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Christina M. Wallace

Christina M. Wallace

Senior Lecturer of Business Administration

Senior Lecturer of Business Administration

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A self-described “human Venn diagram” Christina Wallace has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School where she teaches Entrepreneurial Marketing and The Entrepreneurial Manager in the MBA program and co-leads the Startup Bootcamp immersion program. Christina is also the co-host of The Limit Does Not Exist, a podcast about portfolio careers produced by iHeartRadio.  

Previously, Christina was vice president of growth at Bionic, an innovation consulting firm that builds startups inside large enterprises. Prior to joining Bionic, Christina founded BridgeUp: STEM, an edtech startup inside the American Museum of Natural History, was the founding director of Startup Institute New York, and the co-founder and CEO of venture-backed fashion company Quincy Apparel. She was also, very briefly, a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and began her career at the Metropolitan Opera. 

Christina holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and theater studies from Emory University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is an active advisor to several startups and serves as a mentor for the Broadway Tech Accelerator and the NEW INC accelerator for startups at the intersection of art and technology. She regularly speaks, writes, and consults on a wide range of topics, ranging from failure and resilience to corporate innovation, from K12 computer science education to her viral TED talk detailing her successful approach to hacking online dating. Mashable called her one of “44 Female Founders to Know” and Refinery29 named her one of the "Most Powerful Women in NYC Tech." She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Quartz, Elle, and Marie Claire among others.

Christina is the co-author of New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth (April 2019, Penguin Random House—Crown). 

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Entrepreneurial Management
+1 (617) 495-0976
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Christina M. Wallace
Unit
Entrepreneurial Management
Contact Information
(617) 495-0976
Send Email
Featured Work Publications Teaching
New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth

Serial entrepreneurs David Kidder and Christina Wallace reveal their revolutionary playbook for igniting growth inside established companies.

Most established companies face a key survival challenge, says David Kidder, CEO of Bionic, lifelong entrepreneur, and angel investor in more than thirty startups: operational efficiency and outdated bureaucracy are at war with new growth. Legacy companies are skilled at growing big businesses into even bigger ones. But they are less adept at discovering new opportunities and turning them into big businesses, the way entrepreneurs and early-stage investors must. In New to Big, Kidder and Wallace reveal their proprietary blueprint for installing a permanent growth capability inside any company--the Growth Operating System.

The Growth OS borrows the best tools, systems, and mind-sets from entrepreneurship and venture capital and adapts them for established organizations, leveraging these two distinct skills as a form of management for building in a future that is uncertain. By focusing on what consumers do rather than what they say, celebrating productive failure, embracing a portfolio approach, and learning from the outside-in, Kidder and Wallace argue any company can go on offense and win the future. 

This isn't about a one-off innovation moonshot. It's about building a permanent ladder to the moon.

A self-described “human Venn diagram” Christina Wallace has crafted a career at the intersection of business, technology, and the arts. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School where she teaches Entrepreneurial Marketing and The Entrepreneurial Manager in the MBA program and co-leads the Startup Bootcamp immersion program. Christina is also the co-host of The Limit Does Not Exist, a podcast about portfolio careers produced by iHeartRadio.  

Previously, Christina was vice president of growth at Bionic, an innovation consulting firm that builds startups inside large enterprises. Prior to joining Bionic, Christina founded BridgeUp: STEM, an edtech startup inside the American Museum of Natural History, was the founding director of Startup Institute New York, and the co-founder and CEO of venture-backed fashion company Quincy Apparel. She was also, very briefly, a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and began her career at the Metropolitan Opera. 

Christina holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and theater studies from Emory University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is an active advisor to several startups and serves as a mentor for the Broadway Tech Accelerator and the NEW INC accelerator for startups at the intersection of art and technology. She regularly speaks, writes, and consults on a wide range of topics, ranging from failure and resilience to corporate innovation, from K12 computer science education to her viral TED talk detailing her successful approach to hacking online dating. Mashable called her one of “44 Female Founders to Know” and Refinery29 named her one of the "Most Powerful Women in NYC Tech." She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Quartz, Elle, and Marie Claire among others.

Christina is the co-author of New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth (April 2019, Penguin Random House—Crown). 

Featured Work
New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth

Serial entrepreneurs David Kidder and Christina Wallace reveal their revolutionary playbook for igniting growth inside established companies.

Most established companies face a key survival challenge, says David Kidder, CEO of Bionic, lifelong entrepreneur, and angel investor in more than thirty startups: operational efficiency and outdated bureaucracy are at war with new growth. Legacy companies are skilled at growing big businesses into even bigger ones. But they are less adept at discovering new opportunities and turning them into big businesses, the way entrepreneurs and early-stage investors must. In New to Big, Kidder and Wallace reveal their proprietary blueprint for installing a permanent growth capability inside any company--the Growth Operating System.

