Publications

February 2024
Supplement

Ada: General Updates

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

Mike Murchison, cofounder and CEO of Ada, updates the audience on which investor he chose as well as how Ada has grown since its Series B. View Details

Keywords: Founder; Entrepreneur; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Growth and Development

February 2024
Supplement

Ada: On Fundraising and Cofounding

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

Mike Murchison, cofounder and CEO of Ada, shares his fundraising philosophy and reflects on what he believes underpins a successful cofounder relationship. View Details

Keywords: Founder; Entrepreneur; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurial Finance

February 2024
Case

Adventures Inc: 21st Century Brand Building

By: Boris Groysberg and Sarah L. Abbott

Founded in 2020, Adventures worked with celebrities in Brazil to create and launch digitally native brands. The idea was to match the celebrity’s skill in creating content and entertaining fans with Adventures’ skill in consumer packaged goods marketing and operations.... View Details

Keywords: Digital Brand; Influencer Marketing; Growth And Scaling; Capital Constraints; Brand Portfolio Strategy; CPG; Start-up; Celebrity Endorsement; Digital Marketing; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Advertising; Social Media; Business Startups; Joint Ventures; Brands and Branding; Brazil

February 2024 (Revised March 2025)
Case

Moving Science: The Rowland Institute at Harvard

By: Maria P. Roche

Set in 2022, this case describes the considerations involved in organizing the physical relocation of the Rowland Institute at Harvard (RIH), a research institute established in 1980 by Edwin H. Land, the founder of the Polaroid Corporation, for the advancement of... View Details

Keywords: Optics; Engineering; Higher Education; Strategy; Science; Buildings and Facilities; Research and Development; Real Estate Industry; Biotechnology Industry

January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

Runa

By: Paul Gompers and Carla Larangeira

In early 2022, Courtney McColgan, founder and CEO of Runa, a human resources and payroll Software-as-a-Service platform, faced an unexpected tech market downturn. Founded in 2018, Runa catered to small and medium-sized businesses in Mexico, offering an affordable and... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Volatility; Entrepreneurship; Decision Making; Leadership; Management; Venture Capital; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Growth and Maturation; Latin America

January 2024
Case

Flashfood: The Magic of Commitment

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

Josh Domingues had accomplished what countless young entrepreneurs long to achieve: founding a promising company that aspires to make the world a tangibly better place. Shocked to learn that international food waste cumulatively amounted to the world’s third largest... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneur; Founder; Startup; Business Model; Business Startups; Food; Applications and Software; Mission and Purpose; Environmental Sustainability; Canada

January 2024
Case

Vibrant Health

By: Henry McGee and Sarah Mehta

This case is about nutritional supplements company Vibrant Health, among the 100 largest Black-owned businesses in the U.S. After acquiring the company from its white founder in 2007, co-owners Ted and Paige Parker significantly grew its sales. Set in September 2023,... View Details

Keywords: Business Ventures; Race; Entrepreneurship; Nutrition; Ownership; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Leadership; Sales; Food and Beverage Industry; Health Industry; Eastern United States

January 2024 (Revised May 2024)
Case

PortageBay and ESG Analytics

By: Vikram S. Gandhi and Radhika Kak

In 2023, sustainable investors faced several challenges. The first was the lack of access to standardized and vetted environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data, and equally, the interpretation of this data into investment-useful insights. Reducing reliance on... View Details

Keywords: ESG Ratings; Investment Funds; Governance; Environmental Sustainability; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact

November 2023 (Revised April 2025)
Case

Norse Atlantic Airways

By: Willy Shih

Bjørn Tore Larsen, Norse Atlantic Airways' founder and CEO, hadn't planned to get into the airline business. But when the COVID-19 pandemic depressed the global demand for air travel and the lease rates for jetliners, he realized if ever he was going to get into the... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Market Entry and Exit; Leasing; Business Strategy; Segmentation; Interest Rates; Air Transportation Industry; Europe; North America; Norway; United Kingdom; United States

November 2023
Case

Will Fintechs and Central Banks Play in Emtech's Sandbox?

By: Daniel Isenberg and William R. Kerr

In February 2023, Emtech’s founder Carmelle Cadet is facing a dilemma. Rapidly running out of cash, Cadet has a term sheet from a leading VC but has a choice of how to structure the investment. The decision will have significant implications for Cadet’s own stake, as... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Cash Flow; Currency; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Digital Platforms

November 2023 (Revised January 2024)
Case

Bridgit: Persevere or Pivot?

