Publications

October 2001
Case

SchoolSuccess.net

By: James E. Austin and Arthur McCaffrey

The mission of the nonprofit Jumpstart for Young Children was to address the problem of school readiness of low-income family preschoolers. It had been growing significantly, and to achieve its projected expansion would require major increases in funding. After... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Early Childhood Education; Venture Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Startups; Management Teams

Find at Harvard

Career Coach

Nate Le

Nate wanted to help students leverage their network and expertise to find the right roles that align with them in tech. He had prior work experience in Corporate Finance, Fintech and Web3 in both mature companies in the US and early-stage View Details

Web

Entrepreneurship - Faculty & Research

Background Note Raising Startup Capital By: Jeffrey Bussgang Entrepreneurs typically focus their full energies on business-building. But raising capital is a core part of building a valuable business. Developing expertise in raising... View Details

Web

Organizational Behavior - Faculty & Research

Organizational Behavior Overview Faculty Curriculum Seminars & Conferences Awards & Honors Doctoral Students 2016 Distinguished Scholar Award Organization Development & Change Division, Academy of Management By: Michael Tushman More... View Details

17 Feb 2020
Sharpening Your Skills

How Entrepreneurs Can Find the Right Problem to Solve

Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School. [Image by: iStock Photo ] Other stories by Julia Austin Making the Right Technical Hire How Scale Changes a Manager's Responsibilities Startup... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

07 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Fail—and How Their Founders Can Bounce Back

Ghosh says, if start-ups often manage to secure a good team and good financing, they face dozens of lower-cost competitors and fragmented customer demand.) Funding has the potential to turn a little failure into an enormous one. "The... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Web

Student Journey - Entrepreneurship

Management 102 Blavatnik Fellowship (Apply as EC) What competitions are available? New Venture Competition , President’s Innovation Challenge , SEAS i3 Innovation Challenge , HBS Clubs’ pitch events How do I find a job at a startup?... View Details

April 2009 (Revised December 2015)
Case

Dot.com: Online Pet Retailing

By: Tom Nicholas and David Chen

From 1995 to 1999, the U.S. experienced a period of tremendous growth in its information technology (IT) sector. The IT industry, although it accounted for less than 10% of the U.S. economy's total output, contributed disproportionately to economic growth. One market... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Price Bubble; Growth and Development Strategy; Failure; Competitive Strategy; Online Technology; Retail Industry

Career Coach

Madison Whitt

from large tech companies like SpaceX and Apple to small startups to management consulting firms. She’s excited to help with interview preparation, resume and cover letter reviews, and networking. Employment... View Details

Career Coach

Oscar Mak

Oscar is currently a Senior Director at NORD/LB, a leading bank in financing renewable energy and infrastructure projects. He previously led strategic investments (e.g., M&A, corporate VC, joint ventures) in North America for Toyota Tsusho, a diversified trading... View Details

Keywords: Startup - Joiner; Startup - Joiner; Startup - Joiner; Startup - Joiner; Startup - Joiner; Startup - Joiner; Startup - Joiner

13 May 2014
First Look

First Look: May 13

how management and corporate boards of directors can best manage investor relations with activist stockholders such as hedge funds who are demanding major changes within a corporation to improve stockholder... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

Career Coach

Vanessa Wu

Vanessa is happy to support fellow students in exploring and navigating career options in management consulting and energy & sustainability space. Vanessa started her career as a consultant at BCG after graduating with a degree in... View Details

August 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Unifying Divisions: Joro's Mission to Preserve the Planet

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Marilyn Morgan Westner

The case focuses on the initial startup team and Founders’ agreements. In March 2018, Sanchali Pal proposed renegotiating the informal founders’ agreement and equity split she and her co-founders had drafted the previous spring. They had been working together for over... View Details

Keywords: Founders' Agreements; Business Startups; Climate Change; Agreements and Arrangements; Conflict Management

January 1998 (Revised March 1998)
Case

Staples (C)

By: Myra M. Hart, Marco Iansiti and Barbara Feinberg

The search for appropriate hardware and software to support the launch of a new large-scale retail operation forces the management team to define their goals at a very detailed level and to make all underlying assumptions explicit. View Details

Keywords: Goals and Objectives; Information Infrastructure; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Management Teams; Retail Industry

Web

Faculty & Research - Business & Environment

governments are... April 2025 Teaching Material Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (A) and (B) By: Michael W. Toffel , Ken Pucker and Stacy Straaberg Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 622-024, 625-004, 625-005, and 625-702. The Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (A) case... View Details

2009
Case

The North America Environmental Fund (NAEF)

By: Roberto Charvel, Fernando Fabre and T. Putimahtama

NAEF was the first VC fund created in Latin America. It was also the first fund to focus on green technologies. The fund and its managers confronted several issues regarding the under-developed governance and cultural structures required for succesful VC investments. View Details

Keywords: Clean Tech; Emerging Market; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Energy; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Governance; Technology; Green Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; Latin America; North and Central America

02 Mar 2020
Blog Post

Know Your Audience – Recruiting HBS Students for Energy

Director Amanda Schmitt – Recruiting Relations Manager Together, Phillip and Amanda make up the Career & Professional Development team that manages relationships with recruiting partners in the energy... View Details

Keywords: Energy / Cleantech

April 2025
Teaching Note

Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (A) and (B)

By: Michael W. Toffel, Ken Pucker and Stacy Straaberg

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 622-024, 625-004, 625-005, and 625-702. The Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion (A) case introduces Allbirds as a footwear startup not only focused on simple design, comfort, and sustainable natural materials but on decarbonizing the wider... View Details

November 2000
Case

beenz.com: Building "The Web's Currency" Into a Global Business

Beenz.com, an incentive-based Web currency and customer management tool, is reassessing its business in August 2000, one year after launch. The original vision was to make the currency globally available and recognized. However, the company's rapid internationalization... View Details

Keywords: Globalized Firms and Management; Growth Management; Internet and the Web; Marketing; Business Startups