Publications

November 2002 (Revised October 2003)
Case

Circles: Series D Financing

By: Paul W. Marshall and Kristin Lieb

Circles, a corporate concierge company on the verge of profitability, must make a decision whether to take a D-round venture capital despite ever-changing and ever-worsening terms. A four-year-old company with several major clients, it has met its business plan... View Details

Keywords: Cost vs Benefits; Financing and Loans; Management Teams; Growth and Development Strategy; Negotiation Process; Venture Capital; Governing and Advisory Boards; Entrepreneurship; Service Industry; Consulting Industry; Massachusetts

February 2024
Teaching Note

Accelerating with Caution: Forecasting and Managing birddogs' Growth (A) and (B)

By: Mark Egan

Teaching Note for HBS Case Nos. 224-023 and 224-024. As 2017 was drawing to a close, birddogs’ founder and CEO, Peter Baldwin, was working with his CFO Jack Sullivan to prepare for 2018. A nascent direct-to-consumer apparel brand, birddogs had carved its niche in men’s... View Details

Keywords: Inventory Management; Forecasting Demand; Financial Constraints; Apparel; Startups; Corporate Finance; Forecasting and Prediction; Working Capital; Financing and Loans; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Demand and Consumers; Apparel and Accessories Industry; United States

2012
Working Paper

Payout Taxes and the Allocation of Investment

When corporate payout is taxed, internal equity (retained earnings) is cheaper than external equity (share issues). If there are no perfect substitutes for equity finance, payout taxes may therefore have an effect on the investment of firms. High taxes will favor... View Details

Keywords: Business Earnings; Equity; Financing and Loans; Investment; Taxation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Motivation and Incentives

Read Now

July 2009 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Blue Ocean or Stormy Waters? Buying Nix Check Cashing

By: Peter Tufano

Kinecta Federal Credit Union has the opportunity to purchase Nix Check Cashing as part of their "blue ocean" strategy to reach the financially underserved and increase credit union membership and deposits. But they face financial as well as reputational risk. Check... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Credit; Financing and Loans; Personal Finance; Strategic Planning; Partners and Partnerships; Reputation; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry

06 Jul 2010
Research & Ideas

Renewable Energy: Winds at Our Back?

When American energy entrepreneur Jim Gordon envisioned the first offshore wind farm lining the horizon a few miles off the coast of the eastern United States, he perhaps did not factor in blowback from almost every angle. Gordon's nearly 10-year battle to gain... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Energy; Utilities

Web

DEC - Georges F. Doriot : Educating Leaders, Building Companies, Baker Library, Harvard Business School

1957, Olsen and Anderson submitted a four-page, typewritten business proposal to ARD, followed in May by a nine-page proposal. 43 ARD offered the two entrepreneurs $70,000 in equity financing for a 70 percent share and an additional loan... View Details

12 Oct 2017
Working Paper Summaries

The Decline of Big-Bank Lending to Small Business: Dynamic Impacts on Local Credit and Labor Markets

Keywords: by Brian S. Chen, Samuel G. Hanson, and Jeremy C. Stein; Banking

September 2019
Supplement

Adaptive Platform Trials: The Clinical Trial of the Future? (B)

By: Ariel D. Stern and Sarah Mehta

This case provides an update to the (A) case, which introduces students to adaptive platform trials, an ambitious, more efficient type of clinical trial that increases access to therapies. The (A) case centers on Dr. Brian Alexander’s efforts to launch an adaptive... View Details

Keywords: Clinical Trials; Drug Trials; Drug Testing; Cancer Trials; Glioblastoma; Platform Trials; Adaptive Trials; Adaptive Platform Trials; Health Testing and Trials; Health Care and Treatment; Financing and Loans; Business Strategy; Health Industry; United States

November 2006 (Revised October 2007)
Case

Artisan Entertainment Inc.

Geoff Rehnert and Marc Wolpow have left Bain Capital to launch Audax Group. As part of their separation, they have been granted 90-day options to purchase Bain Capital's stake in a number of portfolio companies at Fair Market Value. As they conside whether to exercise... View Details

Keywords: Leveraged Buyouts; Private Equity; Financing and Loans; Investment Funds

15 Apr 2022
News

Funding His Purpose

money.’” In the years since, SITAWI has evolved to meet the ever-changing needs of the Brazilian nonprofit and for-profit positive impact community. It is now, in part, a lending platform. Instead of directly making loans, the organization provides the infrastructure... View Details

January 1987 (Revised March 1989)
Background Note

Note on the Pricing of Mortgage-Backed Securities

By: Jay O. Light and Jeremy C. Stein

An introduction to mortgage-backed securities, prepayment risk, and their market pricing. View Details

Keywords: Price; Debt Securities; Mortgages; Financial Services Industry

January 2014 (Revised December 2024)
Case

MuMaté: Funding Growth

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Joseph Fuller, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Alex Godden and Andrew Sandoe

Keywords: Startup; Business Startups; Financing and Loans; Venture Capital; Consumer Products Industry; United States

December 20, 2007
Article

Profit And Poverty: Why It Matters

By: Michael Chu

Commentary on investing in microfinance View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Profit; Poverty; Financial Services Industry

February 2005 (Revised July 2005)
Case

Aluminium Bahrain (Alba): The Pot Line 5 Expansion Project

By: Benjamin C. Esty and Aldo Sesia

In September 2002, Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) needed to decide how to finance its proposed $1.7 billion pot line. The company's financial adviser, Taylor De-Jongh (TDJ), had recommended Alba employ a multisourced financing strategy using as many as five sources of debt... View Details

Keywords: Project Finance; Emerging Markets; Financing and Loans; Investment; Capital; Financial Strategy; Manufacturing Industry; Bahrain

January 2002 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Publishing Group of America (A)

By: Jay O. Light, Michael J. Roberts and Taslim Pirmohamed

A small start-up in the publishing business compares three possible alternatives for its new round of equity financing. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Venture Capital; Equity; Financing and Loans; Information Publishing; United States

December 2010
Article

Building Sustainable Hybrid Organizations: The Case of Commercial Microfinance Organizations

By: Julie Battilana and Silvia Dorado

We explore how new types of hybrid organizations (organizations that combine institutional logics in unprecedented ways) can develop and maintain their hybrid nature in the absence of a "ready-to-wear" model for handling the tensions between the logics they combine.... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Structure; Microfinance; Growth and Development Strategy; Identity; Commercialization; Balance and Stability; Policy; Recruitment; Business Model

February 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

Endeca Technologies (A)

By: G. Felda Hardymon, Josh Lerner and Ann Leamon

Steve Papa, CEO of Endeca Technologies, must decide among two term sheets raising the same amount of badly needed money for his young software company. One deal is led by insiders and, is offered at a lower price. It continues a board that has worked very well and... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Cost vs Benefits; Financial Condition; Financing and Loans; Management Skills; Financial Strategy; Corporate Finance; Decision Choices and Conditions; Information Technology Industry