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- August 2023
- Case
DexAI
By: Jo Tango and Christina Wallace
During a challenging fundraising environment, the DexAI founders received two term sheets with nearly identical economic terms but very different legal ones. The entrepreneurs had to navigate: representations and warranties (their personal guarantees that the company's...
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- May 2023
- Technical Note
Venture Capital at a Crossroads
By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo
Venture capital is a cyclical, ever-changing industry, as seen in recent years. The late 2010s and early 2020s witnessed record amounts of capital flowing into the sector, high valuations, and new types of investors entering the market. Innovations in the seed stage,...
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Keywords:
Venture Capital
- February 2023
- Case
Enstitute
By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Kumba Sennaar and Sarah Mehta
Shaila Ittycheria (MBA ’10) founded the nonprofit organization Enstitute, in 2012 in New York City. Determined to challenge the status quo within higher education, Shaila and her cofounder sought to expand opportunities for talented young people by placing them in...
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- 2022
- Working Paper
Racial Diversity in Private Capital Fundraising
By: Johan Cassel, Josh Lerner and Emmanuel Yimfor
Black- and Hispanic-owned funds control a very modest share of assets in the private capital
industry. We find that the sensitivity of follow-on fundraising to fund performance
is greater for minority-owned groups, particularly for underperforming groups. We...
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- 2022
- Working Paper
Private Equity Fund Valuation Management during Fundraising
By: Brian K. Baik
I investigate whether and how private equity fund managers (GPs) inflate their interim fund valuations (net asset values, or NAVs) during fundraising periods. Specifically, I study the extent to which the GPs inflate NAVs by managing valuation assumptions (e.g.,...
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- August 2022
- Teaching Plan
Janet Ames (A), (B), (C), (D)
By: Brian Trelstad
Teaching Plan for HBS Case Nos. 320-076, 320-077, 320-078, and 322-051. The series of Janet Ames cases follow a fictional alumna of Harvard Business School into her consulting career in Boston. Over the series of cases, Ames is first offered the opportunity to join...
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Keywords:
Philanthropy;
Board;
Non-profit Management;
Career Changes And Transitions;
Evaluation;
Personal Development and Career;
Opportunities;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Philanthropy and Charitable Giving;
Governing and Advisory Boards;
Social Enterprise;
Social Entrepreneurship;
Nonprofit Organizations;
Management;
United States
- May 2022
- Case
Deborah Quazzo at GSV Ventures
By: William A. Sahlman, Michael D. Smith and Nicole Tempest Keller
As COVID-19 swept across the globe in 2020, the education sector faced unprecedented disruption. Schools and colleges worldwide shut down, forcing over a billion students and teachers to move to online learning. Investor interest in the EdTech space exploded as...
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- 2022
- Working Paper
Small Campaign Donors
By: Laurent Bouton, Julia Cagé, Edgard Dewitte and Vincent Pons
In this paper, we study the characteristics and behavior of small donors, and compare them to those of large donors. We first build a novel dataset including all the 340 million individual contributions reported to the U.S. Federal Election Commission between 2005 and...
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- March 2022
- Case
In Data We Trust: Be Mobile Africa and Furthering Financial Inclusion Across the African Continent
By: Lauren Cohen, Grace Headinger and Pierre Marchesseault
To Cédric Jeannot, leveraging technology to promote financial inclusion was personal. After no established financial institution would accept his technology platform to lower transaction costs for free, Jeannot launched FinTech company Be Mobile Africa in May 2020....
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Keywords:
Finance;
Fintech;
Emerging Market;
Fundraising;
Financial Inclusion;
Strategy;
Expansion;
Management;
Entrepreneurship;
Personal Finance;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Financial Services Industry;
Banking Industry;
Africa;
Togo;
Nigeria;
Ghana
- February 2022 (Revised November 2022)
- Case
Fondeadora
Norman Müller and René Serrano, cofounders of Fondeadora, a Mexican “neobank,” had lined up a $12.5 million in Series A funding round in 2020 only to run into a major obstacle: The lead investor was Gradient Ventures, a venture firm launched by Alphabet, Inc., and...
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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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- April 2021
- Case
The Incentive for Legacy: Tsinghua University Education Foundation
By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao and Spencer C.N. Hagist
Vivian Yuan seeks to bolster the Tsinghua University Education Foundation's fundraising efforts and investment goals in a new era of Chinese higher education. Competing with elite members of China's C9 League of top universities, she must develop a set of incentives...
