Business Startups - Publications - Faculty & Research

May 13, 2021
Article

Why Today's Startups Pursue Both Ideas and Ideals

Startups typically operate with the mentality that growth and profit come first, higher calling comes second. This strategy, however, is misguided. Increasingly, entrepreneurs are imbuing their ventures with a grand ideal in addition to a great idea. This ideal not... View Details

Keywords: Mission and Purpose; Moral Sensibility; Business Startups

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09 May 2024
News

Your Startup Should Be an 'Experimentation Machine,' According to This Harvard Business School Professor

27 Aug 2010
News

Startup TeamBuy uses Chinese bargaining model

15 Feb 2011
News

Startup America: A Venture Capital Bailout?

13 Jan 2017
News

Fidelity funds high on hot startups

2025
Working Paper

With a Little Help from My Family: Informal Startup Financing

By: Brian K. Baik, Johan Ludvig S. Karlsen and Katja Kisseleva

Using Norwegian administrative data, we identify family equity investments in startups and examine their effects on investor returns and firm behavior. Informal investors earn lower returns than external individuals, and the firms they back are less likely to secure... View Details

Keywords: Early Stage Finance; Informal Investment; Household Finance; Risk Taking; Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurship; Personal Finance; Family and Family Relationships; Business Startups; Investment; Norway

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March 2016 (Revised April 2017)
Teaching Note

Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility (A): Introducing a New Model

By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jonathan Cohen

This note is for the purpose of aiding classroom instructors in the use of the Harvard Business School case "Bridj and the Business of Urban Mobility: Introducing a New Model." Instructors may use it to help students understand the challenges that come with disrupting... View Details

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28 Apr 2016
News

Health Care Dominates HBS Startup Comp

30 Apr 2021
News

If You Want Your Startup to Succeed, You Need to Understand Why Startups Fail

19 Apr 2023
News

A Kick Start for Latin American Startups

When Monica Saggioro Leal (MBA 2018) and her business partner, Lara Lemann, started MAYA Capital, a tech-focused, Brazilian VC firm launched in 2018, they wanted to take a hands-on approach with their View Details

Keywords: Maureen Harmon

06 Nov 2014
News

Building a Startup Community Beyond Commencement

As director of the Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab), Jodi Goldstein (MBA 1996) has watched a number of innovative student businesses thrive at the space in its three years of operation. But watching those students lose their access to this... View Details

August 2015 (Revised June 2016)
Supplement

Dinr: My First Start-up (B)

By: Shikhar Ghosh and Kristina Maslauskaite

Keywords: Business Exit; Business Startup; Business Exit or Shutdown; Business Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Food

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31 Jan 2023
News

Female Founders' Dilemmas; UK Tech Startups

Asha Haji, who was a global finalist for the 2022 Alumni New Venture Competition with her company Framework, an on-demand business school for professionals in the startup space, gave her insight on how... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

12 Dec 2022
News

Why Some Startups Fail to Scale

11 May 2018
News

Nigerian Tech Startup has Local—and Global—Impact

Photo via CBS News Photo via CBS News A recent CBS news story on Nigerian tech startup Andela—a software development firm—includes an interview with Seni Sulyman (MBA 2014), Andela’s president of global operations. Reflecting on his... View Details

May 2014
Article

Making 'Freemium' Work: Many Start-ups Fail to Recognize the Challenges of This Popular Business Model

By: Vineet Kumar

The article discusses the "freemium" business model, which is used by some Internet businesses and smartphone application developers to give users free basic features of a digital product and access to premium functionality for a subscription fee. The discussion topics... View Details

Keywords: Freemium; Startups; Product Design; Business Model; Marketing; Business Startups

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15 Oct 2019
News

Innovative Thinking Fuels Nascent Startup Scene

Amira Rashad (MBA 1998) Amira Rashad (MBA 1998) When Amira Rashad (MBA 1998) cofounded the grocery delivery platform BulkWhiz in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in spring 2017, she joined a nascent startup scene in the Middle East and... View Details

25 Aug 2022
Research & Ideas

It’s All in a Name: Reputable Investors Help Startups Shine

a new study coauthored by Harvard Business School Professor Shai Bernstein. “Attracting high-quality talent is an important challenge for any young firm, and it’s critical to establishing reputation and growth.” “One of the key challenges... View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

28 Feb 2025
News

Alumni Startup Enters the Shark Tank

This Friday night, Remento enters the Shark Tank. The startup, cofounded by CEO Charlie Greene (MBA 2021) in 2021, will be featured on this week’s episode of the long-running business show, pitching its “no-write life story book” vision... View Details