Startups - Publications - Faculty & Research

October 2015
Teaching Note

Molycorp: Financing the Production of Rare Earth Minerals (A)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

Molycorp, the western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expenditure project in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. Yet it had just reported lower... View Details

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Rem Koning is the Mary V. and Mark A. Stevens Associate Professor at Harvard Business School. He researches and teaches entrepreneurship, exploring the biases and frictions that shape how founders and markets learn. His current research explores... View Details

Keywords: high technology; software; biotechnology

May 2016
Case

Seaside Organics

By: Howard H. Stevenson and Alisa Zalosh

This case follows Sara Norton, a soccer player-turned-serial entrepreneur, as she transforms Seaside Organics from a fledgling startup into an $89 million company. Informed by the successes and failures of her first organics venture, WellBar, Norton tries to balance... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Organizational Structure; Personal Development and Career; Entrepreneurship; Personal Characteristics; Business Startups; Business Strategy; Conflict and Resolution; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

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December 2022 (Revised August 2023)
Case

Ribbit Capital and the Gauntlet Investment Opportunity

By: Shai Bernstein and Allison M. Ciechanover

Ten-year-old, Palo Alto-based Ribbit Capital is best-known for its global investments in fintech. The firm was also an early advocate of crypto and blockchain, having invested in more than two dozen startups in the space in the past decade. In the Spring of 2022,... View Details

Keywords: Alternative Assets; Cryptocurrency; Business Startups; Investment Portfolio; Decision Choices and Conditions; Negotiation Deal; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Venture Capital; Financial Services Industry; California

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August 2022
Supplement

Zalora: Data-Driven Pricing Recommendations

By: Ayelet Israeli

This exercise can be used in conjunction with the main case "Zalora: Data-Driven Pricing" to facilitate class discussion without requiring data analysis from the students. Instead, the exercise presents reports that were created by the data science team to answer the... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Pricing Algorithms; Dynamic Pricing; Ecommerce; Pricing Strategy; Pricing And Revenue Management; Apparel; Singapore; Startup; Demand Estimation; Data Analysis; Data Analytics; Exercise; Price; Internet and the Web; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; Fashion Industry; Singapore

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05 Jun 2020
Research & Ideas

How Anchor Investors Help Impact Funds Succeed

Investors come in more shapes and sizes than hats and tacos: Angel, VC, limited, corporate, banks, institutional, friends and family—these are just some of the categorizations used to describe them. Now, a recent paper explores who might be the most important investor... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

03 Jan 2022
News

Xfund Spotlight: Tom Eisenmann of Harvard Business School

26 Jan 2024
Blog Post

Access Real-World Employment Data from HBS Alumni with the Career Trends Tool

Negotiating a job offer in a new industry or function? Wondering if a change in location might impact your base salary? Joining a startup and wanting to benchmark your equity offer? Use the Career Trends tool in 12twenty, HBS’s recruiting... View Details

Martin A. Sinozich

Martin Sinozich is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in both MBA and Executive Education programs. For first-year MBAs, Martin teaches in Field Global Immersion, a required course that... View Details

2025
Working Paper

Venture Capital as Portfolios of Compound Options

By: Sebastian Hillenbrand and Erik Stafford

A defining feature of startup financing is its staged structure: in each funding round, venture capital (VC) investors have the option to continue financing or to abandon a startup. By exercising the financing option, VC investors retain the option to eventually take... View Details

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A self-described “human Venn diagram” Christina Wallace has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business... View Details

Keywords: arts; venture capital industry; consumer products; service industry; internet

October 2023
Case

Foodology: Creating a Virtual Restaurant Group in Latin America

By: Rembrand M. Koning, Jorge Tamayo and Jenyfeer Martínez Buitrago

In April 2020, Daniela Izquierdo (HBS, 2019) and Juan Guillermo Azuero (HBS, 2019), awaited the results of Harvard Business School’s Alumni New Venture Competition. Operating since September 2019, Foodology, a Colombian food-tech startup in the cloud kitchen segment,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Model; Entrepreneurship; Food and Beverage Industry; Latin America; South America; Colombia

