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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(3,286)
- People (4)
- News (1,042)
- Research (1,629)
- Events (8)
- Multimedia (22)
- Faculty Publications (1,337)
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- May 2024 (Revised March 2025)
- Case
MStudio and Djoli: Accelerating Startup Growth in Francophone Africa
By: Paul A. Gompers, Pippa Tubman Armerding and Temitayo Lawal
Djoli, a procurement platform, was one of the startups launched and supported by MStudio, a startup studio in Côte d'Ivoire, in 2023. After a year of operations, Djoli must look beyond MStudio, which had supported them financially and in kind in exchange for equity,... View Details
Keywords: Business Startups; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Distribution Industry; Technology Industry; Africa; Côte d'Ivoire
Gompers, Paul A., Pippa Tubman Armerding, and Temitayo Lawal. "MStudio and Djoli: Accelerating Startup Growth in Francophone Africa." Harvard Business School Case 824-183, May 2024. (Revised March 2025.)
- 10 May 2017
- Research & Ideas
Amazon Web Services Changed the Way VCs Fund Startups
More entrepreneurs are receiving initial funding from VCs thanks to technologies such as the cloud. Source: PeopleImages As cloud technologies allow startups to build companies faster and cheaper than ever before, venture capitalists are... View Details
- May 13, 2021
- Article
Why Today's Startups Pursue Both Ideas and Ideals
By: Ranjay Gulati
Startups typically operate with the mentality that growth and profit come first, higher calling comes second. This strategy, however, is misguided. Increasingly, entrepreneurs are imbuing their ventures with a grand ideal in addition to a great idea. This ideal not... View Details
Gulati, Ranjay. "Why Today's Startups Pursue Both Ideas and Ideals." Harvard Business Review (website) (May 13, 2021).
- March 2016 (Revised April 2017)
- Teaching Note
Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility (A): Introducing a New Model
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen
This note is for the purpose of aiding classroom instructors in the use of the Harvard Business School case "Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility: Introducing a New Model." Instructors may use it to help students understand the challenges that come with disrupting... View Details
Keywords: Startup; Startup Management; Big Data; Smart Transit; Stakeholder Engagement; Stakeholder Management; Urban Vehicle; Mobility; Mass Transit; Uber; Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Analytics and Data Science; Entrepreneurship; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Business Startups; Transportation; Business and Government Relations; Transportation Industry; United States
- 2025
- Working Paper
With a Little Help from My Family: Informal Startup Financing
By: Brian K. Baik, Johan Ludvig S. Karlsen and Katja Kisseleva
Using Norwegian administrative data, we identify family equity investments in startups
and examine their effects on investor returns and firm behavior. Informal investors
earn lower returns than external individuals, and the firms they back are less
likely to secure... View Details
Keywords: Early Stage Finance; Informal Investment; Household Finance; Risk Taking; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Personal Finance; Family and Family Relationships; Business Startups; Investment; Norway
Baik, Brian K., Johan Ludvig S. Karlsen, and Katja Kisseleva. "With a Little Help from My Family: Informal Startup Financing." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-053, April 2025.
- May 2014
- Article
Making 'Freemium' Work: Many Start-ups Fail to Recognize the Challenges of This Popular Business Model
By: Vineet Kumar
The article discusses the "freemium" business model, which is used by some Internet businesses and smartphone application developers to give users free basic features of a digital product and access to premium functionality for a subscription fee. The discussion topics... View Details
Kumar, Vineet. "Making 'Freemium' Work: Many Start-ups Fail to Recognize the Challenges of This Popular Business Model." Harvard Business Review 92, no. 5 (May 2014): 27–29.
- August 2015 (Revised June 2016)
- Supplement
Dinr: My First Start-up (B)
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Kristina Maslauskaite
Keywords: Business Exit; Business Startup; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Food
Ghosh, Shikhar, and Kristina Maslauskaite. "Dinr: My First Start-up (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 816-025, August 2015. (Revised June 2016.)
