Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 5, 2014

The VC industry has failed to innovate. Finance Venture capital' Investors should run, not walk away, from such funds. The business model and economic structure of the VC partnership has remained stagnant for the past two decades. Until we do that, the enemy of better performance is us.

Venture Capitalist 17

Venture Capitalist Asset Management Rate of Return Industry 17

Harvard Business Review

MAY 17, 2017

When venture capitalists (VCs) evaluate investment proposals, the language they use to describe the entrepreneurs who write them plays an important but often hidden role in shaping who is awarded funding and why. All told, we observed closed-room, face-to-face discussions leading final funding decisions for 125 venture applications.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Finance Influence 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 14, 2017

” A plan helps detail how the opportunity is to be seized, what success looks like, and what resources are required, and it can be key to the investment decisions of angel investors, banks, and venture capitalists. Better-financed startups are more likely to succeed. So are more experienced entrepreneurs.

Planning 14

Planning Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Finance 14

Strategy Driven

SEPTEMBER 5, 2019

Amongst the world’s ambitious graduates are some of the next generation’s entrepreneurs and innovators. With a well-developed business plan, entrepreneurs are also much more likely to attract angel investors or secure funding from venture capitalists. Some will have a carefully defined business plan. Overestimating revenue.

Entrepreneur 12

Entrepreneur Venture Capitalist Banking Credit Scoring 12

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 7, 2012

The report, provocatively titled "We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us" [ PDF ], summarizes its findings thus: Limited Partners — foundations, endowments, and state pension funds — invest too much capital in underperforming venture capital funds on frequently misaligned terms. Maybe that's just the way it is.

Venture Capitalist 15

Venture Capitalist Christensen Incubator Porter 15

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 26, 2011

Many venture capitalists are limiting their investments to the "demand-side" — aimed at reducing energy use — rather than investing in startups trying to change the way we produce energy. The net result is that many VCs now turn down promising companies that might contribute to transforming the way we produce energy.

Energy 11

Energy Finance IPO Biotechnology 11

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 7, 2012

The report, provocatively titled "We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us" [ PDF ], summarizes its findings thus: Limited Partners — foundations, endowments, and state pension funds — invest too much capital in underperforming venture capital funds on frequently misaligned terms. Maybe that's just the way it is.

Venture Capitalist 13

Venture Capitalist Christensen Incubator Porter 13

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

A good idea faces so many obstacles en route to market today that it''s a wonder we have any innovative products at all. Effective means of boosting innovation already exist, but not enough companies are making use of them. I''ll describe both, but first let''s look at what''s wrong with some of the traditional sources of innovation.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Venture Funding Innovation Incentives 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

A good idea faces so many obstacles en route to market today that it’s a wonder we have any innovative products at all. Effective means of boosting innovation already exist, but not enough companies are making use of them. You know those baby sea turtles that get eaten by birds and crabs on their way from the nest to the water?

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Venture Funding Innovation Incentives 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 9, 2014

And as the shift away from the industrial economy continues, a wider percentage of this institutional capital will go towards innovation startups through a rise in speculative investing , which has been predicted by a number of Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Entrepreneurship Finance'

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Venture Capitalist Mezzanine Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 9, 2016

If the public sector is to realize the full potential of digital technology to transform public finances and even kickstart national economic growth, governments will have to move beyond streamlining services and cutting red-tape for entrepreneurs. Marc Andreessen, the prominent venture capitalist, once said that software is eating the world.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Disruptive Innovation Venture Capitalist Business Model 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 18, 2012

Many venture capitalists are up in the arms because their returns are down, their funds are drying up, and there appear to be a declining number of entrepreneurs pursuing big ideas. Unfortunately, venture capitalists have mixed up their causality. Have all the innovative ideas already been done? What gives?