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

In late 2012, Mallorie Brodie and Lauren Lake, two young women in their final year of college, founded Bridgit, a technology startup that developed solutions to simplify vital but laborious processes within the construction industry. In the Fall of 2013, after months... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneur; Founder; Co-founders; Women Executives; Pivot; Startup; Business Model; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Applications and Software; Product Launch; Research and Development; Competition; Construction Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Canada

November 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

Khanmigo: Revolutionizing Learning with GenAI

By: William A. Sahlman, Allison M. Ciechanover and Emily Grandjean

Already a leader in the edtech space since its 2008 launch, Khan Academy was now one of the first edtech organizations to embrace generative artificial intelligence ("genAI"). In March 2023, Khan Academy began beta testing Khanmigo, a genAI “guide” and tutor built with... View Details

Keywords: Technology Adoption; Leading Change; Entrepreneurship; Risk and Uncertainty; Education; AI and Machine Learning; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Education Industry; Technology Industry; United States; San Francisco

October 2023 (Revised April 2024)
Case

TetraScience: Unlocking the Power of Scientific Data

By: Satish Tadikonda and William Marks

After pivoting from a focus on hardware to a focus on scientific data, TetraScience, led by veteran SaaS executive, Patrick Grady and Founder Spin Wang, has embarked on a journey from nearly cash-out to a player in the scientific data management space. This case... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Information Management; Business Strategy; Market Entry and Exit; Information Technology Industry

October 2023
Case

Shredder Setups or Straightlining into Risk?: Investing in What You Love

By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger

Bob Hall, President of Green Gables Partners, evaluated whether to angel invest into an up-and-coming ski brand. As the son-in-law of the founder of Vera Bradley and having retired from a lengthy career on Wall Street, Hall was well-versed in both direct investing and... View Details

Keywords: Family Office; Angel Investors; Direct Investment; Family Business; Business Growth and Maturation; Small Business; Financial Strategy; Personal Finance; Investment Portfolio; Private Equity; Decision Choices and Conditions; Risk and Uncertainty; Consumer Products Industry; Montana; United States

October 2023
Case

Fixie and Conversational AI Sidekicks

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Carin-Isabel Knoop

In March 2023, Fixie Co-Founder and Chief Architect Matt Welsh and co-founders had the kind of meeting no founders want to have. The president of leading artificial intelligence (AI) research and deployment firm OpenAI, which had catapulted into fame with its ChatGPT... View Details

Keywords: Large Language Model; Entrepreneurship; Decision Choices and Conditions; AI and Machine Learning; Technological Innovation; Competitive Strategy; Technology Industry; United States

2025
Working Paper

Bringing Science to Market: Knowledge Foundations, Inventor-Founders, and Performance

By: Justine Boudou and Maria Roche

In this paper, we examine how a startup’s knowledge foundations—embedded in its core technology—influence its performance in the exit market. Using a dataset of 1,006 biomedicine startups founded between 2005 and 2015, we focus on two key factors: (1) the degree of... View Details

Keywords: Firm Performance; Knowledge Foundations; Exits; Academic Startups; Inventor-founder; Specialized Scientific Knowledge; Competitive Advantage; Value Creation; Research; Information Publishing; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship

Read Now

September 2023 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Seeds of Innovation: GALY's Quest to Cultivate the Future of Agriculture in the Lab

By: George Serafeim and Michael Norris

In 2023, Luciano Bueno, CEO and founder of plant cell culture agriculture company GALY, was considering the best path forward for his company as he planned to pitch Series B investors. GALY, founded in 2019, aimed to produce cotton and other crops from cells grown in... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Green Technology; Goods and Commodities; Growth and Development Strategy; Science-Based Business; Entrepreneurship; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Business Startups; Decisions; Technological Innovation; Production; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry; Technology Industry; Boston; Sao Paulo

September 2023
Case

Ada: Cultivating Investors

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

Mike Murchison, co-founder and CEO of Ada, has an enviable dilemma. Launched in 2016 by Murchison and his co-founder David Hariri, Ada is an AI-native company that aims to revolutionize how businesses approach customer service. The company has already attracted a buzz,... View Details

Keywords: Founder; Fundraising; Business Startups; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; AI and Machine Learning; Technology Industry

September 2023
Case

The Rise and Fall of FTX

By: Aiyesha Dey, Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli and Max Hancock

In November 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried's multi-billion-dollar crypto exchange, FTX, collapsed, wiping out investors and throwing the crypto industry into disarray. As FTX's founder and CEO, Bankman-Fried developed a reputation for his unerring business sense and... View Details

Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Crime and Corruption; Financial Statements; Misleading and Fraudulent Advertising; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Corporate Governance; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Failure; Restructuring; United States; Hong Kong; Bahamas