Jeffrey Bussgang
Senior Lecturer of Business Administration
Jeffrey J. Bussgang is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School and a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm. He studies lean startups as well as strategy and management challenges for founders. He teaches Launching Technology Ventures in the MBA Elective Curriculum and has previously assisted in teaching Founders' Dilemmas.
Jeffrey J. Bussgang is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School and a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm. He studies lean startups as well as strategy and management challenges for founders. He teaches Launching Technology Ventures in the MBA Elective Curriculum and has previously assisted in teaching Founders' Dilemmas. Jeff's investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in consumer, Internet commerce, marketing services, and software and mobile start-ups.
Jeff currently represents Flybridge Capital Partners on the boards of Cartera Commerce, ClickSquared, DataXu, i4cp, Plastiq, SavingStar, SimpleTuition and tracx, and is a board observer at ZestFinance. Jeff was previously a director at Brontes Technologies (acquired by 3M), BzzAgent (acquired by Tesco), Convoke Systems, go2Media, oneforty (acquired by HubSpot), PanGo Networks (merged with InnerWireless), Ready Financial (merged with AccountNow), Transpera (acquired by Tremor Video).
He is also on the board of MITX, the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange, and is a Founding Executive Committee Member of FirstGrowth Venture Network, a network of venture and angel investors supporting first- and second-time entrepreneurs building exciting companies in the New York area.
Jeff has authored and co-authored several HBS cases that are taught in both Founders' Dilemmas (Curt Schilling's Next Pitch) and Launching Technology Ventures (foursquare, Predictive BioSciences, BabbaCo, and Plastiq). He is the co-author of Ruling The Net, a 1996 Harvard Business Review article on the Internet's potential for commerce.
Jeff's book on venture capital and entrepreneurship, Mastering the VC Game, is an insider's guide for entrepreneurs on financing and company-building. The book has been hailed by the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, TechCrunch and The Financial Times as an essential guide for entrepreneurs. The first chapter of Mastering the VC Game can be downloaded here.
Jeff's popular blog on helping demystify the venture business for entrepreneurs, "Seeing Both Sides", can be found at http://www.seeingbothsides.com/, which is syndicated by BusinessInsider.com, Inc Magazine, Fortune, Reuters, PE Hub, and others. You can follow Jeff on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bussgang.
Background
Prior to joining the firm in January 2003, Jeff co-founded Upromise (acquired by Sallie Mae), a loyalty marketing and financial services firm with 12 million members that currently manages over $35 billion in college savings assets, where he served as President, Chief Operating Officer and Board Director. Prior to Upromise, Jeff was an executive at Open Market, an Internet commerce software leader that went public in 1996 and grew to nearly $100 million in revenues. During his five-year tenure, he served as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Business Development, Vice President of Worldwide Professional Services and head of Product Management. Prior to Open Market, Jeff was with the strategy consulting firm, The Boston Consulting Group.
Education
Jeff holds a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar.
Interests
Jeff is married with three children and is an avid baseball fan. He is an active community member, serving as vice-chair of the The Alliance for Business Leadership, vice chairman of the board of educational non-profit, Facing History and Ourselves, and has served on various civic boards, including Governor Deval Patrick's Council for Innovation (to use technology to make government more efficient), Economic Development Council (creating an economic development plan for the State) and the Readiness Finance Commission (education reform).
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Article
| Harvard Business Review
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Ruling the Net
D. L. Spar and Jeffrey J. Bussgang
The Internet promises a radical new world of business. But for many companies, it has yet to deliver. Although doing business in cyberspace may be novel and exhilarating, it can also be frustrating, confusing, and even unprofitable. Debora Spar and Jeffrey Bussgang argue that the problems companies face have little to do with a lack of technology or imagination. Their problems stem instead from a lack of rules. The authors explain why the informal rules that have developed on the Internet since the 1960s are no longer sufficient. Businesses thinking of allowing millions of dollars of transactions to occur on the wide-open Net need specific assurances. They require clear definitions of property rights, a safe and useful means of exchange, and a way to locate and punish violators of on-line rules.
Keywords: Information Services;
Online Technology;
Citation: Spar, D. L., and Jeffrey J. Bussgang. " Ruling the Net." Harvard Business Review 74, no. 3 (May–June 1996): 125–133.
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2012
Plastiq
Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Gaurav Jain, Liroy Haddad, Luke Langford and Matt Noble
The young CEO of a venture-backed startup needs to figure out his go to market strategy and the right profile for his first key sales hires. Should he develop partnerships with channels that would provide leverage or build out a direct sales force? And should the sales team be led by an experienced senior sales executive or a scrappy, mid-level sales manager?
Keywords: payments;
Sales;
channels;
Credit Cards;
Citation: Bussgang, Jeffrey J., Gaurav Jain, Liroy Haddad, Luke Langford, and Matt Noble. " Plastiq." Harvard Business School Case 813-125, December 2012.
