Publications

Find at Harvard

November 2022
Case

Ajax Health: A New Model for Medical Technology Innovation

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Ben Creo

This case teaches key success factors for both startup and established MedTech firms. It examines how to structure a firm to maximize innovation and financial returns with organizational structures that better align the incentives for the different skill sets... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Success; Innovation Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Market Entry and Exit; Financial Strategy; Business Model; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Technology Industry; Technology Industry

March 2015 (Revised January 2024)
Case

CV Ingenuity (A): How to Evaluate the Commercial Viability of New Health Care Technologies

By: Regina E. Herzlinger and Andrew Otazo

Duke Rohlen (HBS MBA ’01) hoped to win over a prominent venture capital investor for Series B financing of his firm CVI that was creating a drug-eluting balloon (DES) to treat peripheral arterial disease. As a second-mover, Duke felt he was more likely to acquire... View Details

April 1998
Teaching Note

Materials Technology Corporation TN

By: Clayton M. Christensen

Teaching Note for (9-694-075). View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Market Entry and Exit; Technology; Research; Markets; Marketing Strategy; Product Development

December 1999 (Revised May 2002)
Case

CNBC (A): NBC and Its Startup Friends

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter

NBC expands further on to the Internet with CNBC.com. NBC's Internet strategy, supported by corporate parent General Electric, involves numerous investments as well as new ventures like CNBC.com. Soon after CNBC.com is launched in 1999, NBC brings in a new CEO, Pamela... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Change Management; Management Teams; Corporate Strategy; Leadership Development; Internet and the Web; Expansion; Media; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Telecommunications Industry

Find at Harvard

19 Apr 2017
News

Chicago Becomes a Hub of Startup Action

city’s South Side through 1871, BLUE1647 (a technology skills center), and a $30 million startup fund for neighborhood businesses, among other efforts. “I have one goal,” he said. “If a child walking out of... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Emmanuel

May 2022
Case

From GOP to NFT: Anthony Scaramucci and the Launch of Flatter NFT

By: Lauren Cohen, Richard Ryffel and Grace Headinger

Anthony Scaramucci, Managing Director of SkyBridge Capital, considered whether he should officially greenlight the launch of SkyBridge’s own NFT platform — Flatter NFT. He had led the investment firm to push first into Bitcoin and then Ethereum to make SkyBridge a... View Details

14 Aug 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Are ‘Better’ Ideas More Likely to Succeed? An Empirical Analysis of Startup Evaluation

Keywords: by Pian Shu; Financial Services

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

January 2014 (Revised May 2015)
Case

Open English

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Lisa Mazzanti

Open English, a Miami-based startup offering online English language learning services, had more than 30,000 active students across Latin America in 2012. The company had just closed a $43 million financing round in order to rapidly scale its service to the next level.... View Details

Keywords: Technology Strategy; Product Management; Startup; Online Learning; Digital Platforms; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Technology Industry; Miami; Venezuela

December 1998 (Revised March 1999)
Case

Disruptive Technology a Heartbeat Away: Ecton, Inc.

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Edward G Cape

Describes an innovating start-up company with a disruptive technology to the large, expensive echocardiography machines that leading cardiologists use to create images of heart functions for diagnostic purposes. Ecton's machine is small, cheap, portable, and can't... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Disruption; Machinery and Machining; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Product; Commercialization; Technology; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

June 2013
Teaching Note

Rock Health

By: Robert Higgins and Ian McKown Cornell

This is the teaching note associated with HBS Case #813035. The case should enable students to identify emerging challenges, evaluate Rock Health's funding model, debate the effectiveness of its incubation service and assess its long-term viability. View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Incubation; Healthcare Technology; Startups; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Health Care and Treatment; Business Startups; Health Industry; San Francisco; California; United States

June 2024
Teaching Note

Miami’s Climate Tech Potential (A): The State of Play

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 324-119. Miami-Dade County led the work to get South Florida designated a national climate resilience tech hub, the only one of 31 focused on climate change, an urgent major issue for the region in light of global warming and sea level... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Climate; Entrepreneur; Development; Startup; Climate Change; Venture Capital; Investment; Entrepreneurship; Green Technology; Government Administration; City; Miami

March 2024 (Revised June 2024)
Case

Miami’s Climate Tech Potential (A): The State of Play

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone

Miami-Dade County led the work to get South Florida designated a national climate resilience tech hub, the only one of 31 focused on climate change, an urgent major issue for the region in light of global warming and sea level rise. Venture capitalists saw the... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Climate; Entrepreneur; Development; Startup; Climate Change; Venture Capital; Investment; Entrepreneurship; Green Technology; Government Administration; City; Miami

January 2013 (Revised February 2013)
Case

EverTrue: Mobile Technology Development (A)

By: William R. Kerr and Alexis Brownell

Brent Grinna is evaluating different options for the technology development of his start-up's iPhone app, including hiring local programmers, finding a CTO, or outsourcing. He only has a little over two months before he presents his alumni networking app to Brown... View Details

Keywords: Start-up; Mobile App; oDesk; Outsourcing; CTO; Minimum Viable Product; App Development; Business Startups; Decisions; Entrepreneurship; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Intellectual Property; Product Development; Globalization; Technology Industry; Massachusetts; Boston; India

19 Jun 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Learning to Manage: A Field Experiment in the Indian Startup Ecosystem

Keywords: by Aaron Chatterji, Solene Delecourt, Sharique Hasan, and Rembrand Koning; Technology

September 2019
Case

Funding Sources for Science & Technology Start-ups in India

By: Tarun Khanna, Arjun Swarup and Rachna Tahilyani

India's start-up ecosystem is amongst the largest globally, with a variety of funding options from angel investors, venture capital and corporate venture capital to debt. Classic consumer focused start-ups which look to leverage technology have been able to raise... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Business Startups; Science; Information Technology; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Technology Industry; India; South Asia

31 Mar 2022
Blog Post

Setting Interns Up for Success at Your Startup

Connection Fortunately, Belsito knew exactly the right person to consider for the role. Weeks earlier, Kevin Sani (MBA 2022) reached out to Belsito while researching mission-based startups making an impact on climate change. “After... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship

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

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Business Startups; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

May 1997 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Vermeer Technologies (F): FrontPage 97

By: Ashish Nanda

Vermeer engineers work at the breakneck pace of "Internet time" to develop the next version of their software product, winning accolades from Microsoft management. Even before this version ships, however, they are faced with another punishing development schedule for... View Details

Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Applications and Software; Business Startups; Product Development; Information Technology Industry