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- March 2025
- Case
Xfund and Sam Altman: Finding Harvard’s Best Generative AI Founders
By: Suraj Srinivasan
On May 1, 2024, Xfund Managing Partners Patrick Chung and Brandon Farwell, hosted a high-stakes venture pitch session designed to select one startup for a minimum $100,000 investment. This “Xperiment Stake” competition, dedicated to startups in the Generative AI... View Details
- 2025
- Working Paper
Centralized Governance in Decentralized Organizations
By: Lin William Cong, Daniel Rabetti, Charles C.Y. Wang and Yu Yan
We systematically document governance centralization in decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and study its drivers and economic implications. Using multiple data sources and granular on-chain transactional data, we compare our findings to those in corporate... View Details
Keywords: Governance
- March 2025
- Article
Do Public Financial Statements Influence Private Equity and Venture Capital Financing?
By: Brian K. Baik, Natalie Berfeld and Rodrigo S. Verdi
We study whether private firm public financial statements influence the probability of raising venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) financing. In particular, we propose that private firms’ public financial statements can help the VC/PE search process by... View Details
- February 21, 2025
- Article
How a Company’s Ownership Model Shapes the Mistakes It Makes
By: Josh Baron
Why do some companies continue to thrive for decades and others die after an initial run of success? Like many kinds of accidents, company failure is generally the consequence of cascading effects that combine to overwhelm a previously effective strategy. But the... View Details
- February 2025
- Case
Hyperscaling Dreams: Ualá’s Path from Startup to Fintech Champion
By: Juan Alcacer and Manuel Franck
Ualá, a fintech startup founded in Argentina in 2017 by Pierpaolo Barbieri, aimed to increase financial inclusion in Latin America through a digital platform linked to a prepaid card. After rapid success in Argentina, it expanded into Mexico and Colombia, acquiring... View Details
- February 2025
- Supplement
eBee: Affordable Mobility for Africa
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Gamze Yucaoglu and Jordan Mitchell
The case opens in March 2023, as Sten van der Ham and Jaap Maljers, CEO and co-founder of eBee, an electric bike (e-bike) company in Africa, are contemplating the different avenues for growth and path to profitability for the young and ambitious company. In 2023, the... View Details
- February 2025
- Case
RedBird Capital Partners
By: Anita Elberse and David Moreno Vicente
In July 2024, Gerry Cardinale, the founder and managing partner of RedBird Capital Partners (‘RedBird’) has helped orchestrate a high-profile deal in the world of entertainment: one in which Skydance Media (‘Skydance’), a content production studio led by David Ellison... View Details
- February 2025
- Case
Direct Lending at Ares Capital Corporation
By: David Scharfstein and Robert Ialenti
- 2025
- Working Paper
Impact Investing and Worker Outcomes
By: Josh Lerner, Markus Lithell and Gordon M. Phillips
Impact investors claim to distinguish themselves from traditional venture capital and growth
equity investors by also pursuing ESG objectives. Whether they successfully do so in practice
is unclear. We use confidential Census Bureau microdata to assess worker... View Details
- January–March 2025
- Article
Transitioning from Responsible and Reactive to Deeply Responsible and Proactive International Business
By: Geoffrey G. Jones, Teresa da Silva Lopes, Pavida Pananond, Rob van Tulder, Noemi Sinkovics and Rudolf R. Sinkovics
This article aims to explore the role of multinational enterprises in addressing grand societal challenges, emphasizing the need for integrating environmental and social aspects into business models. It offers an analysis of how principles and values can guide engaged... View Details
- January 2025
- Case
Untapped Global: Financing Africa's Missing Middle
By: Raymond Kluender and Emanuele Colonnelli
In November 2024, Jim Chu, founder and CEO of Untapped Global, faced mounting internal tensions over the company’s strategic direction. Untapped had developed a data-driven revenue-based financing (RBF) model to address the “missing middle” problem—the $5.2 trillion... View Details
Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Working Capital; Private Equity; Financial Strategy; Microfinance; International Finance; Currency Exchange Rate; Profit Sharing; Revenue; Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Emerging Markets; Mission and Purpose; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; Technology Industry; Africa; Nigeria; South Africa; Kenya; Uganda; California; San Francisco
- January 2025
- Supplement
Creating Value by Splitting Aster (B): Can One Minus One Equal Two?
By: V.G. Narayanan and Kairavi Dey
- January 2025 (Revised March 2025)
- Case
Creating Value by Splitting Aster: Can One Minus One Equal Two?
By: V.G. Narayanan and Kairavi Dey
Aster DM Healthcare (Aster), founded by Dr. Azad Moopen in 1987, is a prominent healthcare conglomerate with operations spanning hospitals, clinics, retail pharmacies, and diagnostic centers across India and the GCC. After its 2018 listing on India’s National Stock... View Details
- January 2025
- Technical Note
Get Cool: Air Conditioning Industry Background
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Jacob A. Small
The “air conditioning paradox” is tied to climate change: the more the planet warms, the greater the need for cooling (due to the dangers of extreme heat as well as comfort within buildings), but the use of electricity-powered AC contributes to further warming. There... View Details
- January 2025
- Case
A Tiger in the Tank: Exxon Sues Investors
By: Clayton S. Rose, Sarah Sasso and James Weber
In June 2024, investors were trying to make sense of ExxonMobil’s (Exxon) lawsuit against two impact investors, Arjuna Capital (Arjuna) and Follow This, that had just been dismissed by the U.S. District Court of Northern Texas. Exxon’s suit challenged the rights of two... View Details
Keywords: Disruption; Talent and Talent Management; Customer Satisfaction; Decision Making; Demographics; Ethics; Corporate Accountability; Employees; Recruitment; Retention; Leadership; Crisis Management; Risk Management; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Civil Society or Community; Social Issues; Adaptation; Investment Activism; Lawsuits and Litigation; Business and Shareholder Relations; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry; Energy Industry; United States; Netherlands; Norway
- December 2024
- Case
Core Innovation Capital: Investing in Fintech for Good
In 2017, Arjan Schütte, founder of Core Innovation Capital, faced a decision on whether to invest in Hugo Insurance, an auto insurance startup. Core, an early-stage social impact VC firm, focused on “fintech for good,” by investing in financial services for low- to... View Details
- December 2024
- Supplement
Core Innovation Capital: Investing in Fintech for Good (B)
In 2017, Core Innovation Capital invested $725,000 in Hugo Insurance, a pay-as-you-drive auto insurance startup targeting the non-standard market. Core followed with $300,000 in 2019 during a Seed II round. By 2022, Hugo founder, David Bergendahl, sought $10 million in... View Details
- December 2024 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
Balancing Returns and Responsibilities at Raya Partners
By: Arthur Segel, Ephraim Mernick, Derek C. M. van Bever and Olivia Barba
Raya Partners, a private equity firm, faces a crucial decision regarding Asa Specialty Coatings Company (ASCC). The dilemma involves shifting ASCC's manufacturing operations to Mexico, a move that would boost profitability and reduce emissions but result in significant... View Details
- 2024
- Book
The Fading Light of Democratic Capitalism: How Pervasive Cronyism and Restricted Suffrage Are Destroying Democratic Capitalism as a National Ideal ... And What to Do About It
What are we to do about declining public trust and confidence in democratic capitalism, which many citizens consider a cornerstone of our national ideology and identity? In this book, I address how we can rekindle the fading light of democratic capitalism as an... View Details
- November 2024
- Teaching Note
Mercado Bitcoin: M&A, IPO, or Series B?
By: Raymond Kluender, Emanuele Colonnelli and Sabrina Howell
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 825-047. In April 2021, Brazilian cryptocurrency platform Mercado Bitcoin, had to decide how to scale: go public, M&A with a bank, or take a VC big check. In a highly volatile market, Roberto Dagnoni, chairman of the board, viewed the... View Details
Keywords: Cryptocurrency; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Growth and Maturation; Business Startups; Decision Making; Going Public; Ownership Stake; Strategic Planning; Venture Capital; Problems and Challenges; Business Cycles; Digital Platforms; Emerging Markets; Market Timing; Expansion; Diversification; Valuation; Value Creation; Investment Funds; Initial Public Offering; Price; Price Bubble; Negotiation Offer; Information Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; Brazil; Latin America