Publications

27 Sep 2016
First Look

September 27, 2016

forthcoming Measuring Entrepreneurial Businesses: Current Knowledge and Challenges Venture Capital Data: Opportunities and Challenges By: Kaplan, Steven N., and Josh Lerner Abstract—This paper describes the available data and research on... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2004 (Revised April 2014)
Case

Stan Lapidus: Profile of a Medical Entrepreneur

By: Robert F. Higgins and Sophie LaMontagne

Describes the career path and insights of Stanley Lapidus, a successful serial entrepreneur in the medical and life sciences industry. Lapidus is the founder of Cytyc Corp. (NASDAQ: CYTC) and EXACT Sciences (NASDAQ: EXAS) and is currently the CEO of his third start-up,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Experience and Expertise; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Managerial Roles; Health Industry

14 Apr 2018
News

Would you pay $18.75 for ad-free Facebook?

September 2020
Case

Drinkworks: Home Bar by Keurig

By: Sunil Gupta, Jonathan Levav and Julia Kelley

In the summer of 2018, Drinkworks CEO Nathaniel Davis needed to make a number of go-to-market decisions ahead of his company’s upcoming product launch. Formed through a joint venture between Keurig Dr. Pepper and Anheuser-Busch InBev, Drinkworks had developed an... View Details

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

September 2010 (Revised November 2010)
Case

Ze-gen: Commercializing Clean Tech

By: Lynda M. Applegate, Kaitlyn Lyons and Scott Prozeller

The Ze-gen case covers the first five years in the life of a clean-tech start-up. Ze-gen had developed an innovative technology that converted solid waste into synthesis gas (called syngas). This technology was in testing at the company's pilot plant, built next to the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Renewable Energy; Entrepreneurship; Financing and Loans; Environmental Sustainability; Commercialization; Green Technology Industry; New Bedford

Aticus Peterson (apeterson@hbs.edu) is a PhD candidate in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on how entrepreneurs and investors can... View Details

April 2018
Teaching Note

Formlabs: Selling a New 3D Printer

By: Frank Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-001. Formlabs is a venture that manufactures and sells 3D printers used in a variety of industries and applications. As the young company prepares to ship its latest model, the head of Customer Development is tasked with developing a... View Details

2023
Working Paper

LALIGA—From a Soccer Competition Organizer to a Global Player in the Sports and Entertainment Industry

By: Stephen A. Greyser, Kenneth Cortsen and Juan Fuentes Fernández

LALIGA, the first- and second-tier professional soccer league (known as “football” outside of the U.S. and Canada) in Spain, enters its 100th soccer season later this decade. The most popular game in the world (Giulianotti, 2012) has gone through many changes since... View Details

Keywords: Soccer; ＂Sports Organizations,; Business History; Strategy; Brands and Branding; Technology Adoption; Sports Industry

Read Now

January 2000 (Revised April 2000)
Case

AsiaMail.com: What's in a Name?

By: Myra M. Hart and Sharon Peyus

Three founders of an international Internet company (e-mail-based marketing) struggle with naming the company. As they prepare to invest more than $10 million of first-round venture funding in advertising and marketing, they search for a name that will have power and... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Venture Capital; Brands and Branding; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Advertising; Marketing; Information Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Asia

Find at Harvard

August 2019 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital–backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management; Technology Industry

06 Sep 2022
Blog Post

To Go-Go: A Foodtech Startup Serves Up Scale in Latin America

For all their variety, restaurants have two things in common: a kitchen where food is prepared and a dining area where customers consume it. But what if you could use technology to ditch the dining area and just keep the kitchen, trimming... View Details

October 2007 (Revised April 2009)
Case

TH!NK: The Norwegian Electric Car Company

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and David Kiron

On August 1, 2007, 61-year-old Jan-Olaf Willums' plane was flying along the Greenland coastline on his way back to Norway after intense discussions with several prominent U.S. venture capital investors, among them Kleiner Perkins and Rockport Capital Partners, about... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Innovation and Invention; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Environmental Sustainability; Pollutants; Green Technology Industry; Green Technology Industry; Europe; Norway

Profile

Sheila Marcelo

at an Internet technology company and using the yellow pages to try to figure out how to find care for my family.” That contradiction was not lost on the budding entrepreneur. Marcelo’s family emergency shed light on a market need that... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Technology; Technology

May 2004 (Revised June 2004)
Case

Sarvega

By: Paul A. Gompers and Vanessa del Valle Broussard

David Cowan, general partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, has taken the lead on Sarvega, a Bessemer-backed company that was recently orphaned by the departure of one of Bessemer's other general partners. Cowan must decide whether to reinvest in Sarvega and, if so,... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Venture Capital; Investment; Governance Compliance; Resignation and Termination; Negotiation Deal; Partners and Partnerships; Information Technology Industry

Find at Harvard

November 2014
Teaching Note

Claritas Genomics

By: Robert F. Higgins and Matthew G. Preble

Dr. Patrice Milos is the first CEO of Claritas Genomics (Claritas) and she faces a number of challenges in scaling the young company. Claritas was formed around a lab spun out from Boston Children's Hospital (BCH) which had performed genomic tests for the hospital. Now... View Details

Keywords: Healthcare; Healthcare Startups; Genetic Testing; Genetics Diagnostics; Spinning Out Hospital Services; Spin-out; Health Care and Treatment; Genetics; Entrepreneurship; Biotechnology Industry; Health Industry; United States

December 2008 (Revised April 2010)
Case

Proteus Biomedical: Making Pigs Fly

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Lauren Barley and Ginger Graham

Proteus is a healthcare start-up that has developed technology to embed electronics for computing and sensing in existing medical devices and drugs. The technology could potentially change the basis of competition in the pharmaceutical industry. The company is... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Technological Innovation; Rights; Negotiation Deal; Business Strategy; Health Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry