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Entrepreneurs typically focus their full energies on business-building. But raising capital is a core part of building a valuable business....
- July 2021
- Case
A Close Shave at Squire
In 2020, just after closing a $34 million Series B financing round, Dave Salvant and Songe LaRon consider how to adjust their business, Squire Technologies, to the new realities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their barbershop technology, including tools to run a shop...
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- July 2021
- Case
Fynd
By: Ranjay Gulati, Kairavi Dey and Rachna Tahilyani
Fynd is a fast-growing venture that in 7 years since its founding has become India's largest omnichannel retail company with real-time access to over 9,000 stores' offline inventory. It started as a B2B business supporting retailers who didn’t have an online business,...
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- June 2021
- Case
uBiome
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Olivia Graham
uBiome provided clinical tests that sequenced the DNA of human microbiome samples, providing data on health conditions directly to consumers or to prescribing physicians. Founded in 2012, the San Francisco-based startup raised $105 million from top-tier venture capital...
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- May 2021
- Case
Inclusive Innovation at Mass General Brigham
By: Katherine Baldiga Coffman and Olivia Hull
Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB) Chief Innovation Officer Christopher Coburn had overseen a period of exciting transformation and growth in healthcare innovation at MGB. In November 2019, the health system was the largest recipient of National Institutes of Health...
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Keywords:
Inclusion;
Innovation;
Invention;
Gender;
Business Startups;
Investment Funds;
Private Equity;
Health Care and Treatment;
Innovation Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Intellectual Property;
Copyright;
Patents;
Research;
Research and Development;
Diversification;
Technology;
Health Industry;
Massachusetts;
Boston
- May 2021
- Supplement
Hello Alfred: Come Home Happy — Operating the Business Model Exercise, Instructor Version
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Christopher Payton
On a mission to "automate the on-demand economy," Harvard Business School classmates Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck launched Hello Alfred in 2013 to provide subscribers with an "Alfred" to complete various chores for a monthly fee. In early 2016, the company has built...
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- May 2021
- Article
Mutual Funds as Venture Capitalists? Evidence from Unicorns
By: Josh Lerner, Sergey Chernenko and Yao Zeng
The past decade saw the rise of both “founder-friendly” venture financings and non-traditional investors, frequently with liquidity constraints. Using detailed contract data, we study open-end mutual funds investing in private venture-backed firms. We posit an...
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- May–June 2021
- Article
Why Start-ups Fail
If you’re launching a business, the odds are against you: Two-thirds of start-ups never show a positive return. Unnerved by that statistic, a professor of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School set out to discover why. Based on interviews and surveys with hundreds...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
Venture Capital Booms and Startup Financing
By: William Janeway, Ramana Nanda and Matthew Rhodes-Kropf
We review the growing literature on the relationship between venture capital booms and startup financing, focusing on three broad areas: First, we discuss the drivers of large inflows into the venture capital asset class, particularly in recent years—which are related...
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- March 2021
- Case
Astralis Group: Determining a Brand Strategy
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej and Emilie Billaud
After launching a Danish esports company in July 2019, and going public in December 2019 with multiple brands associated with different games, the Astralis leadership team was contemplating a shift to a single, corporate brand. While the original arguments for...
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Keywords:
Brand Strategy;
Esports;
Video Games;
Corporate Scope;
Positioning;
Ecosystem;
Brands and Branding;
Strategy;
Business Ventures;
Business Startups;
Entrepreneurship;
Ethics;
Sports;
Competitive Strategy;
Value Creation;
Diversification;
Games, Gaming, and Gambling;
Sports Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Denmark;
Europe
- March 2021
- Case
CashDrop (A)
By: Rembrand Koning, Paul A. Gompers and Sarah Gulick
In July 2020, Ruben Flores-Martinez had launched a startup, CashDrop, which provided easy and cheap sales options for small businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic helped CashDrop quickly grow. Flores-Martinez, who had previously sought and been denied venture capital...
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- March 2021
- Supplement
CashDrop (B1)
By: Rembrand Koning, Paul A. Gompers and Sarah Gulick
After the events in CashDrop A, Flores-Martinez received two concrete offers from VC funds for his startup business, CashDrop. This case describes the tensions between the two funds: a traditional VC fund who would offer Flores-Martinez a prestigious platform, and a...
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- March 2021
- Supplement
CashDrop (B2)
By: Rembrand Koning, Paul A. Gompers and Sarah Gulick
After the events in CashDrop A, Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques, the founders of Harlem Capital partners, worried that Ruben Flores-Martinez, CashDrop’s founder, would take another offer while he waited for them to officially make an offer. HCP traditionally...
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- 2021
- Working Paper
Judging Foreign Startups
Can accelerators and investors pick the most promising startup ideas no matter their provenance? We investigate this question using unique data from a global accelerator in which judges across international regions are randomly assigned to evaluate startups...
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- March 2021
- Teaching Note
Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma
By: Antonio Moreno and Anibha Singh
In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online purchases through four interest-free...
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Keywords:
Online Advertising;
Business Startups;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business Model;
Business Organization;
For-Profit Firms;
Change Management;
Customer Value and Value Chain;
Customer Relationship Management;
Customer Satisfaction;
Financing and Loans;
Microfinance;
Global Strategy;
Marketing Strategy;
Market Entry and Exit;
Market Platforms;
Multi-Sided Platforms;
Product Development;
Supply Chain Management;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Networks;
Network Effects;
Online Technology;
Financial Services Industry;
Technology Industry;
United States;
Australia
- March 2021
- Teaching Plan
The Black New Venture Competition
Black entrepreneurs encounter many unique obstacles when raising capital to start and grow a business, some stemming from deep systemic discrimination. During their second year at Harvard Business School (HBS), MBA students Kimberly Foster and Tyler Simpson decided to...
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Keywords:
Analytics;
Startup;
Start-up;
Startup Financing;
Financing;
Startups;
Start-ups;
Business And Community;
Business And Society;
Business Growth;
Discrimination;
Women;
Women-owned Businesses;
African Americans;
African-american Entrepreneurs;
African-american Investors;
African-American Protagonist;
African-American Women;
Early Stage Funding;
Early Stage;
Innovation ＆ Entrepreneurship;
Innovation Competitions;
Entrepreneurial Financing;
Business Plan;
Business Startups;
Diversity;
Gender;
Race;
Entrepreneurship;
Venture Capital;
Small Business;
Leadership;
Technology;
Competition
- March 2021
- Case
Mary Kay Ash: Changing the World
By: Robert Simons and Shirley Sun
This case describes the rise of Mary Kay, the founder of the worldwide cosmetics company. As a young single mother, Mary Kay had to overcome many obstacles to start her business and guide it to success. Today, there are more than 3.5 million Mary Kay beauty consultants...
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- February 2021
- Background Note
Jobs to Be Done: A Toolbox
By: Derek C. M. van Bever, Bob Moesta, Iuliana Mogosanu, Shaye Roseman and Katie Zandbergen
The Jobs to Be Done methodology is both a theory and a practical approach for understanding customer behavior and why people make the choices they make. Many practitioners, whether they work for startups or incumbent businesses, find Jobs to Be Done useful because it...
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- February 2021
- Case
Braintrust: The Blockchain-Powered Talent Network
By: Christopher Stanton, Joseph B. Fuller and George Gonzalez
San Francisco startup Braintrust developed a talent network governed and incentivized by a blockchain token as a way to align incentives between clients and freelancers. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise of remote work and accelerated the growth of the platform;...
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- February 2021 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
SafeGraph: Selling Data as a Service
By: Ramana Nanda, Abhishek Nagaraj and Allison Ciechanover
Set in January 2021, the CEO of SafeGraph, a four-year-old startup that sold Data as a Service, looked to the future. His aim was to become the most trusted source for data about a physical place. The company provided points of interest (POI) and foot traffic data on...
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- February 2021 (Revised July 2021)
- Case
TikTok in 2020: Super App or Supernova?
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Dan Maher and Dan O'Brien
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was launched in 2012 around a simple idea – helping users entertain themselves on their smartphones while on the Beijing Subway. In less than a decade, it had become one of the world’s most valuable private companies, with investors...
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Keywords:
Business Model;
Business Startups;
Business Organization;
Change Management;
Disruption;
Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;
Global Strategy;
Health Pandemics;
Innovation Strategy;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Growth Management;
Brands and Branding;
Marketing Strategy;
Marketing Channels;
Network Effects;
Two-Sided Platforms;
Product Design;
Product Development;
Partners and Partnerships;
Opportunities;
Social Issues;
Mobile Technology;
Online Technology;
Value Creation;
United States;
China