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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(3,240)
- People (4)
- News (1,032)
- Research (1,602)
- Events (7)
- Multimedia (21)
- Faculty Publications (1,310)
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- September 2019 (Revised December 2019)
- Case
Anthony Soohoo at Dot & Bo: Bringing Storytelling to Furniture E-Commerce
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Allison M. Ciechanover and George Gonzalez
The case provides students an opportunity to examine the founding of an e-commerce startup that used storytelling and compelling images to sell furniture and home accessories to millennials. The case describes the rapid sales growth the company experienced, as well as... View Details
Keywords: E-commerce; Startups; Furnishing; Leadership; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Failure; United States
Eisenmann, Thomas R., Allison M. Ciechanover, and George Gonzalez. "Anthony Soohoo at Dot & Bo: Bringing Storytelling to Furniture E-Commerce." Harvard Business School Case 820-036, September 2019. (Revised December 2019.)
- Article
How a Fast-Growing Startup Built Its Sales Team for Long-Term Success
By: Frank V. Cespedes and David Mattson
It’s common for leaders of sales teams to focus almost exclusively on short-term tactics and current operations while failing to think and act in a way that supports the longer-term needs of their businesses—and it’s hard to fault them. The biggest problem with a... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V., and David Mattson. "How a Fast-Growing Startup Built Its Sales Team for Long-Term Success." Harvard Business Review (website) (December 4, 2017).
- March 2022 (Revised May 2022)
- Case
Reclaiming the Land of Purple: Purpl’s Mission to Unlock Finance in Lebanon
By: Lauren Cohen and Grace Headinger
Karl Naim, Co-Founder and CEO of Purpl, embarked on a venture to lower remittance costs for his native Lebanon. Since October 2019, the Lebanese economy had entered a free fall as its banking sector collapsed and large swathes of its population were plunged into... View Details
Keywords: Business Startup; Fintech; Inflation; Deflation; Cross-border Frictions; Remittances; Business Startups; Diasporas; Financial Crisis; Money; Entrepreneurship; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Poverty; Financial Institutions; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; Lebanon
Cohen, Lauren, and Grace Headinger. "Reclaiming the Land of Purple: Purpl’s Mission to Unlock Finance in Lebanon." Harvard Business School Case 222-078, March 2022. (Revised May 2022.)
- 21 Oct 2015
- Research & Ideas
How to Predict if a New Business Idea is Any Good
nightly fee. Of course, now we know the idea as Airbnb, a $10 billion business with 1.5 million listings around the world. But back then it must have seemed crazy. The liability issues alone seemed insurmountable—to say nothing of the... View Details
- November 2011 (Revised December 2012)
- Case
Rent the Runway
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Laura Winig
Two months after a successful launch in November 2009, the cofounders of Rent the Runway (RTR), a website that rented designer dresses, are debating whether to grow their startup at a measured pace and focus on improving operational effectiveness, or raise a new round... View Details
Keywords: Lean Startup; Electronic Commerce; Fashion; Expansion; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; E-commerce; Fashion Industry
Eisenmann, Thomas R., and Laura Winig. "Rent the Runway." Harvard Business School Case 812-077, November 2011. (Revised December 2012.)
- January 2003 (Revised May 2005)
- Case
Zipcar: Refining the Business Model
By: Myra M. Hart, Michael J. Roberts and Julia Stevens
Zipcar is a start-up organized around the idea of "sharing" car usage via a membership organization. This case describes several iterations of the Zipcar business model and financial plan. These iterations include a very early version and a version developed just prior... View Details
Keywords: Service Operations; Renting or Rental; Business Model; Business Plan; Entrepreneurship; Economic Growth; Management Skills; Transportation; Business Startups; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Growth and Development Strategy; Transportation Industry; Service Industry
Hart, Myra M., Michael J. Roberts, and Julia Stevens. "Zipcar: Refining the Business Model." Harvard Business School Case 803-096, January 2003. (Revised May 2005.)
- 2022
- Working Paper
The Transformation of Self Employment
By: Innessa Colaiacovo, Margaret Dalton, Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr
Over the past half-century, while self-employment has consistently accounted for around one in ten of the United States workforce, its composition has changed. Since 1970, industries with high startup capital requirements have declined from 53% of self-employment to... View Details
Keywords: Self-employment; Startup Investment; Occupational Choice; Financing; Small Business; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Financing and Loans
Colaiacovo, Innessa, Margaret Dalton, Sari Pekkala Kerr, and William R. Kerr. "The Transformation of Self Employment." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-051, January 2022.
- August 2016
- Case
Collective Academy
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Christopher Payton
This case is about making the decision to become an entrepreneur and early challenges in setting up a business model and team. In 2015, Pato Bichara co-founded Collective Academy to create an affordable, three-year undergraduate experience to infuse innovation into... View Details
Keywords: Early Stage; Team Building; Business Startup; Trade-offs; Risk; Founders' Agreements; Education; Entrepreneurship; Business Model; Business Startups; Decision Making; Technology Industry; Mexico; Latin America; United States
Ghosh, Shikhar, and Christopher Payton. "Collective Academy." Harvard Business School Case 817-026, August 2016.
- March 2022 (Revised February 2024)
- Case
Emeritus: Achieving Impact, Providing Access (A)
By: Ashish Nanda and Zack Kurtovich
In June 2019, Emeritus cofounders Ashwin Damera (HBS MBA 2005) and Chaitanya Kalipatnapu were thrilled with the rapid growth of Emeritus. Damera and Kalipatnapu believed that Emeritus, established in July 2015 to offer online executive education, was only in the early... View Details
Keywords: Education Technology; Professional Service Firm; Startup; Digital Strategy; Global Business; Global Firm; Platform Business; Business Startups; Growth and Development; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Executive Education; Strategy; Education Industry; India
Nanda, Ashish, and Zack Kurtovich. "Emeritus: Achieving Impact, Providing Access (A)." Harvard Business School Case 722-429, March 2022. (Revised February 2024.)
