Publications

20 May 2022
Blog Post

Nucleate Eco: Connecting Aspiring MBA Entrepreneurs with Cutting Edge Climate Research

national and looks to expand to even more US cities next year. Our founding goal was to help take university research out of the lab and help form startups around it to tackle real-world problems in sustainability. Our teams are focused... View Details

22 May 2017
Lessons from the Classroom

A Luxury Industry Veteran Teaches the Importance of Aesthetics to Budding Business Leaders

former MTV VJ) Sian-Pierre Regis, founder of the online publication Swagger and a frequent pop culture contributor to CNN Headline News and Men’s Journal; Michelle Goldman, a partner at the venture capital firm Ignition Partners, who sits on the board of several... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Beauty & Cosmetics; Apparel & Accessories; Auto; Tourism

December 2004 (Revised April 2014)
Case

Stan Lapidus: Profile of a Medical Entrepreneur

By: Robert F. Higgins and Sophie LaMontagne

Describes the career path and insights of Stanley Lapidus, a successful serial entrepreneur in the medical and life sciences industry. Lapidus is the founder of Cytyc Corp. (NASDAQ: CYTC) and EXACT Sciences (NASDAQ: EXAS) and is currently the CEO of his third start-up,... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Experience and Expertise; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Managerial Roles; Health Industry

Web

Get Involved - Entrepreneurship

across the country and the world. Rock Summer Fellow mentors are locally based and provide fellows with guidance throughout their 10-week program. Meet with EiRs During the academic year, our EiRs provide startup counsel and advice to our... View Details

23 Nov 2020
Research & Ideas

COVID Was Supposed to Increase Bankruptcies. Instead, They've Gone Down.

Recover Gracefully After Shutting Down Your Startup Coronavirus Could Create a 'Bankruptcy Pandemic' Financial Meltdowns Are More Predictable Than We Thought Share your insights about this story below. View Details

Keywords: by Rachel Layne

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

July 2006 (Revised February 2007)
Case

LinkedIn (A)

By: Mikolaj Jan Piskorski

In the summer of 2005, LinkedIn, a two-year-old start-up, was choosing between two options to monetize its 5 million business people network. Members could contact each other through trusted intermediaries on the network to offer or seek jobs, consulting engagements,... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Business Growth and Maturation; Internet and the Web; Social and Collaborative Networks; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Service Industry

06 Feb 2023
Blog Post

African American Student Union Spotlight on HBCUs

Before HBS, I worked in tech as a Product Marketing Manager on the YouTube Ads Marketing and Google for Startup teams. I also interned as a summer Investment Analyst at Obvious Ventures, an early-stage venture firm, where I focused on... View Details

01 Jun 2024
News

Firm Foundation

Courtesy Tracy Britt Cool Courtesy Tracy Britt Cool Tracy Britt Cool (MBA 2009) has been playing the long game as long as she can remember. The former Berkshire Hathaway executive grew up in a family business: Her father was a third-generation farmer in Manhattan,... View Details

Keywords: Janelle Nanos; private equity; Warren Buffett; career path; investment strategy; family business; Finance

July 2007 (Revised February 2010)
Case

Saffronart.com: Bidding for Success

By: Mukti Khaire and R. Daniel Wadhwani

Saffronart, a five-year-old online art auction company, leads the market for modern Indian art and now faces competitors in the market it created. Established in 2000 by the wife-and-husband team of Minal and Dinesh Vazirani, Saffronart.com is an innovative online... View Details

Keywords: Arts; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Auctions; Industry Growth; Competition; Online Technology; Fine Arts Industry; India

22 Feb 2022
News

Breaking News

otherwise. We’ve gone through a decade of journalist entrepreneurs being able to get—or thinking they can get—philanthropic funding as a runway to get their startup going. As with other business models that are weighted too heavily in one... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; illustration by Dana Smith; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

01 Aug 1998
News

High Honors

consider, however, only one will win their support. For the select few startups that pass through Idanta's screen - some thirty companies that have created more than 40,000 jobs since Dunn founded the firm in 1971- there are significant... View Details

June 2010 (Revised February 2011)
Case

The Fox Islands Wind Project (A)

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III, James Thomas Corcoran, Max Gazor, Dylan Hogarty and Alexander H. Somers, Jr.

The market for electricity on the Fox Islands of North Haven and Vinalhaven, Maine is unique and costly for residents. Historically, electricity prices on the islands had been three times the national average because of the high cost of importing electricity via an... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Renewable Energy; Social Entrepreneurship; Cost; Financing and Loans; Projects; Business and Community Relations; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology Industry; Maine

January 2010 (Revised December 2012)
Case

Knight the King: The Founding of Nike

By: Noam Wasserman and Kyle Anderson

It had taken Phil Knight 16 long years to build Nike into the number one athletic-shoe company in the country. When Knight had first conceived of the company for an MBA class project, Adidas had had more than 80% market share, but Knight's marketing approach had... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Initial Public Offering; Leadership; Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Competitive Advantage; Apparel and Accessories Industry

January 2011 (Revised April 2023)
Course Overview Note

The Coming of Managerial Capitalism: Overview

By: Tom Nicholas

This is a course overview note for The Coming of Managerial Capitalism. CMC is chronologically organized. It starts in the late eighteenth century when America gained independence, spans the remarkable rise to industrial maturity during the nineteenth and twentieth... View Details

Keywords: Business History; Business or Company Management; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Welfare; War; Transformation; Information Technology; Finance; Situation or Environment; Decision Making; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; United States

March 2000 (Revised May 2001)
Case

Silicon Valley Bank

By: G. Felda Hardymon and Ann Leamon

Silicon Valley Bank, a $4 billion institution in California, has made its reputation by working with venture capitalists in backing start-up companies. In 1999, it is forced to compete with nonbank financial institutions that can give money on better terms and in a... View Details

Keywords: Banks and Banking; Business Startups; Competitive Strategy; Financial Institutions; Financing and Loans; Financial Markets; Venture Capital; Private Equity; Entrepreneurship; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; California