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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(770)
- People (2)
- News (218)
- Research (287)
- Multimedia (4)
- Faculty Publications (168)
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- May 2000 (Revised October 2001)
- Case
Dell Ventures
By: Paul A. Gompers, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis
Describes the rationale behind the strategy and structure of Dell Computer Corp.'s VC arm, Dell Ventures. While Dell Ventures had a phenomenal year one, it faced a number of challenges including dealing with market risks, finding and retaining talent, maintaining... View Details
Keywords: Business Divisions; Talent and Talent Management; Goals and Objectives; Risk Management; Organizational Structure; Interests; Business Strategy; Computer Industry
Gompers, Paul A., Carin-Isabel Knoop, and Cate Reavis. "Dell Ventures." Harvard Business School Case 200-062, May 2000. (Revised October 2001.)
- 2022
- Working Paper
Transferable Skills? Founders as Venture Capitalists
By: Paul A. Gompers and Vladimir Mukharlyamov
In this paper we explore whether or not the experience as a founder of a venture capital-backed startup influences the performance of founders who become venture capitalists (VCs). We find that nearly 7% of VCs were previously founders of a venture-backed startup.... View Details
Keywords: Founders; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Performance; Personal Development and Career; Success
Gompers, Paul A., and Vladimir Mukharlyamov. "Transferable Skills? Founders as Venture Capitalists." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 29907, April 2022.
- June 2014
- Case
Stock Options at Celia-Check
By: Brian Hall, Andrew Wasynczuk and Karen Huang
Describes issues facing three young founders of a high-tech start-up, including hiring an experienced CEO and negotiating with a potential VC investor. Focuses on the incentive and compensation aspects of negotiating with job candidates (e.g., what percentage of the... View Details
- January 2020
- Article
How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?
By: Paul A. Gompers, William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan and Ilya A. Strebulaev
We survey 885 institutional venture capitalists (VCs) at 681 firms to learn how they make decisions across eight areas: deal sourcing, investment selection, valuation, deal structure, post-investment value-added, exits, internal firm organization, and relationships... View Details
Gompers, Paul A., William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan, and Ilya A. Strebulaev. "How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?" Journal of Financial Economics 135, no. 1 (January 2020): 169–190.
- 15 Dec 2020
- Working Paper Summaries
Biased Sampling of Early Users and the Direction of Startup Innovation
- 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
Keywords: Business Growth and Maturation; Disruptive Innovation; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Strategy; Venture Capital
Applegate, Lynda M., and Brian DeLacey. "AtHoc: Dealing With Disruption." Harvard Business School Case 806-073, June 2006.
- September 2020
- Teaching Plan
Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship
By: George Serafeim
Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques had spent the summer between their first and second years of their MBA program fund raising for their start-up venture capital (VC) firm, Harlem Capital Partners. Harlem Capital was founded upon the principle that addressing the... View Details
Keywords: Venture Capital Firm Compensation; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurial Financing; Black Entrepreneurs; Black Leadership; Black Inventors; Inclusion; Minority-owned Businesses; Race And Ethnicity; Race Characteristics; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Diversity; Race; Gender; Mission and Purpose; Social Enterprise; Financial Services Industry; United States
- December 2000
- Case
Stock Options at Virtua.Net
By: Brian J. Hall, Noam T. Wasserman and Carleen Madigan
Describes issues facing three young founders of a high-tech start-up in Silicon Valley, including hiring an experienced CEO and negotiating with a potential VC investor. Focuses on the incentive and compensation aspects of negotiating with job candidates (e.g., what... View Details
Keywords: Venture Capital; Stock Options; Executive Compensation; Employee Stock Ownership Plan; Negotiation
Hall, Brian J., Noam T. Wasserman, and Carleen Madigan. "Stock Options at Virtua.Net." Harvard Business School Case 801-324, December 2000.
- July 2020
- Article
The Persistent Effect of Initial Success: Evidence from Venture Capital
By: Ramana Nanda, Sampsa Samila and Olav Sorenson
We use investment-level data to study performance persistence in venture capital (VC). Consistent with prior studies, we find that each additional IPO among a VC firm's first ten investments predicts as much as an 8% higher IPO rate on its subsequent investments,... View Details
Keywords: Performance; Monitoring; Selection; Status; Venture Capital; Performance Consistency; Investment
Nanda, Ramana, Sampsa Samila, and Olav Sorenson. "The Persistent Effect of Initial Success: Evidence from Venture Capital." Journal of Financial Economics 137, no. 1 (July 2020): 231–248.
- August 2022 (Revised November 2022)
- Case
Altos Ventures (A)
By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo
In December 2012, Altos Ventures General Partners Han Kim, Anthony Lee, and Ho Nam met to discuss the future of the firm. Altos had already adjusted its strategy multiple times. It began as a U.S.-focused venture capital investor whose first two funds were backed by a... View Details
Tango, Jo, and Alys Ferragamo. "Altos Ventures (A)." Harvard Business School Case 823-035, August 2022. (Revised November 2022.)
- July–August 2018
- Article
The Other Diversity Dividend
By: Paul Gompers and Silpa Kovvali
Researchers have struggled to establish a causal relationship between diversity and financial performance—especially at large companies, where decision rights and incentives can be murky, and the effects of any given choice can be tough to pin down. So the authors... View Details
Gompers, Paul, and Silpa Kovvali. "The Other Diversity Dividend." Harvard Business Review 96, no. 4 (July–August 2018): 72–77.