Venture Capitalist 17

Venture Capitalist Software Entrepreneur Engineering 17

Harvard Business Review

JULY 18, 2012

Many venture capitalists are up in the arms because their returns are down, their funds are drying up, and there appear to be a declining number of entrepreneurs pursuing big ideas. Unfortunately, venture capitalists have mixed up their causality. Have all the innovative ideas already been done? What gives?

Venture Capitalist 17

Venture Capitalist Software Entrepreneur Engineering 17

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 5, 2018

The myth of Silicon Valley is that venture-funded entrepreneurship is a generalizable model that can be applied to every problem, when in actuality it is a model that was built to commercialize mature technologies for certain markets. The Silicon Valley Model. Back east, established firms worked with big banks to launch new enterprises.

Technology 8

Technology Venture Funding Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 1, 2016

Moreover, they are commonly misunderstood or mistakenly lumped in with other institutions supporting early-stage startups, such as incubators, angel investors, and early-stage venture capitalists. Startup accelerators support early-stage, growth-driven companies through education, mentorship, and financing.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Incubator Finance Learning-by-Doing 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 24, 2016

Innovation has the potential to transform the investment industry. Yet the world’s largest funds are closed off from these innovations. Research we have collected in recent months shows that pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and endowments expect imminent breakthrough innovations in investment technology.

Operations 8

Operations Intangible Assets Venture Capitalist Hedge 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 11, 2011

For years, those of us who study business innovation have been thrilled by the results and influence of Muhammad Yunus , Grameen Bank, and the idea that one powerful way to fight poverty is to make small loans to villagers (mainly women) who have tons of energy but no access to capital. That's a central challenge for innovators everywhere.

Venture Capitalist 15

Venture Capitalist Innovation Rogers Long-term 15

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

So, if impact investing is still within this early stage of experimentation and iteration, what lessons learned from the formation of the venture capital industry might we apply? Venture capitalists finance structured experiments — with relatively modest amounts of money and time — intended to produce valuable outcomes.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Core Competence Morale 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 24, 2013

Research by Harvard Business School senior lecturer Shikhar Ghosh, in fact, has found that fully 75% of venture capital-backed startups — presumably the crème de la crème of the startup world — failed to return the capital invested in them to their investors (let alone generate positive returns).

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Supply Chain Long-term Christensen 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 26, 2012

An organization's capabilities become its disabilities when disruption is afoot." – Clayton Christensen, The Innovator's Solution. In November 2005, Paul Graham wrote an essay titled " The Venture Capital Squeeze." Over the years, venture capitalists have been some of the most ardent students of disruptive innovation.

Disruptive Innovation 14

Disruptive Innovation Hedge Venture Capitalist Venture Funding 14

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 8, 2013

It also received its early stage finance from the U.S. Venture capitalists entered only after government funding had gotten the company to the critical proof of concept. government, which through DARPA and other initiatives stands out worldwide for its astoundingly positive track record in funding true innovation.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Biotechnology Fashion Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 22, 2016

When it comes to consumer-facing service industries like e-commerce, media, and ride- or apartment-sharing, it’s not new to suggest that “software is eating the world,” to use the phrase of venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. Second, a number of important inputs have gotten cheaper.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Contract Manufacturing Incubator Venture Capitalist 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 8, 2015

Change and innovation are choices, not givens, in any organization, and there are managerial levers for making these selections wisely. Within EB, Merck first created a Global Health Innovation Fund and then a Healthcare Services and Solution unit to identify, develop, and operate nascent opportunities that fit that thesis.

Health Care 8

Health Care Venture Capitalist Strategic Fit Pharmaceuticals 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 11, 2016

” They’re all about “the big idea” and partnerships that last, and they understand that “this business of innovation is something that takes a long time” — it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Missionaries, on the other hand, are “strategic.”

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Kleiner Venture Capitalist Construction 8

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 1, 2017

I’ve met so many leaders who are brilliant when it comes to product design and capital structure but who treat the people in business as an afterthought, a matter of sound administration as opposed to daring innovation. But for the truly great leaders I’ve studied, the people factor is just as vital as the technology or money one.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Mission Statement Long-term Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 30, 2015

As Harvard Business School’s Michael Porter and Jan Rivkin have noted, strong supply chains bring “low logistical costs, rapid problem solving and easier joint innovation.” For example, a “mom and pop” Main Street shop has different financing needs than a high‐tech startup.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Rivkin Venture Capitalist Policies 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 27, 2014

But unlike most Japanese innovations, it did not come from a big established firm. Companies and venture capitalists chase hot markets. Organizations that entered when VC fundings were booming were increasingly likely to fail, and those financed in a VC funding boom were unlikely to make it to an IPO.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Venture Capitalist Business Incubator IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 3, 2015

In recent years, investors have learned that defining the market value of a firm cannot just be based on finances. To gain more insights into a specific firm, investors have shown more interest in intangibles like strategy, brand, innovation, systems integration, collaboration, and so on.

Marketing 8

Marketing Leadership Venture Capitalist GAAP 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

To drive shareholder value and be a catalyst for economic recovery, our nation's largest companies must deploy their assets in a productive manner, either internally for innovation and organic growth, or externally for corporate venture capital investments, research partnerships, joint ventures and alliances, or acquisitions.

Intangible Assets 8

Intangible Assets Venture Capitalist White Paper Real Estate 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 10, 2013

So Puerto Rican entrepreneurs hire consultants to badger government procurement to pay up, and in parallel they jack up their prices to finance the long receivables cycle. Stay off of ventures'' balance sheets — and get onto their income statements. Economy Entrepreneurship Innovation' Convene, celebrate, catalyze.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur IPO Incentives Venture Capitalist 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 7, 2014

Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz kicks off an inspired post on scaling by quoting the rapper Dorrough, who tells anyone with “a dollar in your pocket, a twenty in your wallet” to focus on one thing: “Get big. But an intimate gathering with, say, 500 of your best friends isn’t feasible.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Brainstorming Proposal CEO 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 24, 2017

Venture capitalists, who generally have been standoffish to the ICO phenomenon, are now becoming more interested in it for a number of reasons. ICOs are the Wild West of financing — they sit in a grey zone where the U.S. Just as venture capitalists are taking a hard look at this new phenomenon, so should we all.

Venture Capitalist 12

Venture Capitalist Due Diligence Finance Long-term 12

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012

In today's world, start-ups aren't the only ones who can innovate. As I discussed in my post How Big Companies Can Save Innovation , large companies are now better positioned to innovate than ever before. Innovation increasingly involves creating business models that tap big companies' unique strengths.

Innovation 8

Innovation Company Venture Capitalist Health Care 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 26, 2016

We met with leaders at private equity funds, venture capitalists, and incubators, including Andreessen Horowitz and Playground. These conversations highlighted some attitudes and values that seemed to go a long way toward explaining Silicon Valley’s innovation identity. But boldness by itself is a dime-store commodity.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Company Succession Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 7, 2015

Innovation tourism: it’s a thing. These well-intentioned professionals travel the world in pursuit of the secret sauce of innovation. If you ask the director of a government innovation agency how influential or effective they are, what answer do you expect, other than “ extremely ?” Kenneth Andersson.

Innovation 8

Innovation Planning Tourism Venture Capitalist 8

The Horizons Tracker

SEPTEMBER 15, 2020

Over the last few decades, innovation activity has become concentrated in clusters or ecosystems, where finance, academia, industry and entrepreneurs rub shoulders to allow the free flow of ideas. Innovating our response to Covid-19. Practical solutions. A changing landscape.

Innovation 84

Innovation Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Crisis 84

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

Bravo venture capitalists. Encourage financial entrepreneurship and innovation. Entrepreneurship in financial services has been given a bad rap as one contributor to the economic crisis, but we desperately need innovative financing models for start-ups. Bravo President. Bravo White House. Bravo corporate America.

Venture Capitalist 15

Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Microfinance Finance 15