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Field Course: Startup Operations - Course Catalog

iteration, metrics that matter and developing a product and operations roadmap. Establishing The Startup Organization: Structuring early teams and the processes by which to operate your business. Topics will include: Who to hire and when... View Details

19 Apr 2017
News

Chicago Becomes a Hub of Startup Action

Ecosystem” details the city’s evolution as a growing hub for startup activity. “Chicago has been called the most American of American cities,” Emanuel commented. “It’s a very big city but a small town.” He cited its diverse economy (no... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Emmanuel

February 2024 (Revised January 2025)
Case

AGENTS.inc: Pathways to Growth at an AI Startup

By: Frank Nagle, Manuel Hoffmann, Karoline Ströhlein and Susan Pinckney

The case describes the history of AGENTS.inc. Despite being a small startup, with only four employees, that had never had a funding round, the company boasted an impressive client portfolio including multiple Fortune 500 companies. While AGENTS.inc had been an early... View Details

2025
Book

After the Idea: What It Really Takes to Create and Scale a Startup

By: Julia Austin

A lot of entrepreneurs are great at the idea part but do not anticipate the details required to actually run and scale a new venture. Drawing on my experience at renowned startups like Akamai Technologies, VMware, and DigitalOcean and the hundreds of founders and... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Business Plan; Growth and Development Strategy; Business or Company Management

06 Aug 2018
Blog Post

Parks Management is People Management

same way it would at a lean startup or a large corporation. The transferability of business practices, especially the need for agile thinkers in key management roles, is encouraging. I feel confident that I... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit / Government

August 2019 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital–backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management; Technology Industry

25 Mar 2016
Video

Katie Rae, Managing Director, Project 11 Ventures

19 Oct 2022
Op-Ed

Cofounder Courtship: How to Find the Right Mate—for Your Startup

you are a technologist, but lack management or operating skills (marketing, sales, etc.), you may benefit from a more seasoned business leader as cofounder who has seen the movie before. While many operating skills can be learned,... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Austin

22 Sep 2015
News

Why 2 Startups Are Betting Big on Legalized Gambling

July 2023 (Revised October 2024)
Case

Revenue Recognition at Stride Funding: Making Sense of Revenues for a Fintech Startup

By: Paul M. Healy and Jung Koo Kang

The case explores the challenges of revenue recognition and financial reporting for Stride Funding (Stride), a fintech startup that has disrupted the student loan market. Stride leveraged proprietary machine learning and financial models to underwrite alternative... View Details

Keywords: Revenue Recognition; Financial Reporting; Entrepreneurial Finance; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Governance Compliance; Accrual Accounting; Financial Services Industry; United States

June 2015 (Revised February 2016)
Case

Team Rubicon: Bridging the Gap from Startup to National Organization

By: Leonard A. Schlesinger and Dan Nidess

Team Rubicon, a military veteran volunteer disaster relief organization, has experienced significant success in attracting attention and support in its first four years of operation. The challenges of managing the volunteer base, the cost of responding to disasters,... View Details

Keywords: Growth Strategy And Execution; Disaster Relief; NGO; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy; Growth Management; Non-Governmental Organizations

2024
Working Paper

Catalysts for Climate Solutions: Corporate Responses to Venture Capital Financing of Climate-tech Startups

By: Shirley Lu, George Serafeim and Simon Xu

We study whether incumbent firms increase their product focus on climate solutions in response to venture capital (VC) financing of climate-tech startups. Using large language models to measure a firm's focus on climate solutions, we find that incumbents in similar... View Details

Keywords: Climate Finance; Climate Change; Technological Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Environmental Sustainability; Business Startups

SSRN

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06 Apr 2021
News

Disrupting the Waste Management Industry with Technology

23 Jun 2021
Research & Ideas

One More Way the Startup World Hampers Women Entrepreneurs

and the Direction of Startup Innovation. “You’re missing out on information from a huge swath of the population,” says Rembrand Koning, an assistant professor in the Strategy Unit, who wrote the paper along with Sarofim-Rock Professor of... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

25 Apr 2023
News

Class of 2022 Startups Sweep Alumni New Venture Competition

and Vanessa Royle In the end, Ilana Springer Borkenstein and Eric Gruskin, from the New York region, took the Grand Prize of $75,000 with their startup, M7 Health, an innovative nursing-workforce management platform. The Runner Up prize... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

August 2016 (Revised August 2016)
Teaching Note

Intrapreneurship at DaVita Healthcare Partners

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Matthew Preble

DaVita Healthcare Partners Inc. (DaVita) is one of the U.S.'s leading dialysis providers, a process whereby persons with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) are connected to a machine that performs the functions of a healthy kidney. Kent Thiry, DaVita's CEO, has expanded... View Details

Keywords: Intrapreneurship; Entrepreneurial Organizations; Startup Management; Startup; Strategic Positioning; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Corporate Strategy; Business Startups; Strategic Planning; Competitive Strategy; Health Industry; United States