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- June 2007 (Revised March 2008)
- Case
Zoots - Financing Growth (A)
By: Michael J. Roberts, William A. Sahlman and Todd Krasnow
Traces the genesis and founding of Zoots, the largest chain of dry cleaning establishments in the U.S. Founded by some of the founders of the very successful Staples chain, the company raises a very large amount of capital without fully proving its business model, and... View Details
- March 2007 (Revised March 2009)
- Case
Cherrypicks
By: William R. Kerr
Cherrypicks is a Hong Kong communications start-up approaching a large Korean mobile operator for a partnership to take the operator's products to markets outside of Korea. SK Telecom's (SKT) Ring Back Tones (RBT) product is a spectacular success in South Korea, but... View Details
- January 2007 (Revised May 2008)
- Case
Henry Luce and the American Century
By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo and Logan Wilcox
Henry Luce, founder of the publishing company which produced Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, created the largest media company in the world by the mid-20th century. Luce's flagship magazine, Time, was able to gross over $20 million in sales during its... View Details
- January 2007 (Revised May 2008)
- Case
National Logistics Management: Founder Decisions
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins
Scott Taylor, CEO & founder of NLM, is a serial entrepreneur faced with an important decision. As his industry consolidates, he knows that his company must grow quickly, yet he believes he has reached the limit of what organic growth can achieve. Should he accept the... View Details
- January 2007 (Revised December 2008)
- Case
The Challenges of Launching a Start-Up in China: Dorm99.com
By: William C. Kirby, F. Warren McFarlan and Tracy Manty
After graduating from Harvard Business School in June 2006, Ken Pao and Bill Li were ready to fully commit to the Internet start-up they had been working on since they first stepped foot on the business school campus. They moved to Beijing, rounded out their management... View Details
- December 2006 (Revised January 2007)
- Case
Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola and Nigeria's Manufacturing Sector
By: Nitin Nohria, Anthony Mayo, Foluke Otudeko and Mark Benson
Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola was an important contributor to Nigeria's manufacturing sector, creating a multimillion-dollar conglomerate including three factories, a retail franchise, a cattle ranch, a 5,000-acre plantation, a sawmill, and an exporting business before... View Details
- December 2006 (Revised March 2008)
- Case
Prosper Marketplace, Inc.
By: William A. Sahlman and Elizabeth Kind
Describes a set of financial and strategic decisions confronting the founding management team of a new online financial services company. Prosper Marketplace is an internet-based market for individuals to borrow money from other individuals who wish to invest in such... View Details
- 2006
- Working Paper
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. The vast majority of closures, however, were the new... View Details
- November 2006
- Case
Brontes Technologies -- 2005
By: William A. Sahlman and Caroline Perkins
Describes a set of decisions confronting the founders of a company developing a new device for taking three-dimensional pictures of teeth in order to improve dental outcomes. The company needs more money and must choose between raising new equity capital from a venture... View Details
- August 2006 (Revised July 2008)
- Case
Rwanda and the Thousand Hills Coffee Co.: Breaking New Grounds
By: Geoffrey G. Jones and Michelle McDonald
Examines the strategies of a Boston-based start-up to market Rwandan coffee. Describes the history of the coffee industry, the era of cartelization and the International Coffee Agreement, and the subsequent collapse in producer prices after 1989. Also describes the... View Details
- June 2006 (Revised January 2012)
- Case
Teena Lerner: Dividing the Pie at Rx Capital (A)
By: Boris Groysberg, Victoria Winston and Robin Abrahams
Teena Lerner started her own hedge fund firm in 2001 after nearly 20 years as a star biotechnology analyst and hedge fund manager. After the start-up phase, her firm became highly profitable. In 2004, however, one of her four analysts lost a lot of money for the firm.... View Details
- June 2006
- Case
AtHoc: Dealing With Disruption
By: Lynda M. Applegate and Brian DeLacey
Follows the growth of an entrepreneur from his early startup activities. As the company evolves from 1998 to 2005, looks at key decisions and turning points as AtHoc's strategy adapts in response to changing market environments, business opportunities, and customer... View Details
- May 2006 (Revised July 2007)
- Case
Tropos Networks
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Elizabeth Kind
As Ron Sege, president and CEO of Tropos Networks, walked through the halls of the firm's offices, he realized that the space they had moved into only about a year ago was already becoming too small. The company, based in Sunnyvale, California, was founded in late 2000... View Details
- May 2006 (Revised June 2006)
- Case
Codon Devices
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and David Kiron
In December 2005, 40-year-old John Danner was about to make his first presentation to the board of directors of Codon Devices, a one-year-old biotechnology start-up based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After a month as the company's CEO, Danner was prepared to lay out... View Details
- May 2006
- Case
A123Systems
By: H. Kent Bowen, Kenneth P Morse and Douglass Cannon
A 123Systems was a young company that was founded on basic materials science research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A co-founder of the company, Yet-Ming Chiang, was a full professor at MIT and served as scientific adviser. Intellectual property based... View Details
- March 2006
- Module Note
Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World
Describes the second module of the 30-session Harvard Business School elective course Managing Innovation in an Uncertain World. The course helps students understand the challenges that uncertainty implies for innovation and how to overcome these challenges. The course... View Details
- March 2006 (Revised February 2007)
- Case
Massive Incorporated (A)
By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, Clark Gilbert and Victoria Winston
How do you go to market with a brand new product in a new industry? How does a business develop an opportunity and then adapt its strategy to ensure success? Who are the early adopters and how does a business work with them? Katherine Hays, chief operating office at... View Details
- March 2006
- Teaching Note
Stan Lapidus: Profile of a Medical Entrepreneur (TN)
By: Robert F. Higgins, Richard G. Hamermesh and Erin Seefeld
Teaching Note to (805-087). View Details
- March 2006 (Revised September 2006)
- Case
Irizar in 2005
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Jordan Mitchell
In June 2005, Koldo Saratxaga, the leader of Basque-based luxury coach manufacturer Irizar, decided to leave after 14 years at the helm of the worker-owned cooperative. Under Saratxaga's stewardship, Irizar was saved from near bankruptcy in 1991 and has become a highly... View Details