The Honorable Elaine L. Chao, the 24th U. S. Secretary of Labor who served from 2001-2009, is the first Asian Pacific American woman to be appointed to a President’s Cabinet in American history. An immigrant who arrived in America at the age of eight speaking no English, Secretary Chao subsequently achieved a distinguished career…
Entrepreneurship, Features, HomePost
December 4, 2013
HBS Alum Series: Christopher Michel
Christopher Michel is an American investor, he is an entrepreneur, a Navy man, a photojournalist, an author and HBS alumni. He is the founder of Affinity Labs and Military.com and currently runs Nautilus Ventures, a seed venture fund. In 1999, after a brief stint at Mercer Consulting he decided to build his own company, Military.com….
Entrepreneurship, HomePost, News
December 2, 2013
Boston’s new StartUp- Achvr
Last month, the Harbus had the privilege of sitting down with Ryan Traeger (CEO) and Drew Watson (CMO) to find out more about their new start-up, Achvr – a social platform that’s all about helping people live happier, more-fulfilled lives. Available online and through an iPhone app, Achvr works by applying familiar game mechanics to…
Entrepreneurship, Features, HomePost, News
December 2, 2013
HBS Alum Series: Q&A with Dr. Mark Albion HBS/GSAS Class of 1981
Dr. Mark Albion was the first of our HBS Alum interview series and if every interview went as smoothly as his did then we’d be lucky writers. His love of life and helping people determine their unique contribution is inspiring and would no doubt make you question how you navigate career choices and hopefully you…
Entrepreneurship, HomePost, Humor
November 25, 2013
Lets do well at SXSW this SXSW.
Goal: I want this article to be your ROI for tuition. For both years. In the next 700 words and 4 hashtags, readers of this Harbus post will get their $$ back. Execution: As HBS first years, we will not fall into the bad habits networking-like-a-second-year-section-leader that ‘some’ second years have fallen into, fell into…
Campus News, Entrepreneurship, HomePost
November 18, 2013
Trendly: From Private Equity to Reselling Dresses
For more about Trendly’s upcoming event, head to www.trendly.us/event. Less than two years ago, I was working as an associate in a large cap Private Equity fund. Fast forward and I am now an EC at HBS founding a startup to collect women’s fashionable clothes and resell them online. Here is the story of how I…
Bloggers, Blogs, Entrepreneurship, HomePost
November 6, 2013
3 Hacks to get into hottest Silicon valley startups
Harbus blog posts: 3 Hacks to get into hottest Silicon valley startups Disclaimer: This post represents my personal views informed by my own search and these worked for me. I’m happy to discuss what worked for some other people and welcome comments on my thoughts. a. Start working for them before you get the…
Entrepreneurship, HomePost, News, Outside the Bubble
November 1, 2013
Facebook moves back to Cambridge.
Finally, Facebook comes home. Nine years after the social networking site launched in Cambridge, MA, it announced plans to install a new engineering center in Kendall Square, just two T stops off the red line from Harvard Square. According to a story posted on the Crimson, Ryan Mack, an infrastructure engineer who contributed to the development…
Entrepreneurship, HomePost, Print Edition
October 21, 2013
Upstart
This past July, HBS ‘11 graduate Rachel Kim exchanged a fraction of her future income to a group of investors for $100,000 today. The money paid off Rachel’s student debt and helped fund her startup, Nailed Kit, while earning her a group of mentors committed to helping her navigate the next 10 years of her…
Entrepreneurship, HomePost, Print Edition
September 30, 2013
Game of Stones
During the first day of The Entrepreneurial Manager (TEM) last year we learned about Bob Reiss, an HBS graduate who made a small fortune on a board game he published in the early 1980’s. I vividly remember getting Cold Called in this class and being asked “Is it good or bad to be in the…
Bloggers, Entrepreneurship, HomePost
September 30, 2013
Read With Me
This summer Ryan Eskridge and I decided to ditch sleep so that we could learn about the news business and how to write code. Lot’s of code. By the end of the summer Read With Me (www.getreadwithme.com) was born. Read With Me is a platform that enables you to personalize any news article by enabling you take any…
Blogs, Entrepreneurship, HomePost
September 30, 2013
Personal Doorman
Our summer job was to pick up dry cleaning and groceries for other people. Your next question might be: “You went to HBS for that?”. But that’s what it took to launch ‘Personal Doorman’, our business, which brings hotel service to your home. Ending the summer more excited than we began – our ride from…
Bloggers, Campus News, Entrepreneurship, Features, HomePost, On Campus, Print Edition
August 29, 2013
HourlyNerd – From FIELD 3 to First-Round Financing
HourlyNerd – From FIELD 3 to First-Round Financing HourlyNerd began as a Field 3 project in Section F. Like many of our peers from traditional backgrounds, we found the assignment daunting. We didn’t have experience creating companies from scratch — we didn’t even have an idea! The subsequent chain of events has surprised us,…
Campus News, Entrepreneurship, Features, HomePost, On Campus, Print Edition