- May 2012 (Revised October 2012)
- Case
H-Soft Mumbai
By: Ramana Nanda
Siddharth Kapoor, the Founder and CEO of H-Soft Mumbai reflected on his meeting as he walked out of VC Ventures' offices in Mumbai. After a few months of intensely pitching his startup to several different investors, he finally had a term sheet in hand. Despite this... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Venture Capital Term Sheet; India; Business Startups; Investment; Venture Capital; Contracts; Partners and Partnerships; Entrepreneurship; Negotiation Offer; Decision Making
Nanda, Ramana. "H-Soft Mumbai." Harvard Business School Case 812-168, May 2012. (Revised October 2012.)
- May 2012 (Revised October 2012)
- Supplement
H-Soft (B-1): Siddharth Kapoor
By: Ramana Nanda
Siddharth Kapoor, the Founder and CEO of H-Soft Mumbai, reflected on his meetings as he walked out of VC Ventures' offices in Mumbai. After a few months of intensely pitching his startup to several different investors, he finally had a term sheet in hand. Despite this... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Venture Capital Term Sheet; India; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Investment; Contracts; Partners and Partnerships; India
Nanda, Ramana. "H-Soft (B-1): Siddharth Kapoor." Harvard Business School Supplement 812-169, May 2012. (Revised October 2012.)
- October 2019
- Case
Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship (A)
By: George Serafeim
Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques had spent the summer between their first and second years of their Harvard Business School MBA program fund raising for their start-up venture capital (VC) firm, Harlem Capital Partners. Harlem Capital was founded upon the... View Details
Keywords: Impact Investing; Gender Bias; Gender Inequality; Minority Representation; Entrepreneurial Finance; Investment Management; Investing; Inequality; Race And Ethnicity; Black Entrepreneurs; Black Inventors; Black Leadership; Venture Investing; Fund Raising; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Diversity; Gender; Race; Equality and Inequality; Equity; Mission and Purpose; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry; United States
Serafeim, George, and David Freiberg. "Harlem Capital: Changing the Face of Entrepreneurship (A)." Harvard Business School Case 120-040, October 2019.
- February 2024 (Revised February 2025)
- Case
Financing Matillion's Scaleup (A)
By: Raymond Kluender, Emanuele Colonnelli and Ramana Nanda
In 2019, Matthew Scullion, founder and CEO of U.K. startup Matillion, faced a decision about which term sheet to accept for the lead investor in his company’s $35 million Series C financing round. Would the connections and opportunities offered by Silicon Valley-based... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Negotiation; Ownership; Business Startups; Decisions; Venture Capital; Financing and Loans; Valuation; Information Technology Industry; United Kingdom
Kluender, Raymond, Emanuele Colonnelli, and Ramana Nanda. "Financing Matillion's Scaleup (A)." Harvard Business School Case 824-140, February 2024. (Revised February 2025.)
- October 2011 (Revised June 2014)
- Case
inge watertechnologies, GmbH
By: Ramana Nanda, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Markus Mittermaier
Using the financing history and exit choices of a German clean-tech startup as a lens, this case explores the reasons why venture-backed entrepreneurship is much lower in Germany than the US, despite a robust SME sector and large-corporate innovation in Germany. It... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Finance; Venture Capital; Negotiation; Entrepreneurship; Technology Industry; Germany
Nanda, Ramana, Carin-Isabel Knoop, and Markus Mittermaier. "inge watertechnologies, GmbH." Harvard Business School Case 812-002, October 2011. (Revised June 2014.)
- October 2018 (Revised October 2019)
- Case
Arlan Hamilton and Backstage Capital
By: Laura Huang and Sarah Mehta
Frustrated by an inability to convince existing venture capital firms to invest in companies led by women, people of color, and LGBT founders, Arlan Hamilton started her own firm, Backstage Capital, in 2015. Hamilton understood the untapped potential of companies run... View Details
Keywords: Black Leadership; LGBTQ; Women; People Of Color; Entrepreneurship; Mission and Purpose; Venture Capital; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Identity; Personal Characteristics; Prejudice and Bias; Social Issues; Diversity; Gender; Race
Huang, Laura, and Sarah Mehta. "Arlan Hamilton and Backstage Capital." Harvard Business School Case 419-029, October 2018. (Revised October 2019.)
- 2017
- Working Paper
Patent Trolls and Small Business Employment
By: Ian Appel, Joan Farre-Mensa and Elena Simintzi
We analyze how frivolous patent-infringement claims made by “patent trolls” affect small firms’ ability to create jobs, raise capital, and survive. Our identification strategy exploits the staggered passage of anti-patent-troll laws at the state level. We find that the... View Details
Appel, Ian, Joan Farre-Mensa, and Elena Simintzi. "Patent Trolls and Small Business Employment." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 17-072, February 2017.
- June 2014
- Teaching Note
Andreessen Horowitz
By: Thomas Eisenmann
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a venture capital firm launched in 2009, has quickly broken into the VC industry's top ranks, in terms of its ability to invest in Silicon Valley's most promising startups. The case recounts the firm's history; describes its co-founders'... View Details
- January 2010 (Revised April 2010)
- Case
Greenbriar Growth Partners and Microsurgery Devices
Greenbriar Growth Partners (GGP), a venture capital (VC) firm, has been an investor in Microsurgery Devices (MSD) for four-plus years and has come into conflict with the company's founder. Should the Board's nominating committee re-nominate the VC investor, and should... View Details
Keywords: Financial Crisis; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Initial Public Offering; Governing and Advisory Boards; Conflict of Interests; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; United States
El-Hage, Nabil N., and Kristin Elaine Meyer. "Greenbriar Growth Partners and Microsurgery Devices." Harvard Business School Case 310-060, January 2010. (Revised April 2010.)