Harvard Business Review

JULY 18, 2012

Ever thought air mattresses in living rooms would grow into a billion dollar company that would take on the vacation rental market and the hotel industry? In the past, the magic formula was two engineers or an engineer and a businessman. They made calculators, personal computers, databases, search engines and payment processors.

Venture Capitalist 16

Venture Capitalist Software Entrepreneur Engineering 16

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 2, 2012

The company is now pervasive - with 65 million unique visitors each month scouring the site for reviews of hotels, restaurants and sites around the globe. In founding TripAdvisor, Kaufer wanted to take his hard core engineering skills and apply them to vertical search in travel. Big Data meets travel.in

EBITDA 8

EBITDA Engineering Travel Business Model 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 28, 2016

These entrepreneurs typically have an engineering background, and schools that support this approach have strong engineering departments. They typically hire third parties to help them with IT and never make it part of their core business. A second set of entrepreneurs focus on information goods and think of IT as the product.

Entrepreneur 9

Entrepreneur Airlines Construction Short-term 9

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 14, 2016

Similarly, Apoorva Mehta, a former Amazon engineer and founder of Instacart, now valued at $2 billion, tried up to 20 different business models that failed before hitting the right one. Financed by VC firms. billion in a single round of equity financing, the largest private fundraising round for a VC-backed startup ever.

Company 8

Company Succession Analysis Entrepreneur 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 15, 2013

million records), Wyndham Hotels (600,000 credit cards), eHarmony (1.5 Boards should require that CEO candidates demonstrate not just knowledge of finance and marketing but also a technology aptitude. Data breaches are on the rise, with a 44% increase in the number of records exposed from 2011 to 2012. million passwords), LinkedIn (6.5

CEO 8

CEO CIO Technology CFO 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 8, 2017

Transformational CEOs Tend to be “Insider Outsiders” The list is topped by companies headed by visionary founders with no prior experience in their industries; Jeff Bezos came from the world of finance, and Reed Hastings from software. It’s a strategy that has also worked for others on the list.

Franchising 14

Franchising CEO Strategy Business Model 14

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2016

Compared to professions like engineering or business disciplines like Finance or Operations, the concept of a dedicated salesperson is relatively recent. Now, however, students’ college and pre-MBA experience is more likely to be in a finance area or perhaps in coding.

Education 8

Education Levitt Retail B2B 8