Publications

October 2022
Case

EducationSuperHighway 2.0

By: William A. Sahlman, Allison M. Ciechanover and Emily Grandjean

In 2012, Evan Marwell launched EducationSuperHighway (ESH) to address a major problem: though most public K-12 schools in the US had access to the Internet, only roughly 30% had true broadband access that would enable every student to have high speed connectivity. ... View Details

Keywords: Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Issues; Leading Change; Early Childhood Education; Infrastructure; Internet and the Web; Telecommunications Industry; Education Industry; Technology Industry; United States; San Francisco

May 2022
Case

Deborah Quazzo at GSV Ventures

By: William A. Sahlman, Michael D. Smith and Nicole Tempest Keller

As COVID-19 swept across the globe in 2020, the education sector faced unprecedented disruption. Schools and colleges worldwide shut down, forcing over a billion students and teachers to move to online learning. Investor interest in the EdTech space exploded as... View Details

Keywords: Edtech; Technology; Online Learning; COVID-19 Pandemic; Education; Information Technology; Venture Capital; Change Management; Strategy; Education Industry; Financial Services Industry; Chicago; California

February 2020 (Revised August 2020)
Case

San Francisco Ballet: On 'Pointe' for the Future

By: Rohit Deshpandé and Nicole Tempest Keller

The SF Ballet was regarded as one of the top ballet companies in the world. It had an enviable earned revenue percentage of almost 50% and had an internationally recognized ballet school. However, by 2019 the Ballet faced a number of challenges. Ballet was a European... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Business and Stakeholder Relations; Demographics; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Social Enterprise; Cultural Entrepreneurship; United States; San Francisco

March 2007
Article

The Evolution of Inventor Networks in the Silicon Valley and Boston Regions

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Networks; California; Boston

Find at Harvard

02 Dec 2016
News

The Story Behind the Stories

Aerosoles from Target and from the Aerosoles store. And then, I would wear a jacket and headscarf from the Islamic clothing store in Anaheim, California to really blend in so that nobody noticed us. And the truth is that, that-- then by... View Details

27 Jul 2019
Op-Ed

Does Facebook's Business Model Threaten Our Elections?

California passed a similar law last year, which will go into effect in 2020. It’s an open question whether that law will spur the US Congress to enact similar measures, or water down California’s law. Congress has been talking about a... View Details

Keywords: by George Riedel

January 2017 (Revised December 2017)
Case

Carmichael Roberts: To Create a Private Equity Firm?

By: Steven Rogers and Kenneth J. Cooper

Carmichael Roberts, a rare African-American venture capitalist, considered leaving his general partnership in a private equity firm near Boston and setting up his own in 2015. He weighed whether the timing was right, with the economy still not fully recovered from the... View Details

August 2023
Case

Quotient

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Matt Higgins

The founders of Quotient, a web-based service for onboarding new engineers, face decisions about how to bring their nascent product to market amidst a tech sector contraction. View Details

Keywords: Engineers; Entrepreneurial Management; Growth; Go-to-market; Product Management; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Product Launch; Market Entry and Exit; Strategy; New York (city, NY); San Francisco

05 May 2022
News

Lesson Plans

in the middle of Silicon Valley, I believe it was the first case of community spread in the United States. It was that weekend of the first week of March, California Public Schools were going to shut down. And so, we started stress... View Details

17 Apr 2019
News

Give It to Me Straight

in the case of Sheryl, it really boiled down to two things. Sheryl cared about me not just as an employee but as a human being. When I moved from New York to California to take the job at Google, I didn't really know very many people in... View Details

Keywords: Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

March 2025
Case

Boom, Bust, or Bullseye? Navigating the Short-Term Rental Market

By: John Macomber, Juan Pablo Heusser Killing, Siddhant Pardeshi and Sally Su

Short-term rentals listed via apps like AirBnB and VRBO are increasingly interesting investments for small-scale real estate investors. However, they have substantial operating costs, vacancy risk, and regulatory exposure compared to traditional long-term leases... View Details

Keywords: Housing; Acquisition; Entrepreneurship; Investment; Bids and Bidding; Leasing; Renting or Rental; Real Estate Industry; Accommodations Industry; Arizona; California; Texas

July 2020 (Revised September 2020)
Case

The Honor Foundation: Accessing Special Operations Talent

By: Boris Groysberg and John Masko

In 2020, The Honor Foundation (THF), a nonprofit dedicated to helping U.S. military special operators to transition into civilian careers, was facing a series of strategic challenges. THF had been founded in 2013 by former Navy SEAL trainee Joe Musselman, who observed... View Details

July 2000 (Revised June 2002)
Case

Dawn Riley at America True (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Kristin Doughty

Dawn Riley is the CEO/Captain of America True, the first coed syndicate to race for the America's Cup. Over three years, based on her vision for America True, she built the syndicate from scratch, bringing on investors and sponsors, designing and building a boat, and... View Details

Keywords: Management Style; Leadership; Problems and Challenges; Sports; Gender; Business Startups; North and Central America; New Zealand; San Francisco