Publications

Find at Harvard

November 2000 (Revised November 2005)
Case

Tellme Networks, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Nicole Tempest

Tellme, an early-stage, venture-backed company based in Silicon Valley, leverages speech-recognition technologies to provide: 1) a "voice portal" with news and other information accessible through any telephone, and 2) turnkey application development and hosting... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Digital Platforms; Business Conglomerates; Business Startups; Internet and the Web; Venture Capital; Technology Adoption; Internet and the Web; Brands and Branding; Information Technology; Technology Industry; Technology Industry

February 2013
Case

18 Months in a Startup: Zaggora.com

By: Tom Nicholas

The founders of Zaggora reflected back on a tumultuous year-and-a-half in which they had generated, from just $40,000 in personal savings, a multi-million dollar sportswear enterprise selling Hotpants to women. These were hotpants not of the 1960s hipster variety, but... View Details

Keywords: Internet and the Web; Growth Management; Problems and Challenges; Business Startups; Brands and Branding; Innovation and Invention; Corporate Finance; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Sports Industry

01 Jun 2024
News

Quantum Leap

“This is the first new kind of computer in 75 years,” says John Levy (MBA 1979), CEO of the quantum computing startup SEEQC. “And we’re building it on a chip!” Strolling through his company’s design and testing facility in Elmsford, New... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; photographed by Chris Sorensen; quantum computing; innovation; leadership; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

07 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 7

transformation of the very nature of the innovation search process. We find intermediate disclosure has the advantage of efficiently steering development towards improving existing solution approaches, but also the effect of limiting experimentation and narrowing View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

29 Apr 2013
Working Paper Summaries

Exclusive Preferential Placement as Search Diversion: Evidence from Flight Search

Keywords: by Benjamin G. Edelman & Zhenyu Lai; Technology; Technology

27 Mar 2012
First Look

First Look: March 27

PublicationsThe Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup Authors:Noam Wasserman Publication:The Kauffman Foundation Series on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Princeton University Press, in... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

2014
Working Paper

Financing Risk and Innovation

By: Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

We provide a model of investment into new ventures that demonstrates why some places, times, and industries should be associated with a greater degree of experimentation by investors. Investors respond to financing risk―a forecast of limited future funding―by modifying... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Venture Capital; Financial Markets; Financing and Loans; Investment; Price Bubble; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Risk and Uncertainty

Read Now

07 Mar 2011
Research & Ideas

Why Companies Fail—and How Their Founders Can Bounce Back

venture to be all about the technology or all about the sales, without taking time to form a balanced plan. “In Silicon Valley, the fact that your enterprise has failed is actually a badge of honor.” And all too often, they do not give... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

Research Summary

Research

The founding and expansion of new firms is central to innovation and economic growth, but the determinants of a new idea’s success are difficult to ascertain. The decision to form a new firm and its ultimate outcome are impacted by ownership structure, financing... View Details

01 Dec 2023
News

Thinking Ahead

As we wind down 2023, there’s talk everywhere of generative AI and how it will fundamentally alter the world as we know it; but how does that translate for your corner of the business world? Is TikTok something you need to take seriously? (Is it time to dance?) We... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Illustrations by Chris Gash; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

18 Jan 2022
Research & Ideas

How Eliminating Non-Competes Could Reshape Tech

curtailing the use of such agreements. Andy Wu, an assistant professor in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School, is an entrepreneur and startup advisor who now researches how technology firms organize... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Technology

Web

2023 Reunion Presentations - Alumni

Inclusion, Diversity & Engagement, Akamai Technologies; Aliyah Torrance, Director of Talent Acquisition, Akamai Technologies This modified case discussion did not require pre-reading. + More Info – Less Info When asked to list key... View Details

August 2022
Supplement

Broadway Angels (2022)

By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

In late June of 2022, Sonja Perkins, co-founder of Broadway Angels, contemplated the group’s future. She and her co-founders, Jennifer Fonstad, and Magdalena Yesil, started the group to gather together the most successful and powerful women in venture capital and... View Details

Keywords: Gender Equity; Impact; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Social and Collaborative Networks; Entrepreneurship; Gender; Mission and Purpose; Groups and Teams; Financial Services Industry

06 Oct 2015
First Look

October 6, 2015

technology and improved digital communication have been explored in a variety of contexts, the impact on economic activity—from consumer and entrepreneurial behavior to the ways in which governments determine policy—is less well... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

August 2011 (Revised August 2013)
Case

Career at a Crossroad: Roopa Rao

By: Noam Wasserman and Lisa Brem

Akhil Patel is passionate about his business idea: an innovative green technology fuel cell. He wants to dive in and commit to his startup, but Roopa Rao, his fiancée, is much more risk averse, his parents don't approve of the startup, and Akhil has an enticing... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Business Startups; Business Growth and Maturation; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Work-Life Balance; Family and Family Relationships

Web

Skydeck - Alumni

Baskits president and CEO Robin Kovitz (MBA 2007) on the tactics and the trials of her “acquisition entrepreneurship” journey Quantum Leap Quantum computing has revolutionary potential, but it’s been stuck in the lab. John Levy (MBA 1979) thinks his View Details

May 2020 (Revised December 2022)
Case

Soofa: Displaying the Right Path?

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Amy Klopfenstein and Amram Migdal

In November 2019, Sandra Richter, co-founder and CEO of Soofa, a network of advertising-supported digital bulletin boards, must decide between two different fundraising and expansion plans for her company. One plan entails raising $15 million in a Series A round and... View Details

May 2019 (Revised September 2019)
Case

Mobike and ofo: Dancing with Titans (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Haibo Zhao

This case address pacing issues – how fast does a company need to scale? It also examines the role of investors in determining company strategy and exit.
Mobike and ofo were two dominant players in China’s emerging dockless bike-sharing market, that allowed users... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Competition; Value Creation; Governance; Economics; Business Startups; Strategy; Business Exit or Shutdown; Entrepreneurship; Infrastructure; Transportation; Bicycle Transportation; China

July 2023 (Revised July 2024)
Case

Miracle Therapeutics: Negotiating an IP License (A)

By: Satish Tadikonda, Michael Singer, William Marks and Wendi Yajnik

(General Experience Case) Beth Sharp and Jennifer Brilliant founded Miracle Therapeutics based on intellectual property developed by Brilliant and her post-doctoral student, John Supreme, in Brilliant’s lab at Elite University (EU). Miracle will have to obtain a... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Patents; Negotiation Process