Publications

February 2024
Case

Vespucci Partners: The New World of Venture Capital in Hungary

By: Paul A. Gompers, Tonia Labruyere and Emilie Billaud

Julia Sohajda was the young, female founding partner of the Hungarian VC firm Vespucci Partners, which focused on investing at seed stage into Hungarian deep tech startups and prepare them for a launch in the U.S market. Vespucci's first fund had largely been comprised... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Business Startups; Investment Funds; Financing and Loans; Entrepreneurship; Financial Services Industry; Hungary; United States

07 Mar 2023
HBS Case

ChatGPT: Did Big Tech Set Up the World for an AI Bias Disaster?

ChatGPT’s buzzy debut has made for a rough few months for Google. Close watchers of the tech giant say: It didn’t have to go this way. Essentially scooped by a competitor on its home turf, Google has scrambled to release its own... View Details

Keywords: by Scott Van Voorhis; Technology

04 Oct 2021
Blog Post

Tapping into “Nontraditional” Private Equity and Venture Capital Talent at HBS

Recruiters reviewing hundreds of resumes for highly coveted roles in private equity and venture capital will often see candidates with backgrounds in banking and investing. This training and experience provides candidates with excellent... View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Venture Capital

30 Mar 2021
Working Paper Summaries

Whose Job Is It Anyway? Co-Ethnic Hiring in New US Ventures

Keywords: by Sari Pekkala Kerr and William R. Kerr

20 Aug 2024
Book

Why Competing With Tech Giants Requires Finding Your Own Edge

The following is an excerpt that was adapted and lightly edited from chapter nine of Smart Rivals: How Innovative Companies Play Games That Tech Giants Can't Win, written by Feng Zhu and Bonnie Yining Cao and published August 20, 2024. In... View Details

Keywords: by Feng Zhu; Technology; Information Technology

March 2020
Case

Sizmek Chapter 11: Surviving Walled Gardens in Their Ad Tech Empire

By: Ayelet Israeli, Danilo Tauro and Sarah Gulick

This case provides a post-mortem of the advertising technology (adtech) company Sizmek. Sizmek grew via multiple acquisitions, with the vision of becoming an integrated adtech company that could leverage AI to buy digital media, while creating and serving display and... View Details

Keywords: Digital Marketing; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Applications and Software; Internet and the Web; Competition; Marketing; Advertising Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; Europe

Web

WesTrek 2025: Exploring the future of tech in Silicon Valley - Recruiting

Insights & Advice 04 Mar 2025 WesTrek 2025: Exploring the future of tech in Silicon Valley Michelle Cao Author HBS Team tag California - Bay Area Student & Alumni Stories Student Clubs Technology US West Building on a Legacy Decades in... View Details

23 Sep 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Nowcasting the Local Economy: Using Yelp Data to Measure Economic Activity at Scale

Keywords: by Edward L. Glaeser, Hyunjin Kim, and Michael Luca

02 Nov 2016
Op-Ed

Government and Financial Tech Can Fix Cash Woes for Small Businesses

Ask any small business owner and they will tell you that cash flow is on their mind pretty much all the time. This isn’t surprising, given that they are continuously managing dollars coming in from customers and going out to pay for expenses such as payroll, inventory... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills

August 2019
Supplement

Rand Fishkin at Moz (C)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management

October 2023 (Revised March 2024)
Case

KOKO Networks: Bridging Energy Transition and Affordability with Carbon Financing

By: George Serafeim, Siko Sikochi and Namrata Arora

The problem was massive: two million hectares of African forests were lost annually to charcoal production for cooking, an area equivalent to 13 times Greater London, resulting in one billion tons of carbon emissions yearly. At the same time, an estimated 700,000... View Details

Keywords: Clean Tech; Digital; Carbon Credits; Carbon Offsetting; Climate Change; Entrepreneurship; Energy Sources; Environmental Sustainability; Health; Market Design; Business Startups; Transition; Environmental Regulation; Policy; Energy Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Africa; Kenya; Rwanda

25 Apr 2023
News

Class of 2022 Startups Sweep Alumni New Venture Competition

Clubs News Clubs News In a first-ever result, all of the winners in the 2023 Alumni New Venture Competition (ANVC) hail from the same HBS class: the MBA Class of 2022. The ANVC finale, held virtually on March 22 and 23, brought eight... View Details

Keywords: Margie Kelley

January 2019
Teaching Note

Pricing PatientPing

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-017. PatientPing sells a software platform that allows health care providers to receive real-time notifications (“pings”) when one of their patients is admitted to or discharged from a health-care facility. The platform facilitates... View Details

Keywords: Pricing; Health Tech; Health Technology; Sales Process; Sales Strategy; Price; Sales; Marketing Strategy; Health Care and Treatment; Health Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Massachusetts

August 2018
Teaching Note

IguanaFix

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Thomas Eisenmann

Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-056. IguanaFix, based in Argentina, is a platform business that connects consumers with home improvement contractors. The founders are evaluating growth options and an investment offer. The case focuses on scaling issues for a venture... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Home Improvement Services; Marketing Management; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Marketing; Sales; Digital Platforms; Growth and Development Strategy

August 2019
Supplement

Rand Fishkin at Moz (B)

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management

25 Jan 2024
Blog Post

Climate Stories Episode #15: Hilton Augustine III on Financing Climate Ventures

Climate Stories Episode #15 – Hilton Augustine III - Finding and Funding Climate Technology Solutions Episode 15 of Climate Stories focuses on recent HBS alumnus, Hilton Augustine III. A veteran of consulting, electric vehicle manufacturing and View Details

December 2012 (Revised September 2022)
Case

BabbaCo

By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Gaurav Jain

Having just raised a Series B financing, the case protagonist is faced with a tough decision: should she "step on the gas" and scale the customer base, or continue focusing on fine-tuning the product and business model. The case describes the various marketing channels... View Details

Keywords: Subscription; Marketing; Scaling; Product-market Fit; Online Marketing; Customers; Decisions; Expansion; Marketing Channels; Business Startups; Growth and Development Strategy; Digital Marketing; Marketing Strategy

15 Feb 2022
Blog Post

Health Is Wealth | The Path To Creating A Venture

increasing the diversity of the startup ecosystem. “The tech startup and venture ecosystem is simply not diverse I do my best every day, both as a leader of Rootine and [in] everything else that I’m doing to... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Health Care

Winter 2022
Article

Leading Disruption in a Legacy Business: A Compelling Growth Ambition Is a Critical Enabler for New Ventures

By: Andy Binns, Michael Tushman and Charles O'Reilly

Leading innovation in established corporations is difficult. Active inertia and dynamic conservatism are real. Still, leaders can drive disruptive ventures from inside large corporations. These leaders ideate, incubate, and scale innovations, much as an entrepreneur... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Innovation and Management; Leading Change; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Business Model