Harvard Business Review

APRIL 21, 2016

When financial services company Square priced its IPO at $9 a share last November, well under the $15+ price that private investors paid the year before, it was a cold shower of reality for the 6-year-old company. Until the IPO, Square had been one of more than 130 unicorns: privately owned tech companies valued at $1 billion or more.

IPO 8

IPO Innovation Price Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

On February 13, 2018, the New York Times reported that Uber is planning an IPO. Twitter reported a loss of $79 million before its IPO, yet it commanded a valuation of $24 billion on its IPO date in 2013. Many digital companies have no physical products and have no inventory to report.

Company 8

Company Intangible Assets Depreciation IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 28, 2016

Then the banks decided to turn the associations into for-profit companies, IPO them, and cash out. MasterCard IPO’d in 2006, and Visa followed two years later. Around the world, though, many countries still have domestic payment networks that operate as not-for-profit platforms. Now they are very focused on making money.

IPO 8

IPO Succession Technology Software 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 24, 2017

Major organizational changes, covering everything from recruiting and branding to regulatory approvals and marketing, happened in rapid succession, with a hard deadline of 12 months to get it all done for the IPO — and 18 months from the IPO until our full separation from GE. This has paid off dramatically.

Management 11

Management IPO Diversity Long-term 11

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 18, 2014

Even what appears to be a small investment risk can turn into a big one, especially when information technology comes into play. Warehouse automation systems are big and complicated; if they don’t work, you’re worse off than before since it becomes almost impossible to ship product. Their ability to execute. Forecasting acumen.

CFO 8

CFO Venture Funding IPO Retail 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 28, 2014

As a member of a start-up advisory program, I regularly hear pitches from aspiring technology entrepreneurs. Er brands rely on other products or brands to explain their own. It also puts your brand under constant pressure to introduce new products on Brand X’s time line, because now your brand value is tied to Brand X’s product.

Brand 10

Brand IPO Marketing Strategy Airlines 10

Harvard Business Review

MAY 16, 2016

For example, as it grew, Facebook found that its early “move fast and break things” culture had to be funneled into focused technical teams and product groups to make its product development process faster and less erratic, and for it to have a chance of meeting the demands of its new public shareholders following its IPO.

Banking 14

Banking Strategy Film Operations 14

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 30, 2014

The typical enterprise software startup that IPOs is at least 7 years old (to say nothing of those that try and fail). In the year before Google IPO’d, it did about $962 million in revenue. Slowly, the company built out proprietary software systems to allow its customers to get more out of its product.

Long-term 11

Long-term Innovation Company IPO 11

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 4, 2016

Even when startups have great products and customer interest, they struggle with long-term growth. But as a venture scales and becomes more complex , more operational and commercial sophistication is required to manage it. Often, our research shows, the biggest obstacles are the entrepreneurs themselves.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Sample IPO Long-term 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Nadathur's portfolio includes firms operating in drug discovery research, companion diagnostics, pharmaceutical analytics, reimbursement claims processing, patient relationship management, and specialty healthcare delivery for running clinical trials — and they all work together.

Marketing 15

Marketing Venture Capitalist Biotechnology IPO 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 13, 2015

In Africa’s technology start-up scene, one of the most difficult challenges is attracting and retaining talent. With limited exit opportunities via initial public offers ( IPOs ) and acquisitions, smart young people understand that stock options rarely bring a big payday.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist IPO Entrepreneur Banking 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 24, 2013

I used to think our great technology would take us to leadership in our market — now I realize it is our team, our organization, our marketing and our ambition to sell. Indeed, many would-be entrepreneurs who are drawn by the romantic vision of developing a snazzy new app or product pooh-pooh selling as beneath their dignity.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur IPO Open-book Marketing 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 6, 2014

In each iteration, we spent a lot of time thinking about what might make the best use of our existing product. 3721’s core product was essentially an early form of search: a browser download that helped users in China go directly to destination web sites. Not surprisingly, this didn’t sit well with the local team.

