Harvard Business Review

MAY 15, 2012

And despite all of Facebook's user support, investors should be skeptical of the company's pricey IPO. Private Market Valuations aren't Great Indicators of Public Returns The final reason for trepidation is probably the most important. There is a lot of emotion behind the Facebook IPO. Venture investors look for home runs.

IPO 15

IPO Advertising IRR Venture Funding 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 28, 2014

Lending Club, a San Francisco-based peer-to-peer lending start-up, filed for an IPO yesterday, hoping to raise half a billion dollars at a $5 billion valuation. Finance Small/medium business Technology' But as of earlier this year, the company has expanded into the world of commercial loans , specifically for small businesses.

IPO 8

IPO Due Diligence Credit Scoring Banking 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 26, 2011

A star example is Google, which raised a mere $40 million in private funding before its IPO at a $23 billion valuation. While there has not been a defining exit in clean energy akin to the "Netscape moment" for the internet, there have been numerous recent IPOs in the biofuels sector.

Energy 13

Energy Finance IPO Biotechnology 13

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 27, 2018

stock exchanges has declined by almost 50% from its peak in 1996, despite dramatic increase in aggregate market capitalization. firms gravitate towards digital strategies, firms have less need for elaborate finance, marketing, production, distribution, accounting, and human resource departments. stock exchanges.

IPO 11

IPO Company First-mover Advantage Intangible Assets 11

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 2, 2017

For decades, we have heard that emerging markets are poised for huge growth that will yield even greater prosperity. Much like their famed Silicon Valley counterparts, emerging market accelerators aim to boost startups’ potential for raising growth capital.

Marketing 9

Marketing Venture Funding Entrepreneur IPO 9

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Between now and the IPO, every bit of information about the company’s finances and other metrics will be closely scrutinized. Research shows that firms’ management teams influence the success of their IPOs. The CEO isn’t the only one likely to be scrutinized by the market.

IPO 8

IPO Execution Incentives Finance 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 16, 2011

Finally, reaching profitability quickly ensures that when outside financing dries up, the venture can succeed on its own. The financial results of Groupon's traditional business continue to deteriorate, especially in mature markets, and new ventures such as Groupon Now also have failed to drive profits. But it is now too late.

Christensen 20

Christensen Fixed Costs Metrics Business Model 20

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 7, 2017

As Pete Ramstad and I note in Beyond HR , leaders often have far better developed frameworks for the value proposition of the finance function than for HR. Uber apparently lacked oversight about sexual harassment behavior; it seems far less likely that such oversight would be lacking when it comes to finance.

Compliance 13

Compliance Hedge Human Capital Finance 13

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 3, 2018

Some of the largest companies of recent times by market capitalization, such as Facebook, Alphabet, and Alibaba, carry dual class-shares. Firms with growth opportunities as well as the need for external equity financing often convert to dual-class shares. So do some older, family-controlled firms, such as Ford Motor Co.

Class 10

Class Maturity IPO Short-term 10

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 9, 2011

The trio (respectively, a finance professor at Cornell, an applied-math Ph.D This is the kind of thing that can drive people outside of quantitative finance a little crazy ; there's no reference to company fundamentals, just "sophisticated volatility estimation techniques combined with the method of reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces."

Company 15

Company Finance Price IPO 15

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 1, 2011

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.

Microfinance 15

Microfinance IPO Bottom-up Finance 15

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 7, 2018

More recently, it has gained attention as a way to finance new ventures, through what is known as an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). Less noticed, though, is ICOs appear almost antithetical to the standard approach to financing a risky venture. In fact, ICOs have upended the conventional pattern of staged experimentation and fundraising.

Cost 8

Cost Decentralization Finance Entrepreneur 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

These innovative players, such as OnDeck, Funding Circle, and Fundera are disrupting the market by using technology to solve problems that have made small business lending costly for traditional banks. After all, isn’t the customer’s voice relevant if you are going to finance a plumber or restaurant?

Credit Scoring 11

Credit Scoring Banking Dunning Metrics 11

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 8, 2018

Impact investors over the past decade largely focused on proving that impact investments could achieve a “market rate” or above return profile. Making something wildly profitable will of course attract the attention of financial markets, and thus increase the chances it will scale effectively. By 2010, they had succeeded.

Microfinance 8

Microfinance IPO Real Estate Industry 8

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 29, 2012

Most investors liked the business model and the fact that I was educated in Nigeria and knew the market. also has a vibrant IPO system to take companies public. Some countries in Africa don't have stock exchanges, and where the exchange does exist — for instance, in Nigeria — the markets don't value tech stocks very well.

Entrepreneur 15

Entrepreneur Exit Strategy Development Real Estate 15

Harvard Business Review

JULY 24, 2017

So four years ago, when I was CEO of GE Capital Retail Finance and tapped to lead a mega change initiative — splitting off our unit into a new, publicly traded company, Synchrony Financial — I’ll admit I viewed it as a huge challenge. ” This ended up being the “true north” our employees rallied around.

Management 11

Management IPO Diversity Long-term 11

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 30, 2017

Since its founding just eight years ago, Uber has become one of the best-known brands in the world, has presence in over 80 countries, has market share reported at 77% in its core U.S. However, after its IPO, Amazon’s losses were in the millions, not the billions.

CEO 14

CEO IPO Energy COO 14

Harvard Business Review

JULY 21, 2014

Is there a market opportunity the company is overlooking? If the finance person frets about keeping expenses under control, discuss expense numbers,” says Sheen. “If Erik Mason, the marketing communications manager for an aesthetic skin laser company in the Northeast, felt the firm needed a new image. ” says Sheen.

