Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(339)
- Faculty Publications (100)
- March 2013
- Case
An Entrepreneur's New Product Development Journey
By: Elie Ofek
This case tracks the new product development process undertaken by Gauri Nanda, the founder and CEO of Nanda Home, as she ventures to innovate beyond her initial product launches. Having achieved commercial success with her first product Clocky, a roll away alarm clock... View Details
- 5 Feb 2013
- Conference Presentation
Financing Entrepreneurial Growth
By: Tom Alberg, Andrew A. Bogan, Harold Bradley, Robert D. Cooter, Monika Gruter Cheney, Oliver R. Goodenough, William R. Hambrecht, Frank Hatheway, Thomas F. Hellmann, Marianne Hudson, Jared Konczal, Josh Lerner, Robert E. Litan, Diane Mulcahy, Ramana Nanda, Frank Partnoy, Joe Ratterman, Nava Ravikant, Jay R. Ritter, Alicia Robb, David T. Robinson, Allison Schrager, Barry Silbert, E. R. Sirri, Daniel Stangler and Sharon Vosmek
Despite recent innovations in entrepreneurial finance, particularly at the early stage of business creation, many new and young companies continue to face hurdles to acquire capital.
The Kauffman Foundation addressed current challenges and opportunities in... View Details
- January 2013
- Teaching Note
INNOVA-MEX's Bid for ENKONTROL (TN)
By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda
In their second year, two Mexican HBS MBAs joined forces to start a search fund based in Mexico City. They had raised money to acquire an existing private company in Mexico with an initial enterprise value between $5 million and $15 million. Just seven months after... View Details
- September 2012 (Revised September 2016)
- Background Note
Convertible Notes in Seed Financings
By: Ramana Nanda, William R. Kerr and Robert F. White
This note introduces convertible notes in angel financing. It begins by delineating the differences between a priced and non-priced round. It then describes a specific example of a convertible note, with attention paid to technical details regarding valuation caps. View Details
- September 2012 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
Entrepreneurial Finance in Finland?
By: William R. Kerr, Ramana Nanda and Alexis Brownell
This case describes a new venture attempting to bring early-stage entrepreneurial financing to Finland and other Nordic countries. Entrepreneurship is taking off in Finland, an area that historically has had little venture capital or high-growth start-up activity, but... View Details
- June 2012 (Revised March 2015)
- Teaching Note
PunchTab, Inc.
By: Ramana Nanda and William R. Kerr
A Teaching Note for the PunchTab case, which discusses how high-tech startups structure seed financing, merits of angels vs. super angels vs. VCs, and related topics (e.g., convertible notes, priced versus non-priced financing rounds, entrepreneurial finance networks). View Details
- June 2012 (Revised June 2012)
- Case
PunchTab, Inc. Investor Presentation Deck
By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda
This case examines the PowerPoint presentation that Ranjith Kumaran, founder of the start-up PunchTab, Inc., is using for his investment pitches to venture capital firms. Students can discuss the materials that Kumaran has included, his presentation style, and what... View Details
- 2013
- Working Paper
Did Bank Distress Stifle Innovation During the Great Depression?
By: Ramana Nanda and Tom Nicholas
We find a negative relationship between bank distress and the level, quality and trajectory of firm-level innovation during the Great Depression, particularly for R&D firms operating in capital intensive industries. However, we also show that because a sufficient... View Details
- November 2011 (Revised May 2012)
- Case
SecondMarket—Providing Liquidity for Shareholders of Privately Held iContact
By: William A. Sahlman, Ramana Nanda and James McQuade
In 2011, SecondMarket was an online platform that facilitated secondary transactions of illiquid assets, including private company stock. This case explores reasons for the decline in small-cap IPOs in the United States from the 1990s to the 2000s and how the emergence... View Details
Keywords: Business and Shareholder Relations
- May 2011 (Revised March 2013)
- Background Note
Location Choice for New Ventures: Cities
By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda
Location choice is a critical decision for entrepreneurs. This note explores how entrepreneurs should think about different city options through a systematic framework that encompasses professional and personal issues. We use the intellectual frameworks of the cluster... View Details
- March 2011
- Background Note
Financing New Ventures
By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda
Aid in understanding of financing entrepreneurship. View Details
- March 2011 (Revised April 2018)
- Case
1366 Technologies: Scaling the Venture
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Ramana Nanda, David Kiron and Evan Richardson
For some time, 1366's co-founders, Frank van Mierlo and Ely Sachs, had faced a choice, which was now made all the more stark: 1366 could expand to produce silicon wafers itself, raising the required capital from "friendly" investors and building shipment volume slowly,... View Details
- 2011
- Chapter
Financing Constraints and Entrepreneurship
By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda
Financing constraints are one of the biggest concerns impacting potential entrepreneurs around the world. Given the important role that entrepreneurship is believed to play in the process of economic growth, alleviating financing constraints for would-be entrepreneurs... View Details
- Article
Diasporas and Domestic Entrepreneurs: Evidence from the Indian Software Industry
By: Ramana Nanda and Tarun Khanna
This study explores the importance of cross-border social networks for entrepreneurs in developing countries by examining ties between the Indian expatriate community and local entrepreneurs in India's software industry. We find that local entrepreneurs who have... View Details
- 2010
- Working Paper
Venture Capital Investment in the Clean Energy Sector
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Ramana Nanda
We examine the extent to which venture capital is adequately positioned for the rapid commercialization of clean energy technologies in the United States. While there are several startups in clean energy that are well-suited to the traditional venture capital... View Details
- July 2010 (Revised March 2015)
- Teaching Note
1366 Technologies
By: Ramana Nanda and Joseph B. Lassiter III
Teaching Note for 810005. View Details
- June 2010 (Revised June 2011)
- Case
U.S. Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the "Valley of Death"
By: Michael J. Roberts, Joseph B. Lassiter III and Ramana Nanda
The case focuses on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the $38 billion of stimulus funding the DOE received to encourage clean tech. They focus on "bridging the valley of death" (i.e., helping young, innovative companies finance technically risky and very capital... View Details
- April – May 2010
- Article
Banking Deregulations, Financing Constraints and Firm Entry Size
By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda
We examine the effect of US branch banking deregulations on the entry size of new firms using micro-data from the US Census Bureau. We find that the average entry size for startups did not change following the deregulations. However, among firms that survived at least... View Details
- October 2009 (Revised June 2010)
- Case
1366 Technologies
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Ramana Nanda and David Kiron
Just months after declaring their intent to become a solar cell equipment supplier, van Mierlo and Sachs were again revisiting the issue of what the company should be. Becoming a successful solar cell manufacturer would potentially be much more lucrative than becoming... View Details
- October 2009
- Article
Democratizing Entry: Banking Deregulations, Financing Constraints, and Entrepreneurship
By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda
We examine entrepreneurship and creative destruction following US banking deregulations using Census Bureau data. US banking reforms brought about exceptional growth in both entrepreneurship and business closures. Most of the closures, however, were the new ventures... View Details