Chief Financial Officer 10

Chief Financial Officer Operations Learning-by-Doing IPO 10

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 7, 2016

Here’s a generalized scenario similar to cases we’ve experienced: A hot new mobile technology company lands one of the most successful IPOs of the year. Even a rumor of a breach can trigger a communications crisis. A hacker going by the name of ‘Tumbleweed’ enters a forum and brags that the device can be hacked.

Planning 9

Planning Company Crisis Brand 9

Harvard Business Review

JULY 27, 2017

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).

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Meyer Innovation Fixed Costs 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 5, 2011

If you think about how new products and services are hatched and brought to market today, it isn't usually the doing of just one entity — least of all the corporate R&D labs that once served as our engines of tomorrow. Innocentive is a network that brings together "seekers" with technology challenges with "solvers" all over the world.

Entrepreneur 15

Entrepreneur Innovation Intellectual Capital Mission Statement 15

Harvard Business Review

MAY 30, 2013

A good management team will be dedicated to creating product market fit, otherwise the business will flounder. Investors are involved for the long haul, understanding that startup managers will have to experiment and fail along the way to a successful IPO. In a good start-up, these characteristics are not hard to find.

Company 9

Company Ries Maturity Innovation 9

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 27, 2018

The number of listed firms can decline because of three developments: 1) bankruptcy, failure, or closure of listed firms, 2) delisting of firms going private or acquired, and 3) decrease in number of initial public offerings (IPOs). Furthermore, as production shifts to Asia and more and more U.S.

IPO 11

IPO Company First-mover Advantage Intangible Assets 11

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 24, 2017

Also known as “token sales,” this new fundraising phenomenon is being fueled by a convergence of blockchain technology, new wealth, clever entrepreneurs, and crypto-investors who are backing blockchain-fueled ideas. How technology is transforming transactions. Insight Center. Business in the Era of Blockchain.

Venture Capitalist 12

Venture Capitalist Due Diligence Finance Long-term 12

Harvard Business Review

JULY 12, 2017

Yet in this short period, digital technologies have upended our world. Digital technology is widespread and spreading fast. With products that rely on network effects, these players enjoy economies of scale and dominant market share. Digital technologies are poised to change the future of work. higher than a year earlier.

Innovation 8

Innovation Policies Technology Politics 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 9, 2010

Why would an IPO be so bad? On it were listed operational rules and four core values: honesty (speak clearly but with respect), enthusiasm (those who don't believe don't belong), transparency (information is available to everyone), and a search for the common good (put yourself in the clients' shoes). Herzlinger is the Nancy R.

Case Study 14

Case Study Franchising Health Care Follow-up 14

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 10, 2015

In the 1990s it subsidized venture capital, incubators, university R&D, and technology transfer programs. In 2014, for example, 18 IPOs raised a record-breaking $9.8 Understanding the market and establishing product/market fit is a critical seed-stage milestone. helped to create the nation’s tech industry. (

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Marketing IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 20, 2017

The innovation alone is a herculean task, but imagine being that upstart pioneer trying to develop the technology, while at the same time going up against entrenched, powerful competitors with deep industry knowledge, assets, and channels who’ve been around for a hundred years or more. Sponsored by DXC Technology. Insight Center.

Innovation 13

Innovation Productivity Products Venture Capitalist 13

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 6, 2015

You develop minimally viable products, keep testing different market and product hypotheses, and pivot based on the market feedback you get. You expect to fail repeatedly and hope to eventually get to a product-market fit. You get your technology into the market and see who wants it. It enables the product to function.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur IPO Wireless 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 14, 2014

The company, founded in 1996 by an engineer from Xerox’s legendary Palo Alto Research Center , Pradeep Sindhu (who remains its chief technology officer and vice chairman), was one of the highest flyers of the fin de siècle tech stock boom. Attempts to branch out into new product areas (security and enterprise switching) haven’t gone well.

Hedge 8

Hedge Chief Technology Officer Maturity IPO 8