Publications

September 2011
Background Note

Term Sheet Negotiations: A "Rich-vs.-King" Approach

By: Noam Wasserman, Furqan Nazeeri and Kyle Anderson

To give students and entrepreneurs a framework to guide their term-sheet negotiations with Venture Capitalists. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Framework; Negotiation

23 Nov 2020
Blog Post

We Rise

When Hayley Barna (MBA 2010) launched the beauty startup Birchbox in 2010, she expected fundraising would be a challenge. Every entrepreneur knows the long odds: By some estimates, less than 1 percent of new companies receive that coveted View Details

24 Jun 2020
News

Why Are Black and Latino People Still Kept Out of the Tech Industry?

April 2000
Case

Financing of Project Achieve, The (A)

By: Mihir A. Desai

An entrepreneur is forced to analyze the tradeoffs between different equity providers through a detailed analysis of venture financing terms and cash flow forecasts. The founder of a Web-based IMS for schools must negotiate a term sheet, determine funding needs, value... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Forecasting and Prediction; Venture Capital; Cash Flow; Equity; Negotiation Deal; Valuation

April 2011
Case

The Sandbox: Creating a Bottom-Up Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Lynda M. Applegate, Rhea Ghosh and Amar Kumar

Discussion of new model of Social Enterprise that applies the venture capital model to social enterprise. View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Non-Governmental Organizations; Venture Capital; Business Model

October 2010 (Revised July 2011)
Case

PrimedicProviding Primary Care in Mexico

By: Richard G. Hamermesh, Regina Garcia-Cuellar and Lauren Sarah Margulies

Primedic is a Mexican start-up that aims to deliver affordable primary and preventative healthcare to those at the base of the economic pyramid. The company is about to exhaust its first round of venture capital funding and the business model has yet to gain traction.... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Startups; Developing Countries and Economies; Social Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Health Care and Treatment; Social Enterprise; Health Industry; Mexico

22 Sep 2020
News

Recessions Push Some Entrepreneurs to Launch Too Soon

05 Aug 2011
News

Failure is not an option. It's a necessity.

December 2008 (Revised February 2011)
Case

Evan Williams: From Blogger to Odeo (A)

By: Noam T. Wasserman and Louis-Philippe Maurice

For several months, founder-CEO Evan Williams has felt trapped, unable to control Odeo and its strategic direction. He longs for the "simple" days of Blogger, the previous venture he had co-founded. Although his Blogger experiences had included a major blow-up with his... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Information Technology Industry

September 2010 (Revised January 2016)
Case

Grameen Danone Foods Ltd., a Social Business

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Katharine Lee

Grameen Danone is a joint venture between the Grameen Group (a sister company of Grameen Bank) and Groupe Danone, a $2 billion (revenues) French food company. The company's goal was to provide nutritional yogurt (brand name Shoktidoi) for the nearly 50 million... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Social Entrepreneurship; Food; Distribution; Supply Chain Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Food and Beverage Industry; Bangladesh; France

Article

Is a VC Partnership Greater Than the Sum of Its Partners?

By: Michael Ewens and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf

This paper investigates whether individual venture capitalists have repeatable investment skill and to what extent their skill is impacted by the VC firm where they work. We examine a unique dataset that tracks the performance of individual venture capitalists'... View Details

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September 2019
Case

Funding Sources for Science & Technology Start-ups in India

By: Tarun Khanna, Arjun Swarup and Rachna Tahilyani

India's start-up ecosystem is amongst the largest globally, with a variety of funding options from angel investors, venture capital and corporate venture capital to debt. Classic consumer focused start-ups which look to leverage technology have been able to raise... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Business Startups; Science; Information Technology; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; Technology Industry; India; South Asia

October 2005
Case

Portfolio & Partnership

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Explores issues around the portfolio management and partnership behavior in a venture capital setting. View Details

Keywords: Investment Portfolio; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Partners and Partnerships; Financial Strategy