The Growth OS borrows the best tools, systems, and mind-sets from entrepreneurship and venture capital and adapts them for established organizations, leveraging these two distinct skills as a form of management for building in a future that is uncertain. By focusing on what consumers do rather than what they say, celebrating productive failure, embracing a portfolio approach, and learning from the outside-in, Kidder and Wallace argue any company can go on offense and win the future. 

This isn't about a one-off innovation moonshot. It's about building a permanent ladder to the moon.

Books
  • Kidder, David, and Christina Wallace. New To Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth. New York: Currency, 2019. View Details
Book Chapters
  • Wallace, Christina. "Commerce and Culture: Combining Business and the Arts." In Passion and Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders, edited by W. Oliver Segovia, Daniel Gulati, and John Coleman. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2011. View Details
Cases and Teaching Materials
  • Mills, Karen G., Christina Wallace, Ebehi Iyoha, Gabriella Elanbeck, and Morgane Herculano. "Wordle." Harvard Business School Case 323-032, September 2022. View Details
  • Wallace, Christina. "Metric." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 822-094, April 2022. View Details
  • Wallace, Christina, Rebecca Cink, and Maria Lappas. "Metric." Harvard Business School Case 822-057, March 2022. View Details
  • Wallace, Christina. "Sparking Growth at Consumer Reports." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 822-062, January 2022. View Details
  • Wallace, Christina. "Sparking Growth at Consumer Reports." Harvard Business School PowerPoint Supplement 822-066, January 2022. View Details
  • Wallace, Christina. "Sparking Growth at Consumer Reports." Harvard Business School Case 822-035, October 2021. View Details
  • Wallace, Christina. "Workshop Exercise: Branding New Ventures." Harvard Business School Exercise 821-089, April 2021. (Revised August 2021.) View Details
Teaching
Overview
Christina Wallace teaches Entrepreneurial Marketing in the second-year MBA program and The Entrepreneurial Manager in the first-year MBA program. She also co-leads the Startup Bootcamp immersion program.
Keywords: Innovation and Management; Entrepreneurship; Marketing; Marketing Communications; Creativity
Additional Information
Links
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
Areas of Interest
  • creativity
  • entrepreneurial marketing
  • entrepreneurship
  • innovation
In The News

In The News

    • 28 Apr 2021
    • Real Simple

    Can Becoming Your Own Boss Maximize Your Income?

    • 11 Sep 2020
    • ReWire

    How to Thrive in a Gig Economy

    • 16 Aug 2019
    • Inc.

    Creativity Is a Muscle, Not a Skill. Here's How to Build Yours

    • 15 Aug 2019
    • Inc.

    How the Best Leaders Inspire Their Employees to Be Innovators

    • 19 Jul 2019
    • Forbes

    What Useful Roles Can Aspiring Entrepreneurs Take On?

→More News for Christina M. Wallace

Christina M. Wallace In the News

28 Apr 2021
Real Simple
Can Becoming Your Own Boss Maximize Your Income?

11 Sep 2020
ReWire
How to Thrive in a Gig Economy

16 Aug 2019
Inc.
Creativity Is a Muscle, Not a Skill. Here's How to Build Yours

15 Aug 2019
Inc.
How the Best Leaders Inspire Their Employees to Be Innovators

19 Jul 2019
Forbes
What Useful Roles Can Aspiring Entrepreneurs Take On?

19 Jul 2019
Forbes
How To Innovate Inside Large Organizations

09 Nov 2017
Quartz
Teaching business within the liberal arts could help avoid the next Uber or Harvey Weinstein

Additional Information

Links

Twitter
LinkedIn

Areas of Interest

creativity
entrepreneurial marketing
entrepreneurship
innovation

In The News

    • 28 Apr 2021
    • Real Simple

    Can Becoming Your Own Boss Maximize Your Income?

    • 11 Sep 2020
    • ReWire

    How to Thrive in a Gig Economy

    • 16 Aug 2019
    • Inc.

    Creativity Is a Muscle, Not a Skill. Here's How to Build Yours

    • 15 Aug 2019
    • Inc.

    How the Best Leaders Inspire Their Employees to Be Innovators

    • 19 Jul 2019
    • Forbes

    What Useful Roles Can Aspiring Entrepreneurs Take On?

→More News for Christina M. Wallace

Christina M. Wallace In the News

28 Apr 2021
Real Simple
Can Becoming Your Own Boss Maximize Your Income?

11 Sep 2020
ReWire
How to Thrive in a Gig Economy

16 Aug 2019
Inc.
Creativity Is a Muscle, Not a Skill. Here's How to Build Yours

15 Aug 2019
Inc.
How the Best Leaders Inspire Their Employees to Be Innovators

19 Jul 2019
Forbes
What Useful Roles Can Aspiring Entrepreneurs Take On?

19 Jul 2019
Forbes
How To Innovate Inside Large Organizations

09 Nov 2017
Quartz
Teaching business within the liberal arts could help avoid the next Uber or Harvey Weinstein

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