Publications

12 May 2020
Blog Post

Leaving a Career in Tech for Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship

thinking about the next step of my career. I’d learned a lot at Google while working on some of the biggest mobile apps and products in the world, getting exposure to thinking strategically, managing teams and having impact. However, I... View Details

March 2024
Case

Nomad: A License to Bank

By: Paul A. Gompers and Pedro Levindo

In late 2023, Lucas Vargas, CEO and co-founder of Nomad, a fintech that offered financial services in the United States for Brazilian residents, had to decide what to do to ensure the company’s continued expansion. Nomad launched its first product, a U.S. digital bank... View Details

Web

Your Social Entrepreneurship checklist | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

Track (for ventures that drive social change using nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid models). ( deadlines in December and February ) President’s Innovation Challenge : The President’s Innovation Challenge (PIC) is the Harvard Innovation Labs’ annual View Details

September 2003 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Direvo Biotech AG

Describes the financing and growth decisions facing Direvo, a young German biotech firm with a customer/partner that wants to become an investor. Also discusses the business model for Direvo's directed evolution technology, with applications in both industrial enzymes... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Decisions; Business Exit or Shutdown; Value; Business Startups; Biotechnology Industry; Germany

May 2022
Case

Maestro Pizza: Coming in Hot!

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Fares Khrais

Maestro Pizza opened its first store in 2013 after its founder, Khalid Al Omran, recognized an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to offer high quality pizza at affordable prices. The business grew rapidly and under the radar at first, but soon enough caught the attention of... View Details

11 Oct 2016
First Look

October 11, 2016

controlling for current performance, and that this relation is driven by the perceptions of middle management and professional staff rather than senior executives, hourly, or commissioned workers. Taken together, these results suggest... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

December 2016
Case

thredUP: Think Secondhand First

By: Thomas Eisenmann, Allison Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga

In the fall of 2016, the management team at thredUP, the largest U.S. online retailer of second hand clothing, is deciding whether to expand into international markets. Over the past 12 months the 7-year-old startup, which had raised over $130 million in venture... View Details

Keywords: Scaling Start-ups; International Expansion; Online Consignment; Apparel; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Entrepreneurship; Global Strategy; Business Startups; E-commerce; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry; San Francisco

04 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

When Founders Recruit Friends and Family as Investors

Editor's note: Seasoned entrepreneurs know that a great idea for a new company is no guarantee of a successful exit. Startups fail more often than not, largely due to hubris-fueled mistakes by an inexperienced founding team. Alas, the... View Details

Keywords: by Noam Wasserman

23 Sep 2022
Research & Ideas

8 Strategies to Sustain Business Innovation

help leaders more successfully innovate and change in their industries as they parse mixed messages about the global economy, with rampant inflation wearing on consumers and investors preparing for recession. Productive Tensions covers all stages of business, from... View Details

Keywords: by Lane Lambert

31 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: Jan. 31

avoidable ways. This article is based on the analysis of hundreds of work diaries from professionals describing everyday events that involved high-level managers in their companies. The analysis uncovered four major types of actions that... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne & Carmen Nobel

02 Aug 2022
Blog Post

From HBS to Cutting-Edge Tech

tech industry. In the immersive Startup Bootcamp program, I joined a small team to take an idea from scratch and build a minimum viable product (MVP). Courses like The Entrepreneurial Manager, Launching Tech Ventures, Founder’s Journey,... View Details

Web

Research - Race, Gender & Equity

transformation, coinciding with the rise of gender conservatism and far-right support. We study whether the economic consequences of labor market feminization and gender backlash... October 2024 Academy of Management Review Racial... View Details

18 Sep 2019
Op-Ed

WeWork—The IPO That Shouldn’t?

No IPO in recent memory has received as much negative pre-public publicity as WeWork, which provides shared workspaces and services for startups and other enterprises. The outpouring of criticism has focused on a number of items including... View Details

Keywords: by Nori Gerardo Lietz; Financial Services; Real Estate

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Online Entrepreneurship & Innovation Courses | HBS Online

30% off your second and third courses for a total savings of $1,110 . Here are three learning pathways we recommend based on your career goals and stage. Leading Corporate Innovation: For corporate innovators seeking the strategic insight, change View Details

22 Mar 2016
First Look

March 22, 2016

Wikipedia, there are aspects, such as NPOV, that the community does not always achieve successfully. Publisher's link: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50783 March 4, 2016 Harvard Business Review (website) Startups Can’t... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

April 2006 (Revised March 2007)
Case

Black Duck Software

By: Constance E. Bagley and David Lane

Black Duck Software involves a venture-backed start-up that converted software developers' concerns about violating copyright licensing agreements or open source protocols into an opportunity to help firms use technology to better manage their compliance efforts.... View Details

Keywords: Value Creation; Law; Open Source Distribution; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Copyright

Web

Nonprofit Strategy & Governance | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

innovation and have an outsized impact in a rapidly changing world. Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management Designed to strengthen the capacity of nonprofit CEOs and executive directors to lead their organizations effectively, this... View Details

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Winners & Runners-Up | New Venture Competition

Claire Zeng Business Track Runner-Up DoriVac (DNA Origami Vaccine) is a biotech startup for improving cancer treatment using a novel DNA nanoparticle platform. We develop treatments that teach patients' immune systems to recognize and... View Details

August 2009 (Revised August 2009)
Case

Intel NBI: Radio-Frequency Identification

By: Willy C. Shih and Thomas Thurston

The Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) group was a start-up that was part of Intel's New Business Initiatives. It sought initially to develop and sell a high performance Rf fast read rate module targeted at fixed position readers that might be found in loading docks... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Organizational Structure; Failure; Diversification; Integration; Semiconductor Industry