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Three Headwinds for Facebook's IPO

Harvard Business Review

And despite all of Facebook's user support, investors should be skeptical of the company's pricey IPO. Over the past couple of years, I've become close with a handful of web product managers. There is a lot of emotion behind the Facebook IPO. I don't mean to suggest it will fall 70% in value after its IPO pop.

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Startup Accelerators Have Become More Popular in Emerging Markets — and They’re Working

Harvard Business Review

It’s not all about venture funding. entrepreneurs, just over $50,000) they typically seek more modest amounts of outside investment and are not typically working towards an acquisition or IPO. When it is about venture funding, hone in on the best matches. Related Video. Acknowledge implicit bias.

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How Blockchain Is Changing Finance

Harvard Business Review

Traditionally, companies target angel investors in the early stages of a new business, and later look to venture capitalists, eventually culminating in an initial public offering (IPO) on a stock exchange. These ICOs aren’t just new cryptocurrencies masquerading as companies. There is little to no regulatory oversight.

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Groupon Doomed by Too Much of a Good Thing

Harvard Business Review

The best way to manage a fledgling business is for managers to be impatient for profit but patient for growth. First, when a business is impatient for profit, managers are forced to validate their assumptions and demonstrate that customers are fundamentally willing to pay an acceptable price for the company's offering.

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Midsized Firms Can’t Afford Bad Bets

Harvard Business Review

BlueArc was venture-funded, but in 2008 VC money was getting hard to find. BlueArc’s devices were high-end, but its management believed it needed a mid-priced product to get it through the recession. In contrast, one California manufacturer of data storage equipment grew by making a much less reckless bet.

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Enabling the Natural Act of Entrepreneurship

Harvard Business Review

For you entrepreneurs, the challenges of scale-up are first and foremost the responsibility of managements and boards. Don''t go looking to public officials for help in growing your venture ten times bigger. It is hell to manage.". Stay off of ventures'' balance sheets — and get onto their income statements.

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What BMW’s Corporate VC Offers That Regular Investors Can’t

Harvard Business Review

This meant that the company was leaving out huge innovation potential — thousands of startups with billions of funding — that could help BMW innovate anything from core vehicle technology (batteries, sensors, artificial intelligence software) to manufacturing innovations (internet of things, cybersecurity, robotics).