Publications

June 2024
Case

SnapTravel: Betting on 'Super.com'

By: Reza Satchu and Tom Quinn

This case explores SnapTravel, a travel startup offering discounted hotel rooms, and its founders’ desire to pivot to a “super app” that saved customers money across many different purchase types. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hussein Fazal and Henry Shi saw SnapTravel... View Details

November 2016 (Revised October 2018)
Case

IguanaFix

By: Frank V. Cespedes, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Maria Fernanda Miguel and Laura Urdapilleta

IguanaFix is a rapidly scaling Latin American startup that provides an online platform connecting consumers with home improvement contractors. The founders have acquired customers through both B2C and B2B methods. But in seeking to grow and scale the business, they now... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Home Improvement Services; Marketing Management; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Marketing; Sales; Online Advertising; Latin America

February 2024
Case

Nuwa Capital: Investing During Uncertainty

By: Paul A. Gompers and Fares Khrais

Nuwa Capital (Nuwa) was a venture capital firm based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The business was founded in 2020 by Khaled Talhouni and his partners Sarah Abu Risheh, and Stephanie Nour Prince (they were later joined by Nitin Reen... View Details

Keywords: Corporate Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Disruption; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Investment; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Strategy; Decisions; Middle East; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates; Dubai; Bahrain

16 May 2023
In Practice

After Silicon Valley Bank's Flameout, What's Next for Entrepreneurs?

investments and triggered a run on deposits, gave pause to startup investors and also holds lessons for founders going forward. Harvard Business School faculty suggest some key takeaways for the View Details

Keywords: by Avery Forman; Technology; Financial Services

June 2024 (Revised September 2024)
Case

Driving Scale with Otto

By: Rebecca Karp, David Allen and Annelena Lobb

This case asks how startup founders make scaling decisions in light of their priorities for their business and for themselves. Otto was a technology company that applied artificial intelligence technology to sales. It deployed natural language processing to find sales... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Natural Language Processing; B2B; B2B Innovation; Scaling; Scaling Tech Ventures; Business Startups; AI and Machine Learning; Finance; Sales; Business Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology Industry; United States; Cambridge; New York (city, NY); Spain

Teaching Interest

Scaling Ventures, HBS Online

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport

This course is for startup founders and senior leaders who have achieved product-market fit and now need to successfully guide their company through cycles of rapid growth and organizational change. Topics include optimal growth rate, recruiting and motivating... View Details

June 2020
Case

Career Karma: Growth in a Time of Global Uncertainty (A)

By: Laura Huang, Elizabeth Jiang and Brandon Yu

Career Karma is a startup focused on helping individuals looking to transition careers into computer engineering roles or similar fields by preparing them for formal technical training programs, or “coding bootcamps,” that would lead to a successful career pivot upon... View Details

16 Aug 2022
Op-Ed

Now Is the Time for Entrepreneurs to Play Offense

price and had a dozen offers in front of them. Today, layoffs—particularly at growth stage companies—have led to a massive pullback in startup hiring. Thus, some of the most talented people in our ecosystem are suddenly up for grabs... View Details

Keywords: by Jeffrey Bussgang

October 2022 (Revised November 2023)
Case

Framebridge (A): Reimagining Custom Framing

By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani

In December 2018, Susan Tynan, founder and CEO of Framebridge, a four-year-old venture-backed startup that sold online custom framing, formulated plans for the future. Her vision was to revolutionize the $4 billion industry by making custom framing easy, transparent,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Operations; Consumer Products Industry; United States; District of Columbia; Kentucky

03 Mar 2003
Research & Ideas

Top Ten Legal Mistakes Made by Entrepreneurs

subject to vesting. As partial consideration for their shares, each founder should be required to assign to the new corporation all inventions and works related to the company's proposed business. Incorporating early—before significant... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

December 1998 (Revised January 2001)
Case

Acer, Inc.: Taiwan's Rampaging Dragon

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Anthony St. George

Describes the strategic, organizational, and management changes that led Acer from its 1976 startup to become the world's second-largest computer manufacturer. Outlines the birth of the company, the painful "professionalization" of its management, the plunge into... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Leadership; Competitive Advantage; Global Strategy; Transformation; Computer Industry; Taiwan

November 2022
Case

Para: Pay Transparency and Gig Drivers' Rights

By: Christopher Stanton and George Gonzalez

The case presents the founding vision and early days of a young startup that seeks to empower delivery drivers with tools and transparency. The company's flagship mobile app has been taken up by tens of thousands of delivery drivers across major U.S. cities who use it... View Details

Keywords: Gig Workers; Corporate Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Applications and Software; Disruptive Innovation; Compensation and Benefits; Technology Industry; San Francisco

November 2014
Case

BRAC in 2014

By: Tarun Khanna, Rachna Tahilyani, Reeti Roy and Aldo Sesia

In the early 1970s BRAC was a startup nongovernmental organization (NGO) working in Bangladesh. By 2014, it was the world's largest NGO. It had a strong presence in Bangladesh and had begun to deliver social development programs in nine other countries. Its founder and... View Details

Keywords: BRAC; Bangladesh; NGO; Strategy; Business Model; Business Organization; Social Entrepreneurship; Innovation and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Social Enterprise; Social Issues; Poverty; Bangladesh

28 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 28

had raised a total of $12.5 million in funding and was, on many fronts, an overwhelming success. However, there were still no revenues. The founders decided it was time to experiment with different monetization strategies before deciding... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

21 Apr 2015
First Look

First Look: April 21

competitive system. April 2015 Strategic Management Journal The Throne vs. the Kingdom: Founder Control and Value Creation in Startups By: Wasserman, Noam Abstract—Does the degree to which View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel & Sean Silverthorne

March 2017
Teaching Note

Showpad

By: Frank Cespedes

Showpad is a startup that provides a sales enablement platform and tools. The venture has grown 100% annually since its founding four years ago, and the founders are evaluating growth options and decisions in three areas: adding product features, possible pricing... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Sales

March 2001 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Honest Tea

By: Paul A. Gompers

This case examines the decisions of Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff, founders of Honest Tea. Honest Tea is a start-up in the ready-to-drink tea market. Goldman and Nalebuff must craft an expansion and financing strategy. View Details

Keywords: Financial Strategy; Expansion; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Decisions

Research Summary

Dissertation topic: The invisible hand and the good of communities: How institutional logics matter in local banks

How do individuals’ backgrounds and identities influence the strategies and success of newly founded ventures? In my dissertation, I explore the impact on local bank startups of their founders’ community and financial identities. Those identities have... View Details

January 2000 (Revised March 2000)
Case

Cachet Technologies

By: Paul A. Gompers and Howard Reitz

Describes the decision facing Danny Lewin, Jonathan Seelig, and Tom Leighton, the founders of Cachet Technologies, an MIT spin-out. The firm has done poorly in the annual MIT business plan competition and the founders have to decide whether to continue. View Details

Keywords: Decision Making; Business Startups; Business Plan; Failure; Cooperative Ownership; Business Strategy; Financial Services Industry