Publications

29 Jul 2013
News

Monarchs versus managers

August 2013
Article

The Price of Diversifiable Risk in Venture Capital and Private Equity

By: Michael Ewens, Charles Jones and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

This paper explores the private equity and venture capital (VC) markets and extends the standard principal-agent problem between the investors and venture capitalist to show how it alters the interaction between the venture capitalist and the entrepreneur. Since the... View Details

Keywords: Price; Risk and Uncertainty; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Contracts; Investment; Competition; Agency Theory; Investment Return; Forecasting and Prediction; Theory; Diversification

Read Now

28 Jun 2016
First Look

June 28, 2016

support the proposed theoretical framework and bear important implications from both a theoretical and practical viewpoint. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=47062 Entrepreneurs and the Co-Creation of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

19 Mar 2013
News

3 Traits That Can Make or Break a Businessperson

15 Apr 2015
Other Presentation

The Social Progress Paradigm Shift

By: Michael E. Porter

The last 50 years have been dominated by the idea that economic growth is the most direct route to better lives for the world's expanding population. But the signs are everywhere—environmental destruction, inequality, injustice—that economic development alone is not... View Details

Keywords: Society; England; Social Entrepreneurship; Civil Society or Community; Economic Growth; Innovation and Invention; England

Read Now

March 2007 (Revised April 2011)
Case

Madam C.J. Walker: Entrepreneur, Leader, and Philanthropist

By: Nancy F. Koehn, Anne Dwojeski, William Grundy, Erica Helms and Katherine Miller

Madam C. J. Walker, who has been credited as the first self-made African-American woman millionaire, created a hair-care empire after years spent as a laundress in St. Louis, Missouri. Decades before the Civil Rights movement, her company gave employment to thousands... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Business History; Race; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Gender; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Saint Louis

20 Feb 2020
News

WeWork: How the ultimate unicorn lost its billions

01 May 2007
First Look

First Look: May 1, 2007

products around the world. Madam Walker was active in the social and political causes of her day, and used her position as a successful entrepreneur to promote philanthropy and self-advancement in the African-American community. Purchase... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2013
Book

Managing Startups: Best Blog Posts

By: Tom Eisenmann

Harvard Business School Professor Tom Eisenmann annually compiles the best posts from many blogs on technology startup management, primarily for the benefit of his students. This book makes his latest collection available to the broader entrepreneur community. Divided... View Details

Keywords: Lean Startup; Startup; Prototyping; MVP; Minimum Viable Product; Freemium; SaaS; A/B Testing; Business Model

24 Jun 2010
News

Interview with Professor Geoffrey Jones, author of Beauty Imagined

20 Jun 2019
News

What Tech Pioneers Can Learn From Emerging Markets

Video

Geoffrey Jones, Author of Beauty Imagined, Part 2

February 2016 (Revised May 2016)
Case

Dinr: My First Start-up (A)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Kristina Maslauskaite

In May 2012, a young employee at Google's London office, Markus Berger, was thinking whether he should quit his job and go after his dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Berger's idea was to create Dinr, a company that would offer an upscale food ingredient delivery... View Details

Keywords: Exit Strategy; Startup; Start-up; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Food

January 2005 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Gretta Enterprises

Describes Gretchen ("Gretta") Monahan's founding and management of Gretta Enterprises, which has grown to five outlets--salons, day spas, and fashion boutiques--and $10 million in annual revenue in 10 years. Monahan's role as a television host on TLC's A Makeover Story... View Details

Keywords: Growth Management; Entrepreneurship; Leadership Style; Fashion Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

Find at Harvard

18 Jul 2024
Blog Post

Harvard Business School Announces Its 2024-2025 Blavatnik Fellows

programmatic guidance and mentorship, and join a community of entrepreneurs who have created 45 companies and raised over $520M in funding to impact the business of science. To date, Blavatnik Fellows have created 45 companies in... View Details

January 2019
Case

First Aid Beauty

By: Karen Mills and Annie Dang

In 2008, Lilli Gordon, an experienced financial and skincare entrepreneur, founded First Aid Beauty (FAB). She had discovered a white space in the prestige beauty market: high-end skin solutions that were suitable for sensitive skin. After initial success through... View Details

Keywords: Prestige Beauty; Skincare; Preferred Shares; Common Stock; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Decision Choices and Conditions; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry

06 Oct 2015
First Look

October 6, 2015

impact on entrepreneurship, using individual- and firm-level micro data from Denmark. The reform allowed entrepreneurs to bypass the project screening function of banks, by instead relying on the value of housing collateral to access... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

17 Jan 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research: January 17

forthcoming Handbook of International Trade and Transportation Transportation Cost and the Geography of Foreign Investment By: Alfaro, Laura, and Maggie Chen Abstract—Falling transportation costs and rapid technological progress in recent decades have precipitated an... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2024
Working Paper

“If You’re Not There… You’re Not There”: How Art Market Platforms Induce Status Anxiety to Coerce Participation

By: James Riley and Ezra Zuckerman Sivan

This paper, an 18-month ethnographic investigation of international art fairs (IAFs), shows how market platforms can have a coercive effect, inducing sellers (i.e., art galleries) to participate despite ambivalence over their value and anxiety over the process by which... View Details

Keywords: Market Participation; Status and Position; Competition; Demand and Consumers; Fine Arts Industry