Publications

December 2012 (Revised February 2014)
Case

Crafting a Founder Agreement at HealthCraft

By: Noam Wasserman, Janet Kraus and Yael Braid

HealthCraft's three founders are about to craft their founding agreement and split the equity among themselves. Uncertainty lingers over each member's future contributions, though—how is the team to devise a durable and effective split? Ever since consultant Kevin... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurs; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Health Industry

February 2024
Supplement

Ada: Advice for Potential Founders

By: Reza Satchu and Patrick Sanguineti

Mike Murchison, cofounder and CEO of Ada, shares his advice for potential founders. View Details

Keywords: Founder; Entrepreneur; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial Finance

14 Jul 2021
News

The First Five Years: Nicolas Manes (MBA 2020)

our network of group buyers.” More generally, how do you use what you learned at HBS in your work as cofounder and chief growth officer of Nilus? “At HBS, I gained full access to the global startup ecosystem. Additionally, the school gave... View Details

Career Coach

Sasha Grinshpun

have the conversation around, "What do you really want?!" Sasha graduated from the Harvard Business School, with a concentration in innovation, organizational behavior and design thinking. She finished Yale, with a BA in... View Details

Keywords: Startup - Founder; Startup - Founder; Startup - Founder; Startup - Founder; Startup - Founder; Startup - Founder

01 Dec 2020
News

Quantum Leap

time. They spun Aliro out of Harvard’s Quantum Information Science Lab, then incubated it at the Harvard i-lab. Ricotta came on board in 2019. A seasoned tech CEO, he had already launched a number of startups into emerging networking... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing; Manufacturing

25 Feb 2020
News

3-Minute Briefing: Ellen Pao (MBA 1998)

Startups can lead the way. There’s more innovative thinking, a willingness to take risks and to try new things. Eventually, these startups will get bigger and more successful, and those values of diversity... View Details

Keywords: April White; photo by Eric Millette

October 2022
Supplement

Beam Dental (A): Pitch Deck Supplement 2

By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani

Early pitch deck (two of two). This case is a supplement to Beam Dental (A) 723-355. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Business Strategy; Entrepreneurship; United States; Kentucky; Ohio

01 Dec 2014
News

Innovation: The Fish-Farming Fix

eggs have a short shelf life. Norway’s salmon farms meet some 40 percent of global demand for the species, for instance, but can harvest eggs only during the few months of spawning season. How do you boost production the rest of the year? That’s the problem being... View Details

Keywords: Francis Storrs; aquaculture; Fishing, Hunting and Trapping; Agriculture

17 Nov 2015
News

How to Prepare for Shark Tank

What’s it like to appear on ABC-TV’s popular start-up series Shark Tank? In a word, nerve-wracking. Just ask Desiree Stolar and Nate Barbera (both MBA 2015), cofounders of Unshrinkit, a Harvard-born startup that has developed a formula... View Details

Keywords: Chemical Manufacturing; Manufacturing

March 1998 (Revised October 1998)
Case

Siebel Systems (B)

By: Michael J. Roberts, Joseph B. Lassiter III and Nicole Tempest

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Marketing; Software; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Sales; Information Technology Industry

01 Jun 2012
News

Pitfalls, Trade-Offs, Dreaming Big

book, The Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup (Princeton University Press), draws on data gleaned from nearly 4,000 high-potential start-ups and 10,000 founders, while incorporating case... View Details

Keywords: Garry Emmons; Health, Social Assistance; Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services; Information; News, Library, Internet, and Other Services; Information

January 1983 (Revised August 1988)
Case

Universal Robotics Corp.

Three former classmates are founding a company to design, develop, manufacture, and market industrial robots. Principal issues involve the sources, amount, and form of outside investment, the allocation of equity, and the terms and conditions under which outside funds... View Details

Keywords: Technology; Business Startups; Corporate Finance; Manufacturing Industry; Technology Industry

2004
Case

Neology: Embedded Opportunities in the RFID Space (A)

By: Roberto Charvel and Atul Joshi

Neology was a pioneer in the RFID industry that was able to attract U.S. Army contracts and secure financing by creating a holding company in the U.S., while being a Mexican company. View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Finance; Venture Capital; Emerging Market; Business Startups; Innovation and Invention; Technology

August 1991
Case

Momenta Corp. (A)

Momenta is a one-month-old high-tech company founded by Kamran Elahian who has already helped found two other successful firms. Having faced problems of teamwork and communication before, Kamran is determined to establish the right corporate culture early on. Teaching... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Culture; Business Startups