Publications

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February 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Raising Capital at BzzAgent (Abridged)

By: William A. Sahlman and Christopher Payton

August 2003 (Revised May 2009)
Background Note

Basic Venture Capital Formula, The

By: William A. Sahlman and Matthew Willis

Briefly summarizes the process that venture capitalists use to analyze high-risk, long-term investments. Contains information on methods that can be used to calculate valuation, share price, percent ownership, implied valuation, dilution, and option pools. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Risk Management; Mathematical Methods; Valuation

December 2000
Case

SupplierMarket.com (A)

By: William A. Sahlman and Jared Stone

Describes a decision confronting the cofounders of a B2B Internet firm that focuses on the purchasing process for manufactured direct materials. The company has raised one round of capital from two prominent venture capital firms and must decide if it makes sense to... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Customers; Decisions; Venture Capital; Internet

September 1995
Case

Richina Capital Partners Limited

By: William A. Sahlman and Jason Green

Richard Yan and Suzanne Foels raise a $52.5 million fund to invest in Chinese companies in concert with major multinational companies. They face all the challenges of starting a business from scratch in addition to the challenges of operating in a cross-cultural... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Venture Capital; Problems and Challenges; Emerging Markets; Multinational Firms and Management; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Governance Compliance; Business Strategy; Expansion; Investment Return; China

Find at Harvard

June 2013 (Revised August 2017)
Case

Coupa

By: Michael Roberts and William Sahlman

The case describes the growth of Coupa, a software as a service platform for procurement / expense management. The issues in the case are around how fast to grow and how to finance that growth. The case includes a detailed financial model that will help students... View Details

Keywords: Managing Growth; Sales Force Management; Growth Management; Entrepreneurship; Salesforce Management

17 Jul 2012
First Look

First Look: July 17

identified and classified in terms of specifying, allocating, and utilizing capacity. The first two categories reflect challenges faced by infrastructure providers; the last category, challenges faced by... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Dec 2018
News

Lifelong Learning about Leadership

offered in June 2018 by Executive Education and Alumni Programs. It is one of several learning opportunities HBS is developing to enable alumni to remain relevant, connected, and engaged throughout their lives. Faculty co-chairs Thomas... View Details

August 2021
Case

Andreessen Horowitz’s Cultural Leadership Fund (A)

By: Anita Elberse, Briana Richardson and Cydni Williams

In May 2020, Chris Lyons, a partner at leading venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz receives the news that his company has reached a verbal agreement with one of Silicon Valley’s hottest social-media startups to lead its ‘Series A’ funding round, in a deal that... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Talent Management; General Management; Inclusion; Talent and Talent Management; Diversity; Venture Capital; Entrepreneurship; Networks; Nonprofit Organizations

27 May 2014
News

Crowdsourcing the Capitalist's Dilemma

Dilemma" in Harvard Business Review. Editorial Counsel Tom Hulme (MBA 2007, OpenIDEO), Professor Karim Lakhani, Professor Gautam Mukunda, Michael Raynor (BDA 2000), Professor William Sahlman Working Team... View Details

Keywords: April White; Management of Companies and Enterprises; Management

Web

Rock 100: The Summit - Entrepreneurship

Stevenson Professor of Business Administration Joseph B. Lassiter , Senator John Heinz Professor of Management Practice in Environmental Management Meredith L. McPherron , Director of the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship William A.... View Details

24 Jan 2012
First Look

First Look: Jan. 24

(Study 1). Product priming also increases the speed with which product-relevant individuals come to mind (Study 2). In Study 3, consumers felt subjectively closer to networks primed by specific products, and this felt closeness predicted... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

01 Apr 1998
News

Plunging Into the Net

and more cases, of doing business. As millions of individuals and organizations stake out positions on the Information Highway with Web sites, the nature of business is changing. "The Internet provides new ways to do old things," says HBS professor View Details

01 Dec 2013
News

Your Own Medicine

WILLIAMS CHARLEY SECKLER in the midst of the first-ever trial for a DMD treatment at Johns Hopkins University. Photo courtesy the Seckler Family by Dan Morrell There's this picture of Charley Seckler from... View Details

Keywords: Morrell, Daniel; biomedicine; biopharmaceutical company; Ambulatory Health Care Services; Health, Social Assistance

February 1981 (Revised June 1993)
Case

Harris Seafoods, Inc.

By: William E. Fruhan Jr. and William A. Sahlman

Presents data relevant to a major capital expenditure--the construction of a shrimp plant. Designed to test student's ability to identify relevant cash flows, to estimate the cost of capital, and to decide whether or not to invest. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Cash Flow; Cost of Capital; Factories, Labs, and Plants; Food and Beverage Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry

May 2015 (Revised December 2015)
Teaching Plan

BOLT: Seed Venture Capital Firm

By: William Sahlman and Robert White