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March 2020 (Revised November 2020)
Case

FinTech Hive at DIFC: Creating a Fintech Ecosystem in Dubai

By: Marco Di Maggio and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in 2019 as Raja Al Mazrouei, executive vice president of FinTech Hive (the Hive) at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the first and largest financial technology accelerator in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region, contemplates her... View Details

Keywords: Fintech; Emerging Markets; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Management; Information Technology; Growth Management; Financial Markets; Financial Institutions; United Arab Emirates; Middle East; Dubai

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June 2014
Teaching Note

Lit Motors

By: Thomas Eisenmann

In mid-2012 Lit Motors had created both engineering and design prototypes and conducted initial customer tests on less than $750,000 of investment. Lit Motors' founder, Daniel Kim, had started the company to design and manufacture an efficient electric 2-wheeled... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Prototyping; Electric Vehicle; Urban Vehicle; Customer Test; Gyroscope; Entrepreneurs; Development Stage Enterprises; Creativity; Disruptive Technologies; Consumer Surveys; Market Segmentation; Manufacturing Costs; Entrepreneurship; Auto Industry; United States; California

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2017
Book

Entering StartUpLand: An Essential Guide to Finding the Right Job

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang

Many professionals aspire to work for startups. Executives from large companies view them as models to help them adapt to today's dynamic innovation economy, while freshly minted MBAs see magic in founding something new. Yes, startups look magical, but they can also be... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Managerial Roles; Job Search

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December 2012 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Lit Motors

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alex Godden

In mid-2012 Lit Motors had created both engineering and design prototypes and conducted initial customer tests on less than $750,000 of investment. Lit Motors' founder, Daniel Kim, had started the company to design and manufacture an efficient electric 2-wheeled... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Prototyping; Electric Vehicle; Urban Vehicle; Customer Tests; Gyroscope; Entrepreneurs; Development Stage Enterprises; Creativity; Disruptive Technologies; Consumer Surveys; Market Segmentation; Manufacturing Costs; Entrepreneurship; Auto Industry; United States; California

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08 Apr 2021
Blog Post

HBS Entrepreneurship Immersion - Four Highlights

Since graduation, I have spent a lot of time in the entrepreneurial space! Currently, I am the CFO at Pilot.com, a $1.2Bn Series C FinTech startup backed by Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Stripe, and Bezos Expeditions. Pilot builds... View Details

August 2023
Case

Beamery: Using Skills and AI to Modernize HR

By: Boris Groysberg, Alexis Lefort, Susan Pinckney and Carolina Bartunek

Unicorn human relationships startup Beamery evaluates it's growth versus depth strategy as its strategic partners and customers could become future competitors in a quickly changing AI based human resources and talent management industry View Details

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2025
Working Paper

Antitrust Platform Regulation and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from China

By: Ke Rong, D. Daniel Sokol, Di Zhou and Feng Zhu

Many jurisdictions have launched antitrust enforcement and brought in regulation of large tech platforms. The swift and strict implementation of China’s Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for the Platform Economy (Platform Guidelines) provides a quasi-natural experiment... View Details

Keywords: Platform; Antitrust; Regulation; Entrepreneurship; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Competition; Venture Capital; Market Entry and Exit; Supply and Industry; China

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July 2019 (Revised March 2020)
Case

At-Bay Cyber Insurance

By: Marco Di Maggio and David Lane

At-Bay was a cyber insurance startup that offered companies coverage against a wide array of cyber risks—exposure to which the firm was able to quickly assess and price on the basis of technical expertise that traditional insurance carriers lacked. In mid-2019, At-Bay... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Insurance; Disruptive Innovation; Risk Management; Product Marketing; Distribution Channels; Information Technology; Salesforce Management; Insurance Industry

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