Publications

Career Coach

Mark Hardie

several global development partnerships. Before Nokia, Mark was an investor at Fleet Development Ventures, a $100MM private equity fund. Mark founded and ran a Boston start-up that developed "MusicTeller," an innovative digital... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity; Private Equity

May 2016 (Revised August 2019)
Teaching Note

Project Deutschland: Unpeeling the Onion of a Distressed Real Estate Portfolio

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

James Tallest analyzed the opportunity to invest in a distressed portfolio of high quality properties in Germany by acquiring one or more non-performing loans from Deutschland Bank. While he considers the many aspects of the deal that is about to unfold, he must decide... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Distress Investing; Non-performing Loan; Borrowing and Debt; Capital Structure; Private Equity; Negotiation Deal; Valuation; Real Estate Industry; Financial Services Industry; Germany; Europe

01 Jun 2012
News

Pitfalls, Trade-Offs, Dreaming Big

teaches the popular MBA elective Founders’ Dilemmas. In 2011, the course was named one of the top entrepreneurship courses in the United States by Inc. magazine. What’s a common instance of ill-advised behavior by entrepreneurs? Splitting View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Health, Social Assistance; Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services; Information; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

Clubs

Women in Investing Club

Keywords: Venture Capital / Private Equity / LBO; Venture Capital / Private Equity / LBO

April 2016 (Revised January 2018)
Supplement

Project Deutschland: Unpeeling the Onion of a Distressed Real Estate Portfolio

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

Keywords: Real Estate; Germany; Distress Investing; Non-performing Loan; Borrowing and Debt; Capital Structure; Private Equity; Negotiation Deal; Valuation; Real Estate Industry; Financial Services Industry; Germany; Europe

March 2016 (Revised October 2018)
Case

Project Deutschland: Unpeeling the Onion of a Distressed Real Estate Portfolio

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz and Ricardo Andrade

James Tallest analyzed the opportunity to invest in a distressed portfolio of high quality properties in Germany by acquiring one or more non-performing loans from Deutschland Bank. While he considers the many aspects of the deal that is about to unfold, he must decide... View Details

Keywords: Real Estate; Distress Investing; Non-performing Loan; Borrowing and Debt; Capital Structure; Private Equity; Negotiation Deal; Valuation; Real Estate Industry; Financial Services Industry; Germany; Europe

12 Mar 2018
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Why BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Is Not a Socialist

capitalists. He cofounded BlackRock in 1988 and has grown it into the world’s largest money manager with more than $6 trillion in assets under management. Yet many other fund managers, private equity executives, and activist investors... View Details

Keywords: by Bill George; Banking

15 Jun 2016
Research & Ideas

These VC Partners May Make Your Firm Less Innovative

“which is a fancy way of referring to all of the things you don’t have as a new company—products, knowledge, connections, resources.” The most common and effective way to make up for that lack is to find someone who can help you overcome it—most often a venture View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Financial Services; Banking

14 Jun 2018
News

Catalyzing Social and Economic Change in Rural Africa

development being led by private equity. What does this mean? There's a tremendous amount of natural capital in that region, and there's also a lot of development capital that is earmarked for impact.... View Details

Person Page

Media

This lists media reports covering my firm dollarDEX Investments or me (or my colleagues), or columns written by me (or my colleagues). There are all... View Details

December 2019
Case

WeWork Files for an IPO

By: Lynn S. Paine and Will Hurwitz

For the board of The We Company—better known as WeWork—August 14, 2019, promised to be a pivotal day. It was then that WeWork’s IPO prospectus, known as an S-1 filing, would be made public, giving potential investors, the media, and the general public a window into the... View Details

Keywords: Capital Structure; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Going Public; Leadership; Management; Private Equity; Valuation; Venture Capital; Real Estate Industry; Technology Industry; United States

16 Jun 2003
Research & Ideas

Surveying the VC Landscape

performance of venture capital funds. What could be done to make this information more readily available to investors? A: The lack of transparency in private equity is a major issue that is likely to attract... View Details

Keywords: by Ann Cullen; Financial Services

April 2000
Case

Francisco Partners

By: Josh Lerner and David L. Gallo

Francisco Partners (which focuses on buyouts of high-technology firms) aims to be the largest first-time fund ever raised. The rationales for the fund, fundraising strategy, and partnership terms and conditions are among the topics explored. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Leveraged Buyouts; Venture Capital; Financial Strategy; Partners and Partnerships; Strategy; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry

August 2018
Case

Tapping Growth at Lord Hobo Brewing Company

By: Ethan Rouen and Susanna Gallani

Lord Hobo Brewing Company accounts for its inventory process as it prepares to create its first set of professional financial statements for investors. View Details

Keywords: Inventory; Start-ups; Craft Brewing; Investing; GAAP; Brand Management; Accounting; Working Capital; Entrepreneurship; Private Equity; Business Startups; Business and Shareholder Relations; Food and Beverage Industry; Boston; New England; United States

May 2021
Article

Mutual Funds as Venture Capitalists? Evidence from Unicorns

By: Josh Lerner, Sergey Chernenko and Yao Zeng

The past decade saw the rise of both “founder-friendly” venture financings and non-traditional investors, frequently with liquidity constraints. Using detailed contract data, we study open-end mutual funds investing in private venture-backed firms. We posit an... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Investment; Business Startups; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Governance

Find at Harvard

April 2015 (Revised April 2015)
Case

Yale University Investments Office: February 2015

By: Josh Lerner

David Swensen and the Investments Office staff must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments—hedge funds, private equity, real estate—given the impact of the recent market turmoil. The case explores the risks... View Details

Keywords: Asset Management; Resource Allocation; Investment; Venture Capital; Investment Funds; Property; Private Equity