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- 2021
- Article
Fundraising for Stigmatized Groups: A Text Message Donation Experiment
By: Katerina Linos, Laura Jakli and Melissa Carlson
As government welfare programming contracts and NGOs increasingly assume core aid functions, they must address a long-standing challenge—that people in need often belong to stigmatized groups. To study other-regarding behavior, we fielded an experiment through a...
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- August 2020 (Revised May 2021)
- Case
NextView Ventures
By: Jo Tango and Nori Gerardo Lietz
David Beisel, Rob Go, and Lee Hower are non-partners at different-and-established venture capital (VC) firms. They decide to leave their positions to start a new seed-stage VC firm. The case covers the genesis of the firm, the formulation of its strategy and...
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- July 2020
- Case
CSL Capital Management: Patriot Proppants (A)
By: Victoria Ivashina and Yury Kapko
This two-part case series follows CSL Capital’s 2009 investment in the greenfield manufacturing company, Patriot Proppants. CSL, a recently established investment firm, employs a unique investment model, funding new ("green field") energy service businesses that serve...
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- July 2020
- Supplement
CSL Capital Management: Patriot Proppants (B)
By: Victoria Ivashina and Yury Kapko
This two-part case series follows CSL Capital’s 2009 investment in the greenfield manufacturing company, Patriot Proppants. CSL, a recently established investment firm, employs a unique investment model, funding new ("greenfield") energy service businesses that serve...
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- July 2020
- Case
Amanda and Kristen: Mented Cosmetics
By: Steven Rogers, Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Alterrell Mills
The co-founders (Black HBS alumnae) of an e-commerce beauty startup explore the unmet needs within the beauty industry. This case study examines the entrepreneurial opportunities that come from identifying an underserved market, specifically within the Black community...
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Keywords:
Brands and Branding;
Competition;
Customers;
Disruption;
Disruptive Innovation;
Distribution Channels;
Entrepreneurship;
Finance;
Macroeconomics;
Marketing;
Marketing Channels;
Marketing Communications;
Marketing Strategy;
Mission and Purpose;
Organizational Culture;
Product Design;
Product Development;
Product Positioning;
Sales;
Social Issues;
Social Marketing;
Business Startups;
Strategic Planning;
Strategy;
Supply Chain Management;
Venture Capital;
Beauty and Cosmetics Industry;
Advertising Industry;
Public Relations Industry;
Chemical Industry;
Manufacturing Industry;
Retail Industry;
North and Central America;
United States;
New York (city, NY);
New York (state, US)
- May 2020 (Revised December 2022)
- Case
Soofa: Displaying the Right Path?
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Amy Klopfenstein and Amram Migdal
In November 2019, Sandra Richter, co-founder and CEO of Soofa, a network of advertising-supported digital bulletin boards, must decide between two different fundraising and expansion plans for her company. One plan entails raising $15 million in a Series A round and...
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Keywords:
Business Ventures;
Business Model;
Business Plan;
Business Startups;
Entrepreneurship;
Decision Making;
Decisions;
Ethics;
Geography;
Geopolitical Units;
Finance;
Investment;
Markets;
Market Entry and Exit;
Demand and Consumers;
Network Effects;
Media;
Society;
Urban Development;
Sustainable Cities;
Information Technology;
Information Infrastructure;
Digital Platforms;
Strategy;
Business Strategy;
Expansion;
Relationships;
Partners and Partnerships;
Capital;
Venture Capital;
Advertising Industry;
Technology Industry;
Media and Broadcasting Industry;
North and Central America;
United States;
Massachusetts;
Cambridge
- January 2020
- Case
Khan Academy 2018 (Abridged)
By: William A. Sahlman and Nicole Tempest Keller
Founded in 2008, Khan Academy was a global educational nonprofit with a mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone anywhere in the world. By 2018, the organization had expanded into numerous content areas, product areas, and geographic markets....
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- December 2019 (Revised August 2022)
- Exercise
Janet Ames (A)
By: Brian Trelstad and Brian Trelstad
The series of Janet Ames cases follow a fictional alumna of Harvard Business School into her consulting career in Boston. Over the series of cases, Ames is first offered the opportunity to join the board of a Boston-based non-profit organization, which offers students...
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