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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. Web developers can personalize recommendation engines, allow users to see their friends' purchase history, and draw on detailed demographic data available through the Facebook network. Facebook is not Groupon.

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Under Fire, Microfinance Faces Falling Out of Favor

Harvard Business Review

Microfinance has come under fire in the past 18 months, triggered in part by SKS Microfinance's IPO. The IPO, the new regulations, and a call for Dr. Yunus's retirement from Grameen Bank have led some to doubt the whole notion of microfinance. When you deny access to education, finance, housing, and health care, the poor remain poor.

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Reversing the Decline in Big Ideas

Harvard Business Review

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. But Silicon Valley seems to think that all that is required for disruption are a few "rockstar engineers" and "superstar designers." What gives?

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Reversing the Decline in Big Ideas

Harvard Business Review

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. But Silicon Valley seems to think that all that is required for disruption are a few "rockstar engineers" and "superstar designers." What gives?

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Why Tech Entrepreneurs in Developing Countries Struggle to Raise Funds

Harvard Business Review

student in the engineering school at Johns Hopkins University, I had a business idea. also has a vibrant IPO system to take companies public. That's why most investments in Africa are in mature industries like oil & gas, real estate, and finance, among others. A few years ago, while I was a first-year Ph.D.

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Don’t Build Your Startup Outside of Silicon Valley

Harvard Business Review

Many small businesses don’t require the sort of financing required by firms in pursuit of s-curve growth. Tech companies see engineers move to and fro frequently, integrate their products tightly, and often find themselves acquiring or merging with counterparts. It takes longer to raise money. But it is an important metric.

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Culture, Not Leverage, Made Wall Street Riskier

Harvard Business Review

The design engineers kept taking incremental risks that they thought were acceptable and normalized them — until the disaster. Before the IPO in 1999, partners of Goldman Sachs owned equity in a private partnership. Ethics Finance Risk management' Leverage ratios might be the O-rings of the financial crisis.