Publications

May 1997 (Revised July 1997)
Case

Vermeer Technologies (C): Negotiating the Future

By: Ashish Nanda

The success of the Vermeer software offering suddenly transforms the start-up into a sought after company. After arduous negotiations, Vermeer management is faced with the choice of continuing as an independent company or being acquired by Microsoft or Netscape. View Details

Keywords: Negotiation; Applications and Software; Decision Making; Acquisition; Business Startups; Business Strategy; Information Technology Industry

Web

Meet the Team | Information Technology

Creative Director Dave has worked in Information Technology at the Harvard Business School since 1994. When then-Dean Kim Clark formed a new team to explore ways to infuse technology into the HBS case... View Details

September 2007 (Revised May 2009)
Case

Syndexa and Technology Transfer at Harvard University

By: Richard G. Hamermesh and David Kiron

Gokhan Hotamisligil is a star researcher at Harvard School of Public Health who has made groundbreaking discoveries linking fat cells, inflammation, and diabetes. He now wants to form a company to commercialize these discoveries. At the same time, Isaac Kohlberg, the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Higher Education; Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Invention; Intellectual Property; Rights; Agreements and Arrangements; Science-Based Business; Commercialization; Biotechnology Industry; Health Industry

March 2016
Case

N12 Technologies: Building an Organization and Building a Business

By: David A. Garvin and Aldo Sesia

N12 Technologies was a startup founded in 2010 that employed nanotechnology to manufacture a patented material to improve the performance of carbon fiber composites, which were used in a wide variety of products, ranging from bicycles to automobiles to aircraft parts.... View Details

Keywords: Startup; Organizational Structure; Nanotechnology; Business Processes; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Organizational Design; Management Systems; Commercialization; Industrial Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Bicycle Industry; Transportation Industry; United States

Web

Scaling Technology Ventures - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Scaling Technology Ventures Course Number 1788 Senior Lecturer Jeffrey Rayport Spring; Q3Q4; 3.0 credits 27 Sessions Exam or Project Career Focus Scaling Technology Ventures (STV) is... View Details

20 Jul 2017
News

Life Lab Nurtures Early Stage Startup Day Zero Diagnostics

and machine learning (Dougal Maclaurin), and Jong Lee (MBA 1999), a former consultant and startup executive with extensive experience in the medical technology space. “There is a huge unmet clinical need for... View Details

Keywords: Scientific Research and Development Services

January 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Rumie: Bringing Digital Education to the Underserved

By: John J-H Kim and Amram Migdal

In fall of 2015, the Toronto, Canada–based education technology nonprofit Rumie had distributed thousands of computer tablets preloaded with collections of thousands of pieces of curated educational content to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in some of the most... View Details

Keywords: Edtech; Education Technology; Social Enterprise; Nonprofit; Education Startup; Technological Innovation; Nonprofit Organizations; Social Entrepreneurship; Education; Business Startups; Education Industry; Canada; Africa

19 Jul 2016
News

HBS Startup Is Developing Tech-Enabled Jewelry to Stop Rapists

(Photo courtesy of Flare Jewelry) Is it possible to create a personal-safety device that can stop a physical assault, call for help, and collect evidence for the police? And be fashionable? Those are questions HBS students Sara de Zarraga and Quinn Fitzgerald (both MBA... View Details

Keywords: Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Retail Trade

2018
Article

Prior Ties and the Limits of Peer Effects on Startup Team Performance

By: Sharique Hasan and Rembrand Koning

We conduct a field experiment at an entrepreneurship bootcamp to investigate whether interaction with proximate peers shapes a nascent startup team's performance. We find that teams whose members lack prior ties to others at the bootcamp experience peer effects that... View Details

Keywords: Field Experiment; Peer Effects; Office Space; Knowledge Spillovers; Accelerators; Entrepreneurship; Knowledge Sharing; Performance; Technology Industry; India

August 2019 (Revised March 2023)
Case

Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital–backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management; Technology Industry

16 Mar 2025
News

How a Female-Led AI Startup Achieved a Successful Acquisition

24 May 2021
News

This Fintech Startup Thinks It Can Help Companies Build Conscious Business Cultures

01 Sep 2016
News

Case Study: Alumni Advice for a Health Care Startup

Illustration by Chris Gash Illustration by Chris Gash The New York City–based startup Wellthy began with a personal challenge. Lindsay Jurist-Rosner (MBA 2009) has helped arrange care for her mother, who suffers from a progressive form of... View Details

October 2018
Case

BreezoMeter: Making Air Pollution Data Actionable

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Allison M. Ciechanover and Margot Eiran

The case focuses on an Israeli startup that provides actionable air pollution data and forecasts. The company has over 50 enterprise customers and its tool reached a million people daily in 67 countries. The co-founders wrestle with which markets and customers to focus... View Details

Keywords: Startups; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Pollutants; Analytics and Data Science; Sales; Marketing; Decision Choices and Conditions; Technology Industry; Israel; United States

December 1998
Supplement

Vermeer Technologies (A): A Company Is Born

By: Ashish Nanda

The founding team of Vermeer Technologies, an entrepreneurial software start-up, discusses the opportunities and challenges confronting the company. View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry