Dell Ventures

Paul A. Gompers; Carin-Isabel  Knoop; Cate  Reavis

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Case | HBS Case Collection | May 2000 (Revised October 2001)

Dell Ventures

by Paul A. Gompers, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Cate Reavis

Abstract

Describes the rationale behind the strategy and structure of Dell Computer Corp.'s VC arm, Dell Ventures. While Dell Ventures had a phenomenal year one, it faced a number of challenges including dealing with market risks, finding and retaining talent, maintaining focus, and gaining the attention of Wall Street.

Keywords: Business Divisions; Talent and Talent Management; Goals and Objectives; Risk Management; Organizational Structure; Interests; Business Strategy; Computer Industry;

Format: Print

25 pages

Educators Purchase

Citation:

Gompers, Paul A., Carin-Isabel Knoop, and Cate Reavis. "Dell Ventures." Harvard Business School Case 200-062, May 2000. (Revised October 2001.)

About the Author

Paul A. Gompers

Eugene Holman Professor of Business Administration

Finance

Entrepreneurial Management

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Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | January 2020

Valuation in Entrepreneurial Settings

Paul Gompers

Citation:
Gompers, Paul. "Valuation in Entrepreneurial Settings." Harvard Business School Technical Note 220-057, January 2020. View Details

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Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2019 (Revised January 2020)

The New LAX: Ready for Takeoff?

Boris Groysberg, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Kerry Herman

Chair of LAX Board Sean Burton and LAX CEO Deborah Flint have made progress on streamlining and modernizing LAX's complex capital projects ($12 billion worth) while reorganizing and retooling Los Angeles World Airport (LAWA) staff resources, management processes, and revitalizing the LAX guest experience. From 2015-2019, LAX's performance improved, yet many challenges remained, and new ones continued to come to light. In December 2019, as Flint prepared to move onto a new position, Burton and the board are assessing the progress the team has made, and looking to next steps.

Keywords: Leadership and Change Management; Leadership; Change Management; Performance Improvement; Strategic Planning; Air Transportation;

Citation:
Groysberg, Boris, Carin-Isabel Knoop, and Kerry Herman. "The New LAX: Ready for Takeoff?" Harvard Business School Case 420-025, December 2019. (Revised January 2020.) View Details

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Article | Journal of Financial Economics | January 2020

How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?

Paul A. Gompers, William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan and Ilya A. Strebulaev

We survey 885 institutional venture capitalists (VCs) at 681 firms to learn how they make decisions across eight areas: deal sourcing, investment selection, valuation, deal structure, post-investment value-added, exits, internal firm organization, and relationships with limited partners. In selecting investments, VCs see the management team as more important than business-related characteristics such as product or technology. They also attribute more of the likelihood of ultimate investment success or failure to the team than to the business. While deal sourcing, deal selection, and post-investment value-added all contribute to value creation, the VCs rate deal selection as the most important of the three. We also explore (and find) differences in practices across industry, stage, geography, and past success. We compare our results to those for CFOs (Graham and Harvey 2001) and private equity investors (Gompers, Kaplan, and Mukharlyamov forthcoming).

Keywords: Venture Capital; Value Creation; Capital Structure; Entrepreneurship; Decision Making;

Citation:
Gompers, Paul A., William Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan, and Ilya A. Strebulaev. "How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?" Journal of Financial Economics 135, no. 1 (January 2020): 169–190. View Details

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Dell Ventures

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