- January 2014 (Revised December 2024)
- Case
MuMaté: Funding Growth
- 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
Eisenmann, Tom, ed. Managing Startups: Best Blog Posts. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2013.
- October 2021
- Supplement
Unshrinking the Pie: Desirée Stolar's Negotiation Saga (B)
By: James K. Sebenius and Alex Green
When Desirée (“Des”) Stolar’s wool sweater shrank two sizes, the Harvard Business School student worked with classmates to develop a solution that both fixed her problem and launched Unshrinkit, a successful consumer goods company with a widely-available product for... View Details
Keywords: Bargaining; Startups; Negotiation; Contracts; Negotiation Tactics; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Strategy; Consumer Products Industry
Sebenius, James K., and Alex Green. "Unshrinking the Pie: Desirée Stolar's Negotiation Saga (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 922-013, October 2021.
- December 2019 (Revised February 2024)
- Teaching Note
Ripple: The Business of Crypto and Ripple 2023
By: David B. Yoffie
The case explores Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s mission to disrupt the global payments industry by leveraging the cryptocurrency XRP. Students will learn about Bitcoin and the blockchain industry, as well as Ripple’s unique crypto business model. The case provides an... View Details
Keywords: Payment Systems; Cryptocurrency; Bitcoin; Blockchain; Fintech; Business Startups; Business Model; Disruption; Strategy
- April 2022
- Case
Pear Venture Capital
By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo
Keith Bender, Principal at Pear Venture Capital, is working over the weekend to prepare for a Monday morning investment meeting. He has three startup pitch decks in front of him, and he must choose one to recommend at the meeting. He finds that each company has its... View Details
Keywords: Seed Investing; Seed Financing; Startup; Decision Choices and Conditions; Presentations; Business Startups; Investment; Venture Capital; United States
Tango, Jo, and Alys Ferragamo. "Pear Venture Capital." Harvard Business School Case 822-097, April 2022.
- January 2017
- Case
Kada Orthopedics: A Bone of Contention
By: Kevin Schulman and Matt Strickland
Kada Orthopedics is a small implantable orthopedic device manufacturer founded by industry veterans trying to sell stable-technology products to an increasingly cost-conscious healthcare market. Although they have marginally successful product in early 2016, the... View Details
- September 2023
- Case
Breaking Barriers: How Brex is Shaping the Future of Financial Services for Startups
By: Marco Di Maggio, James Barnett and Susie L. Ma
In 2020, Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, co-founders and co-CEO’s of the fintech company Brex, needed to determine how to balance their vision with the desires of their investors. They intended to expand Brex’s offerings to include other products that served... View Details
Keywords: Business and Stakeholder Relations; Expansion; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurial Finance; Financial Services Industry
Di Maggio, Marco, James Barnett, and Susie L. Ma. "Breaking Barriers: How Brex is Shaping the Future of Financial Services for Startups." Harvard Business School Case 224-030, September 2023.
- December 2014 (Revised May 2015)
- Case
Growth Hacking at Bazaart (A)
By: Jeffrey Bussgang and Matthew G. Preble
The four founding members of Bazaart—a young Israeli company whose sole product was its eponymous mobile application (app) which allowed users to create collages from photographs and other images—face an important strategic decision in June 2014. Since its founding... View Details
Keywords: Growth Hacking; Customer Acquisition; Startup Marketing; Startup; Startup Nation; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Customers; Marketing; Social Marketing; Fashion Industry; Technology Industry; Israel
Bussgang, Jeffrey, and Matthew G. Preble. "Growth Hacking at Bazaart (A)." Harvard Business School Case 815-001, December 2014. (Revised May 2015.)
- September 2019 (Revised December 2019)
- Supplement
Anthony Soohoo: Retrospection on Dot & Bo
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Allison M. Ciechanover and George Gonzalez
The case describes the final year of the once-promising furniture e-tailer, Dot & Bo, that included a challenging fundraising market, troubles with logistics and operations, and a team tragedy. The founder looks back at the experience and shares his learnings about... View Details
Keywords: Startups; Furnishing; Leadership; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Internet and the Web; Failure; Learning; E-commerce; United States
Eisenmann, Thomas R., Allison M. Ciechanover, and George Gonzalez. "Anthony Soohoo: Retrospection on Dot & Bo." Harvard Business School Supplement 820-037, September 2019. (Revised December 2019.)
- October 2021
- Case
Unshrinking the Pie: Desirée Stolar's Negotiation Saga (A)
By: James K. Sebenius and Alex Green
When Desirée (“Des”) Stolar’s wool sweater shrank two sizes, the Harvard Business School student worked with classmates to develop a solution that both fixed her problem and launched Unshrinkit, a successful consumer goods company with a widely-available product for... View Details
Keywords: Bargaining; Startups; Negotiation; Contracts; Negotiation Tactics; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Strategy; Consumer Products Industry
Sebenius, James K., and Alex Green. "Unshrinking the Pie: Desirée Stolar's Negotiation Saga (A)." Harvard Business School Case 922-012, October 2021.
- 15 Nov 2017
- Research & Ideas
How Does a Social Startup Decide to Commercialize? It May Depend on the Founder's Gender
2016 Echoing Green Fellow Christine Su is co-founder and CEO of PastureMap. The for-profit software company helps sustainable ranchers record their grazing practices on mobile devices. (Photo courtesy of Echoing Green.) A division of labor has traditionally separated... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel