Entrepreneurial financing

If you want to be successful, you have to harness the talent. The top private equity firms have a genius for hiring superior talent. All organizations need great people, but PE measures talent with one test only: performance. It’s not that private equity firms are heartless. Rather, their three- to five-year time horizon doesn’t allow […]

One study found that people were willing to pay about 21% more for a product when they were told it was crowdfunded.

In this article, Bob Zider, president of the Beta Group, a California-based firm that invests in commercializing new technologies, presents an analysis...

Times change and markets transform themselves overnight. The half-life of common wisdom is shorter than ever. But top private equity firms have distilled a set of institutional habits that boost the likelihood of their success. What’s critical to this success? Attitude. PE leaders take pains to foster a “results-oriented mind-set”. In short, that means creating […]

Does high-quality venture financing increase the success of funded ventures? My co-authors, Josh Lerner of HBS and Antoinette Schoar of MIT, and I define...

Entrepreneurship is more celebrated, studied, and desirable than ever. Business school students flock to courses on entrepreneurship. Managers, fearful of losing their step on the corporate ladder, yearn to step off on their own. Policymakers pin their hopes for job creation and economic growth on start-ups rather than on the once-preeminent corporate giants. Belief in […]

Company founders have to be optimistic and resilient. But new research shows that serial entrepreneurs-those who involve themselves in only one project...

Here’s what that means for VCs and entrepreneurs.

A new type of security, called "mission equity," caps investor returns so the company's financial success can help fuel its mission.

It’s easy to turn off prospective investors. Just feed them the same old lines.

The deck is stacked against entrepreneurs who aren't in San Francisco Bay, New York, or Boston.

When entrepreneurs get financing from big VC firms, they often lose control over their idea and their business. An increasing number are unwilling to make that deal.

Involving people in the evolution of your idea makes them invested in its success.

Petrolink's business plan looks like a winner. At present, the only available pipeline for operators in the Baltic Sea's newly developed Helmark gas field...

In a pitch competition, judges reacted poorly to warmth and expressiveness.

Instead of casting a wide net, try a more strategic approach.

Lending small amounts of cash to fledgling entrepreneurs has been a great success in developing countries, but the concept hasn’t fared as well in the United States.

A quantitative ranking.

Research shows how corporate and scientific R&D have splintered since the 1970s.

The notion of starting a business can be quite alluring, conjuring up images of independence, glory, fame, and riches. Such emotionally uplifting images make it quite easy to be overly optimistic or even totally unrealistic in assessing markets, products, profits, and other aspects of a new venture. This article is not meant to discourage budding […]