- 2020
- Working Paper
Digital Experimentation and Startup Performance: Evidence from A/B Testing
By: Rembrand Koning, Sharique Hasan and Aaron Chatterji
Recent work argues that experimentation is the appropriate framework for entrepreneurial strategy. We investigate this proposition by exploiting the time-varying adoption of A/B testing technology, which has drastically reduced the cost of experimentally testing... View Details
Keywords: Experimentation; A/B Testing; Data-driven Decision-making; Entrepreneurship; Strategy; Business Startups; Information Technology; Performance
Koning, Rembrand, Sharique Hasan, and Aaron Chatterji. "Digital Experimentation and Startup Performance: Evidence from A/B Testing." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-018, August 2019. (Revised September 2020. SSRN Working Paper Series, No. 3440291, August 2019)
- August 2015 (Revised February 2017)
- Case
Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility (A): Developing a New Model
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Daniel Fox
Bridj, a Boston startup that provides Big Data-powered, "pop-up" bus routes that respond to transportation demand, has been in operation for a little over a year and has recently launched service in Washington, D.C., its second market. Despite media acclaim and... View Details
Keywords: Startup; Startup Management; Big Data; Smart Transit; Stakeholder Engagement; Stakeholder Management; Urban Vehicle; Mobility; Mass Transit; Uber; Government Relations; Technological Innovation; Analytics and Data Science; Entrepreneurship; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Transportation; Business Startups; Management; Business and Government Relations; Transportation Industry; Boston; District of Columbia
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, and Daniel Fox. "Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility (A): Developing a New Model." Harvard Business School Case 316-025, August 2015. (Revised February 2017.)
- 24 Jun 2015
- HBS Case
Upgrading School with a Startup Mentality
It used to be that you risked detention for disrupting an elementary school classroom. Nowadays, disrupting the entire school system can earn you millions of dollars in startup funding. Consider AltSchool, the idea of entrepreneur Max... View Details
- 25 Aug 2022
- Research & Ideas
It’s All in a Name: Reputable Investors Help Startups Shine
a new study coauthored by Harvard Business School Professor Shai Bernstein. “Attracting high-quality talent is an important challenge for any young firm, and it’s critical to establishing reputation and growth.” “One of the key challenges... View Details
Keywords: by Rachel Layne
- 13 Jun 2012
- HBS Case
HBS Cases: A Startup Takes On the Credit Ratings Giants
including several instances where the highest rated securities (AAA) defaulted. The resulting financial meltdown pushed the US and the rest of the world economy into recession. In the recent case "Kroll Bond Rating Agency," Bo Becker, an assistant professor... View Details
- June 30, 2023
- Article
How to Save a Stumbling Startup
By: Ranjay Gulati
Keywords: Business Startups; Small Business; Outcome or Result; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Exit or Shutdown
Gulati, Ranjay. "How to Save a Stumbling Startup." Inc.com (June 30, 2023).
- 2022
- Interview
Prime Venture Partners Podcast: #104 Tarun Khanna, Professor, Harvard Business School, on Creating the Conditions to Create, The Value Of Trust & The Power of Diversity
By: Tarun Khanna and Shripati Acharya
Tarun Khanna, Professor at the Harvard Business School chats with Shripati Acharya, Managing Partner Prime Venture Partners regarding: Creating the Conditions to Create, State of Entrepreneurship: India vs China, The Value of Trust in Entrepreneurship, Working with... View Details
"Prime Venture Partners Podcast: #104 Tarun Khanna, Professor, Harvard Business School, on Creating the Conditions to Create, The Value Of Trust & The Power of Diversity." Prime Venture Partners Podcast, Prime Venture Partners, 2022.
- October 2002 (Revised December 2003)
- Case
Collabrys, Inc. (A)-The Evolution of a Startup
By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Brian DeLacey
The CEO of a two-year-old start-up must now decide whether to become a technology provider or a service agency. In a time of enormous uncertainty about the viability of various business models for Internet-delivered services and products, Collabrys has survived the... View Details
Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Internet and the Web; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Technological Innovation; Cost vs Benefits; Partners and Partnerships; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Corporate Finance; United States
Leonard, Dorothy A., and Brian DeLacey. "Collabrys, Inc. (A)-The Evolution of a Startup." Harvard Business School Case 603-064, October 2002. (Revised December 2003.)
- February 2025
- Case
Hyperscaling Dreams: Ualá's Path from Startup to Fintech Champion
By: Juan Alcácer and Manuel Franck
Ualá, a fintech startup founded in Argentina in 2017 by Pierpaolo Barbieri, aimed to increase financial inclusion in Latin America through a digital platform linked to a prepaid card. After rapid success in Argentina, it expanded into Mexico and Colombia, acquiring... View Details
Keywords: Banks and Banking; Leadership; Venture Capital; Talent and Talent Management; Strategy; Credit; Business Startups; Profit; Growth and Development Strategy; Banking Industry; Argentina; Mexico; Colombia; Latin America
Alcácer, Juan, and Manuel Franck. "Hyperscaling Dreams: Ualá's Path from Startup to Fintech Champion." Harvard Business School Case 725-408, February 2025.
- 11 Dec 2020
- Research & Ideas
Economic Jitters Push Pandemic Job Seekers to Big Companies, Not Startups
The coronavirus pandemic is spurring job applicants to seek positions at big companies and avoid startups in what new research calls an economic “flight to safety.” Job applicants using AngelList Talent, the largest online recruitment... View Details
Keywords: by Rachel Layne
- May 2020 (Revised July 2020)
- Case
Justice-as-a-Service at RightNow
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Amir Reza Rezvani
The case examines the focus of an early stage company, and how an unexpected external incidence can threaten or void the business model. It encompasses issues such as minimal viable product, defining and pivoting a business model, organizational requirements for a... View Details
Keywords: Legacy Business; Teams; Startup; Business Models; Pivot; Entrepreneurship; Law; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Business Model; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategy; Legal Services Industry; Germany
Ghosh, Shikhar, and Amir Reza Rezvani. "Justice-as-a-Service at RightNow." Harvard Business School Case 820-117, May 2020. (Revised July 2020.)
- December 1999 (Revised May 2002)
- Case
CNBC (A): NBC and Its Startup Friends
NBC expands further on to the Internet with CNBC.com. NBC's Internet strategy, supported by corporate parent General Electric, involves numerous investments as well as new ventures like CNBC.com. Soon after CNBC.com is launched in 1999, NBC brings in a new CEO, Pamela... View Details
Keywords: Business Startups; Change Management; Management Teams; Corporate Strategy; Leadership Development; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Media; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Telecommunications Industry
Kanter, Rosabeth M. "CNBC (A): NBC and Its Startup Friends." Harvard Business School Case 300-090, December 1999. (Revised May 2002.)
- February 2024 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
AGENTS.inc: Pathways to Growth at an AI Startup
By: Frank Nagle, Manuel Hoffmann, Karoline Ströhlein and Susan Pinckney
The case describes the history of AGENTS.inc. Despite being a small startup, with only four employees, that had never had a funding round, the company boasted an impressive client portfolio including multiple Fortune 500 companies. While AGENTS.inc had been an early... View Details
Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Business Model; Business Startups; Small Business; Transformation; Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Financial Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Digital Platforms; Technological Innovation; Copyright; Management; Growth and Development; Market Timing; Ownership; Risk and Uncertainty; Competition; Open Source Distribution; Entrepreneurial Finance; Computer Industry; Europe; Germany
Nagle, Frank, Manuel Hoffmann, Karoline Ströhlein, and Susan Pinckney. "AGENTS.inc: Pathways to Growth at an AI Startup." Harvard Business School Case 724-444, February 2024. (Revised January 2025.)