IPO 10

IPO Audience Chief Information Officer Case Study 10

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015

We’ve found that CEOs of big pharmaceutical companies, for example, are more likely to have a background as company lawyers, salespeople, or finance managers, than one in medicine or pharmaceutical R&D. For example, Qualcomm’s CDMA mobile technology was a breakthrough that led to its IPO in 1991. tax jurisdiction.

CEO 8

CEO Innovation Pharmaceuticals Merchandising 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 17, 2017

Eastman Kodak is the textbook case for failing to prioritize an innovation agenda; business schools around the world study the ramifications of the company’s ill-fated decision to ignore the digital photography market until it was too late. The Future of Financial Services. Insight Center. Crossing the Digital Divide.

Industry 13

Industry Short-term Planning Long-term 13

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 24, 2017

Then, via price dynamics determined by market supply and demand, the value is settled on by the network of participants, rather than by a central authority or government. ICOs are the Wild West of financing — they sit in a grey zone where the U.S. Insight Center. Business in the Era of Blockchain.

Venture Capitalist 12

Venture Capitalist Due Diligence Finance Long-term 12

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 5, 2014

Booming public equities and a recovered IPO market generated record portfolio company exits and distributions from VC funds. A VC firm is, first and foremost, an investment vehicle created to generate returns for investors that exceed those available in the fully liquid, low cost public equity markets.

Venture Capitalist 19

Venture Capitalist Asset Management Rate of Return Incentives 19

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 9, 2014

It is incredibly hard to hold an IPO. But venture capitalists have focused on specific markets and business models, because of the constraints of the exit, which is how investors have made their returns to-date. Entrepreneurship Finance' There has to be a better way.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur Venture Capitalist Mezzanine Short-term 8

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 3, 2012

Such regulations, if they succeed in increasing the information flow between managements and markets, are also good news for investors in general. The only real way to protect the "most susceptible investors" Sorkin is talking about is to keep them away from the stock market. I don't know the answer to that question.

IPO 13

IPO Conflict of Interest Information Marketing 13

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 7, 2013

Advantages typically include an established customer base, brand equity, market knowledge, and financial resources. Digital encyclopedias such as Microsoft''s Encarta and later, Wikipedia, virtually destroyed the market for the venerable print edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Think about a classic case. Of course not.

Disruptive Innovation 8

Disruptive Innovation Advertising Discount IPO 8

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

MARCH 27, 2014

Companies and venture capitalists chase hot markets. Entries into markets triggered more entries, and markets that saw companies fleeing went cold. 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

OCTOBER 23, 2013

There are three pieces of data that are particularly shocking to internet, software, and biotech entrepreneurs who are on the verge of committing their firms to starting firms in secondary startup markets (and, in particular, outside of the San Francisco Bay). Not focused on new marketing campaigns. It takes longer to raise money.

IPO 9

IPO Venture Capitalist Entrepreneur Competitive Advantage 9

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

China leads all emerging markets with 89 companies on the latest Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest. To many skeptical consumers in developed markets, Brand China still means lower quality. Western brands also want access to China and recent global market turmoil has exposed many targets for astute Chinese brands.

Brand 8

Brand Globalization Company Development 8

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 6, 2014

At the time, though, we were just in search of a new approach to building a sustainable business in that critical but often difficult market. In fact, you could say (and many did) that our previous attempts had failed, in that we hadn’t established a sustained market position. Things hadn’t gone well up until that point.

Chief Financial Officer 10

Chief Financial Officer Learning-by-Doing Operations IPO 10

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

These innovative players, such as OnDeck, Funding Circle, and Fundera are disrupting the market by using technology to solve problems that have made small business lending costly for traditional banks. After all, isn’t the customer’s voice relevant if you are going to finance a plumber or restaurant?

Credit Scoring 8

Credit Scoring Banking Dunning Metrics 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. For example, it is nearly impossible for scaling ventures in many countries, including Brazil and Denmark, to count on an IPO for a successful exit.

Entrepreneur 8

Entrepreneur IPO Incentives Venture Capitalist 8

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? Billion-dollar companies do not happen if the founding team is not extremely well suited to the market (now called " founder/market fit "). No 20,000 tech jobs.

Venture Capitalist 17

Venture Capitalist Software Entrepreneur Engineering 17

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? Billion-dollar companies do not happen if the founding team is not extremely well suited to the market (now called " founder/market fit "). No 20,000 tech jobs.

Venture Capitalist 17

Venture Capitalist Software Entrepreneur Engineering 17

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 24, 2015

The first category is exogenous factors over which the business has little control: the growth of the markets into which it sells; the competitive intensity and thus the average profitability of the industry in which it operates; or the fragmentation of its industry and thus the scope for a growth-by-acquisition approach.

Chemicals 8

Chemicals How To Kahneman Reputation 8

Harvard Business Review

OCTOBER 11, 2013

Before the IPO in 1999, partners of Goldman Sachs owned equity in a private partnership. But leverage limits may have unintended consequences for capital markets’ competitiveness, innovation, growth, and efficiency. Ethics Finance Risk management'

Incentives 8

Incentives Banking Ethics IPO 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 15, 2012

That may just be because some of the partnership ethos lived on nine years after the IPO, meaning that the firm is unlikely to do so well in the next financial crisis. Then the combination of bigger paychecks and higher college and grad school tuition began driving the best students into finance.

Hedge 15

Hedge Long-term Banking Short-term 15