Publications

November 2013
Case

Canyon-Agassi Investing in Charter Schools

By: Nicolas P. Retsinas, Nicole Shomair, Vernon Beckford and Lisa Strope

After an unusual round of doubles in May 2011, real estate investor Bobby Turner, Managing Partner, Canyon-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund (CACSFF) and Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Canyon Capital Realty Advisors, found himself at a loss for words. Turner was... View Details

Keywords: Charter Schools; Real Estate; Fund Raising; Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Real Estate Industry; United States

01 Sep 2023
Blog Post

Harvard Business School Announces 2023 Goldsmith Fellows

scaling to one of the world’s largest youth-led environmental nonprofits, with projects in 62 countries and over 7,000 volunteers. In 2021, he co-founded Nostos Homes, building innovative homes for forcibly displaced people, and delivered... View Details

Web

Career Re-Entry & Flexible Work - Alumni

companies that facilitate project-based and/or flexible-work opportunities. iRelaunch Co-founded in 2007 by Carol Fishman Cohen (MBA 1985), iRelaunch is a full service career reentry company, providing programming, training, conferences,... View Details

June 2022 (Revised January 2023)
Case

Buurtzorg

By: Ethan Bernstein, Tatiana Sandino, Joost Minnaar and Annelena Lobb

As co-founders of home nursing company Buurtzorg, Jos de Blok and Gonnie Kronenberg prized both self-management and organizational learning. Buurtzorg’s 10,000 nurses across 950 neighborhood nursing teams in the Netherlands were empowered to manage themselves, both in... View Details

12 Aug 2019
Research & Ideas

How Scale Changes a Manager's Responsibilities

entrepreneurs and co-founders of Drift hired their lead people-person as one of their first five hires; they learned from past mistakes! Bonus tip: Every early-stage CEO/founder I know is shocked to realize the power they wield. Even if... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

16 Jul 2020
Research & Ideas

Restaurant Revolution: How the Industry Is Fighting to Stay Alive

trying to imagine ways to get up to my pre-COVID fulltime equivalency. None of it seems to work.” After receiving a PPP loan, “it wasn’t a relief to get the money. It is a really bad catch-22,” said Annie Shi, co-founder of King in New... View Details

Keywords: by Michael S. Kaufman, Lena G. Goldberg, and Jill Avery; Food & Beverage

Web

Judges - Alumni

Building a Team, Co-Founder Dynamics, Company Culture, Customer Acquisition, Fundraising Strategies, Go-to-Market Strategy, Pitch Feedback, Scaling, Brand Building, Board Roles Advice #1 - Keep the pitch tight. Avoid confusing details or... View Details

March 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Amperity: First-Party Data at a Crossroads

By: Elie Ofek, Hema Yoganarasimhan and Alexis Lefort

In the summer of 2023, Amperity management was facing a critical decision on its future direction. Given the dramatic changes occurring within the digital advertising ecosystem, as concerns over consumer privacy placed limits on the ability to engage in third-party... View Details

Keywords: AI and Machine Learning; Technology Adoption; Business Strategy; Digital Marketing; Price; Product; Business or Company Management; Advertising Industry

Web

Climate Impact - Business & Environment

Alumni Climate Impact Alumni Climate Impact Alumni Founders: How is Your Company Accelerating Climate Solutions? Eric Adamson MBA 2013 | Co-Founder & CEO, Tortuga AgTech “At Tortuga AgTech, we’re building AI-driven robotics to enable... View Details

Web

Curriculum - Business & Environment

the reduced carbon footprint. The Entrepreneurial Manager Ofo Key concepts: Infrastructure, Bicycles, Transportation, Ride Share Dai Wei and his co-founders grew Beijing-based ofo from a school-based startup to a bike-share behemoth in a... View Details

August 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

eBee: Affordable Mobility for Africa

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Gamze Yucaoglu

The case opens in March 2023, as Sten van der Ham and Jaap Maljers, CEO and co-founder of eBee, an electric bike (e-bike) company in Africa, are contemplating the different avenues for growth and path to profitability for the young and ambitious company. In 2023, the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Bicycle Industry; Africa; Kenya

February 2022 (Revised July 2022)
Supplement

InstaDeep: AI Innovation Born in Africa (B)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Esel Çekin

Karim Beguir and Zohra Slim were the co-founders of InstaDeep, a deep tech startup focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Instadeep was one of the few companies globally that were partnering with DeepMind, an AI subsidiary of Google [Alphabet Inc.].... View Details

Keywords: AI; Artificial Intelligence; Entrepreneurship; Operations; Business Subsidiaries; Brands and Branding; Innovation and Invention; Growth and Development Strategy; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Industry; Africa

January 2020
Case

Celata Bioinnovations

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In December 2019, Jon Hu (HBS ‘19) and Dr. Samantha Dale Strasser, co-founders of Celata Bioinnovations, were raising $1 million to launch their company. They had founded Celata less than six months earlier with the aim of redefining the drug discovery process.... View Details

Blog

Recent Insights from HBS Podcasts

cons of approaches companies can take to decarbonize electricity. Reimagining Financial Advice for the Modern World In this episode of The Disruptive Voice, Anders Jones, co-founder of Facet, offers a great example of disruption in... View Details

September 2023 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Kaspi.kz: Building Trust through Innovation

By: Sandra J. Sucher, Fares Khrais and Marilyn Morgan Westner

This case is written to help students explore how companies can maintain and develop trust while innovating, how to identify and respond effectively to warning signs that they may not be as trusted as they believe, and how being trusted can aid in expanding and growing... View Details

Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Trust; Technology Adoption; Innovation and Invention; Banking Industry

09 Mar 2023
Blog Post

African American Student Union Spotlight on Joint Degrees

start a company after receiving funding from the South Park Commons Founder Fellowship, a program designed to support entrepreneurs at the pre-idea stage. Alongside two former colleagues, I co-founded an on-campus rewards platform for... View Details

August 2021
Case

Andreessen Horowitz’s Cultural Leadership Fund (A)

By: Anita Elberse, Briana Richardson and Cydni Williams

In May 2020, Chris Lyons, a partner at leading venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz receives the news that his company has reached a verbal agreement with one of Silicon Valley’s hottest social-media startups to lead its ‘Series A’ funding round, in a deal that... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Talent Management; General Management; Inclusion; Talent and Talent Management; Diversity; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Networks; Nonprofit Organizations

July 2019 (Revised April 2021)
Case

Salary Finance

By: John R. Wells and Benjamin Weinstock

In April 2019, Asesh Sarkar, co-founder and chief executive of Salary Finance Limited, a London-based FinTech, faced tough choices. Sarkar had founded Salary Finance with Dan Cobley and Daniel Shakhani in 2015. The company’s value proposition was quite simple: partner... View Details

Keywords: Credit; Financing and Loans; Wages; Innovation and Invention; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Culture; Decision Choices and Conditions; Financial Services Industry