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2012
BabbaCo
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 employed by the BabbaCo team (Search, Email, Social Media, Deal Sites, Affiliates, etc.), including the strategy and effectiveness for each. Readers can use this knowledge to evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing efforts to date and determine whether they think the company is ready to scale those efforts or whether it is premature to do so.
Keywords: subscription;
marketing;
scaling;
product-market fit;
online marketing;
Citation: Bussgang, Jeffrey J., and Gaurav Jain. " BabbaCo." Harvard Business School Case 813-107, December 2012.
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Background Note
| HBS Case Collection
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2013
(Revised from original 2011 version)
The Business Development Manager
Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Sarah Dillard, Katharine Nevins and Puja Ramani
Describes the role of business development (BD) managers in technology companies, detailing: 1) BD managers' key responsibilities at each step in the process of creating a partnership agreement; 2) how the nature of the BD function evolves as a technology startup matures; and 3) the attributes of effective BD managers.
Keywords: entrepreneurship;
partnerships;
High technology products;
Business or Company Management;
Citation: Bussgang, Jeffrey J., Thomas R. Eisenmann, Sarah Dillard, Katharine Nevins, and Puja Ramani. " The Business Development Manager." Harvard Business School Background Note 812-107, March 2013. (Revised from original December 2011 version.)
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Background Note
| HBS Case Collection
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2013
(Revised from original 2011 version)
The Product Manager
Jeffrey Bussgang, Thomas Eisenmann and Robert Go
Describes the role of product manager (PM) in technology companies, detailing 1) PMs' responsibilities; 2) different ways to organize the product management function; 3) how PMs interact with other functions within technology companies (e.g., engineering, product marketing); 4) how the nature of the PM role varies depending on context (e.g., early- vs. late-stage startups, business- vs. engineering-driven cultures); and 5) the attributes of effective PMs.
Keywords: Product Marketing;
Product Development;
Product Design;
Citation: Bussgang, Jeffrey, Thomas Eisenmann, and Robert Go. " The Product Manager." Harvard Business School Background Note 812-105, March 2013. (Revised from original December 2011 version.)
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2013
(Revised from original 2011 version)
foursquare
Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and David Chen
Co-founders of foursquare are deciding how to respond to competitive threats and scale up the organization. Foursquare was a location-based online service that allowed users to "check in" to a location using an application on a smartphone. Foursquare kept track of a user's check-ins, shared them with users' friends, and unlocked "Specials" that gave users discounts at nearby locations. Within a year and a half of its founding the company had 45 employees and over 5 million users and was valued in excess of $100 million. However, many competitors, including Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp, developed competitive services requiring foursquare to respond.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship;
Online Technology;
Mobile Technology;
Competitive Advantage;
Web Services Industry;
United States;
Citation: Piskorski, Mikolaj Jan, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Jeffrey J. Bussgang, and David Chen. " foursquare." Harvard Business School Case 711-418, March 2013. (Revised from original January 2010 version.)
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2011
(Revised from original 2009 version)
Curt Schilling's Next Pitch
Noam T. Wasserman, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Rachel Gordon
As his major-league pitching career was starting to wind down in 2006, baseball all-star Curt Schilling decided to become an entrepreneur. Looking to focus his tenacity and his passion for online role-playing games on a new challenge, he founded an online gaming venture, which later became known as 38 Studios. During the venture's first two years, he built a team of 70 people, including an executive team of business and industry veterans and learned key lessons about the challenges faced by industry-changing entrepreneurs. Wanting to self-fund the venture initially, and later finding it hard to raise outside money, he put a substantial percentage of his net worth on the line to build 38 Studios. Now he is facing a critical acquisition decision that could either double his problems or help solve them.
Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions;
Business Startups;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Entrepreneurship;
Financing and Loans;
Leadership;
Personal Development and Career;
Groups and Teams;
Video Game Industry;
Citation: Wasserman, Noam T., Jeffrey J. Bussgang, and Rachel Gordon. " Curt Schilling's Next Pitch." Harvard Business School Case 810-053, June 2011. (Revised from original December 2009 version.)
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2011
(Revised from original 2011 version)
Predictive Biosciences
Thomas R. Eisenmann, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and David Kiron
A small cancer diagnostics start-up is deciding whether to acquire a laboratory to make and sell its bladder cancer test or build its own manufacturing and sales team.
Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions;
Factories, Labs, and Plants;
Business Startups;
Entrepreneurship;
Health Testing and Trials;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Product Development;
Biotechnology Industry;
Citation: Eisenmann, Thomas R., Jeffrey J. Bussgang, and David Kiron. " Predictive Biosciences." Harvard Business School Case 811-015, March 2011. (Revised from original January 2011 version.)
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