how these decisions are aligned with the long range strategy of the fund. View Details

Keywords: Venture Philanthropy; COVID-19; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Venture Capital; Social Issues; Health Pandemics; Decisions; Strategy

October 2011
Case

Gene Sequencing: Staking a Position in an Expanding Industry

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Mara Aspinall and Phillip Andrews

Towards the end of 2010, companies in the gene sequencing industry were pushing aggressive R&D programs to develop technologies and products in the race to sequence the entire human genome at a cost of $1,000. It remained to be seen when the "$1,000 genome" would... View Details

Keywords: Genetics; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Plan; Competition; Venture Capital; Biotechnology Industry

Find at Harvard

February 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

The International Finance Corporation's Grassroots Business Initiative

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Katharine Lee

Grassroots Business Initiative was set up to financially assist small enterprises engaged in creating social value. Three years later, Harold Rosen, its creator, wished to explore an alternative funding model to provide it with scale and sustainability. View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Microfinance; Investment Funds; Social Enterprise

Find at Harvard

March 2013 (Revised July 2014)
Case

Bay Partners (A)

By: Josh Lerner and Lauren Barley

In April 2010, Salil Deshpande has recently resigned from Palo Alto, California-based Bay Partners (Bay) where he had been a general partner. Although Deshpande had built a successful track record at the venture firm, he resigned with two other Bay general partners as... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Risk Management; Venture Capital; Conflict Management; Partners and Partnerships; Resignation and Termination; Policy; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry; California

February 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Endeca Technologies (A)

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

Steve Papa, CEO of Endeca Technologies, must decide among two term sheets raising the same amount of badly needed money for his young software company. One deal is led by insiders and, is offered at a lower price. It continues a board that has worked very well and... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Cost vs Benefits; Financial Condition; Financing and Loans; Management Skills; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Decision Choices and Conditions; Information Technology Industry

18 Jan 2012
News

Charter Supporter

Burke: A need to close the income gap. After her graduation from HBS, few people could accuse Mary Burke (MBA 1985) of having led a dull life. As reported in the Madison, Wisconsin Capital Times (October 5, 2011), Burke first worked for... View Details

Keywords: Arts, Sports, Language, Driving, and Other Schools; Educational Services

October 2011 (Revised November 2011)
Case

Verengo Solar Plus!

By: William A. Sahlman, Joseph B. Lassiter III and Liz Kind

In the three years since Bishop and Button purchased Verengo in a leveraged buyout (LBO), the company had gone through dramatic changes. Initially a residential windows and insulation firm, after the economic recession of 2008 the company switched gears and began... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Private Equity; Growth Management; Restructuring; Renewable Energy; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Finance; Product Development; Energy Industry; California

November 2004 (Revised April 2005)
Case

Deutsche Bank: Discussing the Equity Risk Premium

Two members of Deutsche Bank's Fixed Income Research Group are discussing how to advise clients on bond vs. equity asset allocation. A critical aspect to this asset allocation decision is the equity risk premium. Discusses a unique way developed by the bank for... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Asset Management; Bonds; Capital Markets; Investment Banking; Institutional Investing; Equity; Banking Industry; Germany

July 2000 (Revised November 2001)
Case

Catalyst Medical Solutions

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Richard M.J. Bohmer and Naomi Atkins

Faced with a drop in the NASDAQ, four eHealth entrepreneurs must decide between two distribution strategies for their new company's technology. The team, comprised of three full-time resident physicians and an MBA, has developed software to enable electronic... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Health Care and Treatment; Distribution; Strategy; Venture Capital; Applications and Software; Partners and Partnerships; Borrowing and Debt; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry