Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 30, 2018

Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber, the ride-sharing giant, proudly declared on September 10 that “very few brands become verbs” The same week Upwork, a platform for hiring freelancers, filed for an IPO, as did Fiverr , which boasts that it offers a “freelance services marketplace for the lean entrepreneur.”

Quinn 10

Quinn Entrepreneur IPO Survey 10

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 30, 2012

With the JOBS Act , the rise of international accelerators , the upcoming Facebook IPO , and the mind-blowing $1 billion Instagram acquisition , you can be sure that droves of young, ambitious founders will be jumping on the start-up bandwagon. It's been a banner year for start-ups. In a way, it's what drives them to succeed.

Ries 16

Ries IPO Entrepreneur Maturity 16

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 6, 2014

The idea was simple: Combine the best of both companies into the new Yahoo China, which was projected to generate more than $25 million in revenue in 2004. By mid-2004, however, the operation was mired in conflict over control and differences in management style. 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

MAY 30, 2013

He was not your standard internet entrepreneur — the student presenting was pitching a project to increase sub-Saharan farm income, by helping farmers shift from traditional crops to rubber trees. Anyone who has operated inside a big corporate will tell you that for any project, you might have an executive mandate.

Company 9

Company Ries Maturity Innovation 9

Harvard Business Review

MAY 10, 2011

Consider Zipcar, whose recent IPO valued the 11-year old company at over $1 billion. Unfortunately, Microsoft tied its tablet concepts to its Windows operating system and made them merely pen-enabled personal computers, so these products remained a tiny niche of the computing industry.

Venture Capitalist 12

Venture Capitalist Venture Funding Entrepreneur IPO 12

Harvard Business Review

JULY 27, 2017

Talented founders know that corporations simply cannot replicate the deep experience private VCs have in starting companies, nor their expertise in assisting startups with complex challenges such as deal making, business modeling, resolving disputes among founders, executing a successful IPO, and so on.

Venture Capitalist 8

Venture Capitalist Meyer Innovation Fixed Costs 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 5, 2011

million developers to contribute to 260,000 projects. But we also bet it isn't your usual perspective on the world of VCs and IPO lawyers. This sector operates at shorter cycle times, higher levels of risk, and over greater distances — geographic, cultural, historical — than the industrial economy is accustomed to.

Entrepreneur 14

Entrepreneur Innovation Intellectual Capital Mission Statement 14

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 24, 2017

Rather than tying up vast amounts of funds in a unicorn startup and waiting for the long play — an IPO or an acquisition — investors can see gains more quickly, and can pull profits out more easily, via ICOs. The second reason VCs are becoming more interested in ICOs is because of the liquidity of cryptocurrencies.

Venture Capitalist 11

Venture Capitalist Due Diligence Finance Long-term 11

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 19, 2017

went public in June, then saw its stock price fall 70%, making it the worst performing IPO of a major company so far in 2017. Then we project those granular patterns forward as if we had such data in the first place. For example, Blue Apron rose to become the largest meal kit delivery business in the U.S.,

IPO 8

IPO How To Metrics Bottom-up 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 20, 2017

A123 Systems promised to be a clean tech success with a soaring IPO in 2009. We often observe a wide-ranging set of initiatives and investments operating independently, and in some cases, even competitively. The company developed lithium ion batteries that helped convince automakers of their value for hybrid vehicles.

Innovation 13

Innovation Productivity Products Venture Capitalist 13

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 14, 2014

Its IPO in 1999 was a sensation ; by autumn 2000 its market capitalization topped $65 billion and the ratio of its stock price to the next year’s projected earnings was a staggering 483. Its high-end Internet routers were gaining share on market-leader Cisco, and the sky was the limit.

Hedge 8

Hedge Chief Technology Officer Maturity IPO 8