Publications

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28 May 2019
News

In My Humble Opinion: Family Dynamic

are already working behind the scenes to build businesses; and her angel investing network offers capital to some, such as Krakakoa, a women-owned cocoa startup that has been helping smallholder farmers in Lampung through fair trade and... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; Offices of Other Holding Companies; Management

April 2005
Article

Entrepreneurial Spawning: Public Corporations and the Genesis of New Ventures, 1986-1999

By: Paul A. Gompers, Josh Lerner and David S. Scharfstein

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Public Ownership

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January 1998
Case

Jerry Sanders

In 1997, Jay Sanders sold his 10-month-old medical device start-up company for more than $33 million. Looking to the future, he wondered if this was a success he could transform into a medical device brokerage business. As he reviewed his career history and the... View Details

Keywords: Personal Development and Career; Business Startups; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Service Industry

January 1998 (Revised September 2001)
Case

Genset: 1989

By: Paul A. Gompers and Amy Burroughs

Discusses the start-up strategy at Genset, a French biotech firm. Pascal Brandys, a venture capitalist, and Marc Vasseur, a leading French scientist, must decide how to proceed. Future real options are central to the strategy. View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Biotechnology Industry; France

January 2013
Supplement

SMARTBITES (B): May 2009

By: Michael Roberts and Amar Bhide

The case describes a Turkish brother and sister team who are evaluating the option of acquiring and operating a franchise of a large US bakery/cafe for Turkey. They are comparing this option to that of simply starting a similar business. View Details

Keywords: Franchising; Start-up; Franchise Ownership; Business Startups; Food and Beverage Industry; Turkey

July 2001 (Revised August 2002)
Case

Jamcracker

Jamcracker, a well-financed, young company is attempting to transform how IT services are delivered during a period of high-tech pessimism. Jamcracker is trying to popularize an "application service provider" (ASP) model of service delivery that will, if successful,... View Details

Keywords: Service Delivery; Information Technology; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry; Service Industry

26 Feb 2014
News

The First Five Years: Morgan Hermand-Waiche (MBA 2010)

either because they are giving a speech at HBS, or because you emailed them and they accepted your invitation to have coffee." Who are your business role models? "When I look to the business world, I am... View Details

Keywords: online shopping; fashion; Apparel Manufacturing; Manufacturing; Clothing and Clothing Accessories Stores; Retail Trade

24 Mar 2022
News

Well Said

had as an undergrad, going through what you call the rite of passage, end up becoming a business that you built at HBS? How did that insight lead into you founding BoldVoice? Anada Lakra: There were two kinds of paths which led me to it.... View Details

11 Feb 2019
News

Hello Alfred Co-Founders: Knowing When to be Persistent

Keywords: Personal Services

13 Aug 2015
News

RapidSOS Raises $5 Million to Modernize 911

Keywords: Hospitals; Health, Social Assistance

27 Oct 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Does Venture Capital Attract Human Capital? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

Keywords: by Shai Bernstein, Kunal Mehta, and Richard Townsend

2009
Case

The North America Environmental Fund (NAEF)

By: Roberto Charvel, Fernando Fabre and T. Putimahtama

NAEF was the first VC fund created in Latin America. It was also the first fund to focus on green technologies. The fund and its managers confronted several issues regarding the under-developed governance and cultural structures required for succesful VC investments. View Details

Keywords: Clean Tech; Emerging Market; Venture Capital; Business Startups; Energy; Entrepreneurship; Finance; Governance; Technology; Green Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; Latin America; North and Central America

March 2001 (Revised August 2001)
Exercise

Ginny's Restaurant: An Introduction to Capital Investment Valuation

An individual is considering the development of a new restaurant. To make the decision, she uses NPV analysis to determine whether she should undertake the investment, and, if so, the optimal size of the investment. View Details

Keywords: Valuation; Decision Making; Business Startups

December 1997 (Revised December 2013)
Case

CCBN.COM

By: William A. Sahlman

A new service is being developed to help investor-relations managers at public companies communicate with investors over the Internet. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Service Operations; Internet

15 Apr 2025
News

Mothers of Invention

VC Backed Moms founders Nicole Wee (MBA 2018), Lisa Marrone (MBA 2017), and Amelia Lin (MBA 2016) Illustration by John Ritter Early in her first pregnancy, having just launched the venture she cofounded, Lisa Marrone (MBA 2017) wondered how she could take maternity... View Details

Keywords: Jennifer Gillespie

May 2011 (Revised March 2013)
Background Note

Location Choice for New Ventures: Cities

By: William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda

Location choice is a critical decision for entrepreneurs. This note explores how entrepreneurs should think about different city options through a systematic framework that encompasses professional and personal issues. We use the intellectual frameworks of the cluster... View Details

Keywords: City; Business Startups

November 2006
Case

Brontes Technologies -- 2005

By: William A. Sahlman and Caroline Perkins

Describes a set of decisions confronting the founders of a company developing a new device for taking three-dimensional pictures of teeth in order to improve dental outcomes. The company needs more money and must choose between raising new equity capital from a venture... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Business Startups; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry

May 2006 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Tropos Networks

By: Joseph B. Lassiter III and Elizabeth Kind

As Ron Sege, president and CEO of Tropos Networks, walked through the halls of the firm's offices, he realized that the space they had moved into only about a year ago was already becoming too small. The company, based in Sunnyvale, California, was founded in late 2000... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Growth Management; Wireless Technology; Sunnyvale