Publications
Publications
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- All HBS Web
(660)
- Faculty Publications (171)
- January 2018
- Case
Scaling Swagbucks (A)
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Matthew G. Preble
In early 2014, Chuck Davis (HBS '86) has joined Swagbucks as its first professional CEO to scale a successful and profitable brand promotion and consumer research business. Davis came into the job while serving as a venture partner at TCV, a growth stage VC firm,... View Details
Keywords: Loyalty Management; Scaling; Scale; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Leading Change; Growth Management; Religion; Information Technology; Internet and the Web; Transition; Leadership; Web Services Industry; Technology Industry
- January 2018 (Revised September 2023)
- Case
Giving Birth to Ovia Health
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Julia Kelley
In late 2016, Paris Wallace, the CEO of Ovia Health, and the rest of the company’s co-founders faced a difficult decision about the best way to grow Ovia Health’s revenue. Founded in 2012, Ovia Health specialized in mobile and web applications in the women’s health... View Details
- January 2018 (Revised January 2019)
- Case
ZappRx
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull
In October 2015, ZappRx founder Zoe Barry is deciding between two business models for her health technology start-up. Her product, a software application that aims to expedite the prescription fulfillment process for patients with rare diseases, has attracted interest... View Details
- Article
Are You Suited for a Start-up?
By: Jeffrey Bussgang
Relative to established organizations, start-ups can be hard to figure out. What are the jobs to be done? The best entry points? How can you tell whether a company has potential for success and is the right fit for you?
The author advises that you first assess... View Details
- 2017
- Book
Entering StartUpLand: An Essential Guide to Finding the Right Job
Many professionals aspire to work for startups. Executives from large companies view them as models to help them adapt to today's dynamic innovation economy, while freshly minted MBAs see magic in founding something new. Yes, startups look magical, but they can also be... View Details
- September 2017 (Revised February 2019)
- Case
Blackstone's GSO Capital: Crosstex Investment
By: Victoria Ivashina, John D. Dionne and Jeffrey Boyar
This case focuses on the Blackstone credit arm, GSO Capital as it evaluated a proposal for an equity investment into the distressed company, Crosstex Energy L.P., an integrated midstream energy company, that was hit hard by declining natural gas prices during the 2008... View Details
- April 2017 (Revised May 2023)
- Teaching Plan
Delivering the Goods at Shippo
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull
Teaching Plan for HBS No. 817-065. View Details
- April 2017 (Revised May 2022)
- Case
King Digital Entertainment
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Davide Sola, Federica Gabrieli and Elena Corsi
Riccardo Zacconi was the co-founder and CEO of King Digital Entertainment, the video game company that had quickly established itself as the world’s leading maker of casual games for mobile devices after the sensational success of its game “Candy Crush Saga.” Zacconi... View Details
- March 2017 (Revised October 2018)
- Case
Catalant: The Future of Work?
By: Thomas Eisenmann, Jeffrey F. Rayport and Christine Snively
Catalant, founded in 2013 as an online marketplace where MBAs could bid on consulting projects posted by small- to medium-sized businesses, had expanded by 2016 to provide Fortune 1000 companies with access to over 35,000 independent experts. The founders envisioned... View Details
- March 2017 (Revised March 2017)
- Teaching Plan
Classtivity: Payal's Pirouette
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull
Teaching Plan for HBS No. 817-002. View Details
- March 2017
- Case
Swagbucks
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Matthew G. Preble
In early 2016, Chuck Davis, chairman and CEO of Prodege LLC, parent company of the brand promotion business Swagbucks, and Josef Gorowitz, Prodege’s founder and president, must decide whether to acquire MyPoints, a competitor to Swagbucks, after the company’s... View Details
Keywords: Loyalty Management; Scaling; Scale; Entrepreneurship; Human Resources; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Culture; Organizational Design; Leading Change; Growth Management; Religion; Technology; Online Technology; Internet; Transition; Leadership; Web Services Industry; Technology Industry; United States
- March 2017 (Revised March 2017)
- Case
OpenNotes
By: Jeffrey Rayport and Annelena Lobb
In 2017, executives at OpenNotes, a national movement to improve the relationship between doctors and patients by sharing doctors’ visit notes about patients with patients, were considering options in efforts to achieve scale. The movement hoped to reach 50 million... View Details
- January 2017 (Revised January 2017)
- Case
Susan Cassidy at Bertram Gilman International
By: Jeffrey T. Polzer and Michael Norris
In 2016, Susan Cassidy, VP of sales and marketing for the packaged foods division at CPG firm Bertram Gilman International, has to make a promotion decision. Should she choose the person she has been grooming for the position or another candidate recommended by central... View Details
- January 2017 (Revised October 2023)
- Case
Classtivity: Payal's Pirouette
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull
A few months after launching a new fitness technology product, the small staff of New York startup Classtivity gathers on a Saturday in April 2013 to take stock. With one successful pivot under its belt, Classtivity is finally generating revenue and enthusiasm among... View Details
Keywords: Product Pivot; Boutique Fitness; Fitness Industry; Market Sizing; Consumer Technology; Bundling; Subscription Model; Two-sided Marketplace; ClassPass; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Transition; Customer Focus and Relationships; Technological Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Customer Value and Value Chain; Marketing Strategy; Failure; Business Strategy; Technology Industry; Health Industry; New York (city, NY)
- October 2016 (Revised October 2023)
- Case
Bootstrapping at Lightricks
By: Robert White, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Christine Snively
By August 2015, two-year-old mobile imaging software startup Lightricks had developed and released two best-selling paid mobile apps, grown to a team of 30, earned a revenue run rate of nearly $10 million, and achieved modest profitability. The bootstrapped company had... View Details
- August 2016 (Revised August 2017)
- Case
AnswerDash (Abridged)
By: Elie Ofek and Jeffrey D. Shulman
It is 2014 and AnswerDash, a startup backed by venture capital, has not seen the widespread adoption of their online self-service customer support solution that they were expecting based on early success in helping clients save and generate substantial amounts of... View Details
Keywords: Pricing; Economic Value Estimation; Price Metrics; Organizational Selling; Innovation Adoption; Business To Business; Marketing; Customer Lifetime Value; Venture Capital; Customer Relationship Management; Price; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Technology Adoption; Business Startups; Sales; Innovation and Invention; Product Marketing; Financial Services Industry
- July 16, 2016
- Article
A Game Theoretic Model for Resource Allocation Among Countermeasures with Multiple Attributes
By: Elisabeth C. Paulson, Igor Linkov and Jeffrey Keisler
We study a strategic, two-player, sequential game between an attacker and defender. The defender must allocate resources amongst possible countermeasures and across possible targets. The attacker then chooses a type of threat and a target to attack. This paper proposes... View Details
- June 2016 (Revised August 2017)
- Case
AnswerDash
By: Elie Ofek and Jeffrey D. Shulman
It is 2014, and AnswerDash, a startup backed by venture capital, has not seen the widespread adoption of their online self-service customer support solution that they were expecting based on early success in helping clients save and generate substantial amounts of... View Details
Keywords: Pricing; Economic Value Estimation; Price Metrics; Organizational Selling; Innovation Adoption; Business To Business; Marketing; Customer Lifetime Value; Venture Capital; Customer Relationship Management; Price; Marketing Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Technology Adoption; Business Startups; Sales; Innovation and Invention; Product Marketing; Financial Services Industry
- March 2016
- Teaching Plan
Jibo: A Social Robot for the Home
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Christine Snively