Publications

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

25 Mar 2016
News

Business Gets Serious Inside ‘Shark Tank’

01 Dec 2010
News

Clubs Assist Start-Ups

Got a great start-up idea? Enter it in this year’s Alumni New Venture Contest. Fourteen HBS alumni clubs in twelve host regions — Boston, Brazil, Chicago, Germany, India, Mexico, New York, Northern California, Southern California, Shanghai, Toronto, and the United Arab... View Details

Keywords: contests

11 Jan 2021
Blog Post

Finding My Place at HBS

their HBS pie chart should be spent building things and learning a whole lot about startups. In turn, we learn about ourselves in the process. It didn’t take long for those of us with the startup bug to congregate at the Harvard... View Details

01 Sep 2003
News

Mark Fuller

Fuller Photo courtesy Monitor Group While many HBS grads hanker for a plum job with a major consulting firm, Mark B. Fuller started his own. He made the leap from HBS assistant professor to cofounder and CEO of the Monitor Group in 1982. Since then, the firm has grown... View Details

Keywords: Roger Thompson; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

05 Feb 2015
Blog Post

Crossing the Atlantic

ironically, my decision to go back into consulting resulted from the incredible experiences I had at a tech startup this past summer in Zambia. Those three months in Africa gave me the opportunity to fulfill my goals of working in a tech... View Details

Keywords: Consulting; Manufacturing

April 1998
Case

Venture Capital in Ireland: Getting Their ACT Together

By: Paul A. Gompers and Catherine M. Conneely

Analyzes the decisions of Niall Carroll, an Irish banker, to start a venture capital fund focused on Ireland. The context of the Irish markets and the nature of Irish opportunities are explored. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Venture Capital; Markets; Market Entry and Exit; Financial Services Industry; Republic of Ireland

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July 2020
Supplement

Instabeat—Crossing the Finish Line

By: Shikhar Ghosh, Nicole Tempest Keller and Alpana Thapar

Lebanese entrepreneur Hind Hobeika was just 21 years old when she launched her startup, Instabeat, which had developed the first real-time bio-feedback device for swimmers to monitor and improve their performance. It had been an extremely testing 10-year journey to... View Details

Keywords: Start-up; Wearables; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Information Technology; Information Infrastructure; Strategy; Operations; Management; United States; Lebanon

December 2006 (Revised March 2008)
Case

Prosper Marketplace, Inc.

By: William A. Sahlman and Elizabeth Kind

Describes a set of financial and strategic decisions confronting the founding management team of a new online financial services company. Prosper Marketplace is an internet-based market for individuals to borrow money from other individuals who wish to invest in such... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Financial Strategy; Innovation and Invention; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry

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October 2004 (Revised February 2005)
Case

John Moran and the Orthopedics Industry

By: Richard G. Hamermesh

Reviews John Moran's 25-year career in the orthopedic industry and his current decision whether to start a hand and foot surgery company. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Choices and Conditions; Personal Development and Career; Health Industry

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May 2004
Supplement

Slingshot Technology, Inc. Supplement: Partnership Agreements

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Elizabeth Collins

Slingshot Technology Inc. (STI) is a privately held software start-up founded in 1995 focused on identifying emerging spaces in the IT services industry and partnering with vendors selling promising but unproven technologies in those spaces. The vendors used STI to... View Details

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Emerging Markets; Partners and Partnerships; Intellectual Property; Information Technology Industry; Consulting Industry

February 2002
Case

NeuroTherapy Ventures: Catalyzing Neurologic Innovations

Discusses the impact of limited market size on epilepsy therapies and shows how an early-stage venture fund can catalyze faster development of new treatments. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Commercialization; Innovation and Management; Business Startups; Pharmaceutical Industry

April 2000 (Revised April 2004)
Case

TixToGo: Financing a Silicon Valley Start-up

Describes TixToGo, a Silicon Valley start-up company that offers online solutions to individuals and organizations that want to offer activities and/or collect registration fees for events over the Internet. A serial entrepreneur and his partner started the company in... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Information Technology; Financing and Loans; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry; San Francisco

September 1998 (Revised December 1998)
Case

Walnut Venture Associates (A): RBS Group Investment Memorandum

The Walnut Group's investigation of the RBS Group, a young software company is described. The RBS business plan is also included. View Details

Keywords: Venture Capital; Business Plan; Research; Software; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Information Technology Industry

April 1998
Case

Katie Burke (A)

By: Myra M. Hart, Marco Iansiti and Barbara Feinberg

Follows the career of Katie Burke, HBS MBA 1995. Offers the opportunity to discuss a variety of issues, including innovation, software development, entrepreneurship, new venture design, and career choices. View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Personal Development and Career; Business Startups; Innovation and Invention