August 26, 2013
Be Mixed
Be Mixed The Cola Wars case taught us that the beverage industry is both unattractive and difficult. Either we are terrible listeners, took RC year to be one big Opposite Day, or, simply took TEM’s “fail early and fail often” motto literally, because we spent our summer launching a new drink. Before we give you…
Campus News, Entrepreneurship, Features, HomePost, Print Edition
August 25, 2013
New Beginnings — Do Not Miss the Chance
A relatively newly minted public company CEO stopped by for some discussion about his and the company’s priorities and goals for the upcoming year the other day; and his visit brought to mind my own ruminations on the subject now that I am part of the HBS family. How does a CEO think about the…
Bloggers, Entrepreneurship, Features, HomePost, Humor
August 25, 2013
One Western Ave 451 [Or: How I Met Your Biological Father / The Big Buyout Theory]
One Western Ave 451 [Or: How I Met Your Biological Father / The Big Buyout Theory] This column will follow the weekly triumphs and tribulations of Spencer, Andrew and Felicity, three housemates in One Western 451, as they navigate the coming academic year at Harvard Business School. Andrew, an EC, worked for Deloitte in Phoenix,…
Entrepreneurship, HomePost, On Campus
May 6, 2013
Making Travel a Peek Experience
Meet Peek.com – A one-stop shop for travelers looking to discover and book amazing experiences. As classes come to a close and we start dreaming about summer adventures, don’t let the time consuming process of looking for and booking activities in your travel destinations become a reason to procrastinate. There are better things to push…
Entrepreneurship, On Campus
May 6, 2013
Spider Stories Raises $30,000 to Fund African-Inspired Cartoon Pilot
In 2009, John Agbaje (NA) and his brother Charles founded Central City Tower, an entertainment company devoted to creating original animated adventure stories. Avid artists and storytellers from a young age, the brothers had spent years dreaming up endless characters and worlds and wanted to formalize the intellectual property they had created. After getting their…
Entrepreneurship
April 7, 2013
Seeking a Job in Start-Up Land
My first time jumping into the start-up world was as a freshly minted Harvard MBA in 1995. As my classmates were rushing off to high-paying, high-powered jobs on Wall Street, I joined a Series A start-up with 30 employees as a product manager, making $65,000 per year – lower than my pre-MBA salary at management…
Entrepreneurship
March 31, 2013
CommonBond: The Warby Parker of Student Loans
In the summer of 2011, David Klein had a problem, a problem shared by many MBAs at HBS: high-cost student loans. At the time, he was entering Wharton’s full-time MBA program, poised to start a company before graduating. He unwittingly happened upon the pain point, and ultimate idea, that would just nine months later cause him…
Entrepreneurship, On Campus
March 25, 2013
What We Learned from 100 Small Businesses
A few months ago, we had the idea to connect small and medium sized businesses with students from the top MBA programs in the world and launched HourlyNerd. The basic premise was simple: MBAs need money, have significant business acumen from previous jobs and school, want real-world experience, and have plenty of spare time. Meanwhile,…
Entrepreneurship
March 8, 2013
Venture Corner: HBS students launch fantasy basketball site Draft the Madness
The Harbus sat down with Jim Hong (OG) and Dan Braus (OG Partner) to discuss their new fantasy sports start-up, Draft the Madness. The Harbus: So… what is Draft the Madness? Dan: DTM is a new take on March Madness bracket pools that brings fantasy sports to the NCAA tournament. Harbus: That’s a very polished…
Entrepreneurship, News, On Campus
February 3, 2013
InSITE, Renowned Start-up Mentorship Program, Launches in Boston
If you have watched or listened to music on YouTube recently then you have already, without knowing it, interacted with an InSITE company. RightsFlow, which Google acquired in 2011 to help manage royalty payments on its popular video site, is just one of a long list of successful start-ups to graduate from InSITE’s program. InSITE,…
Entrepreneurship, Features, On Campus
December 24, 2012
HBS Startup giftplum Takes Care of Christmakkah
Celebrities have personal shoppers. Thanks to giftplum, now you do too. giftplum is an online gift shopping “concierge” brought to you just in time for Santa season by Jono Schafler (OF), Krista Nylen (OF), and Noah King (Hill Holliday). The site went live the week of Black Friday. giftplum takes the stress and guesswork…
Entrepreneurship, Features
December 5, 2012
BuildAFlock Launches at HBS to Help Students Spread Their Wings
We’ve all heard of tweeting, but it’s time for HBS students to start flocking. BuildAFlock, a real-world social networking start-up co-founded by Cy Khormaee (OI), Deborah Hsieh (OI), and Shlomi Dinoor (UMass MBA), officially launched on November 29 as a private beta for the HBS community. BuildAFlock is an online platform that takes the administrative…
Entrepreneurship, Features
December 3, 2012
Launching and Scaling a Successful Social Venture: Gerald Chertavian, Founder and CEO, Year Up (MBA ’92)
“The untold story of how to create, launch and scale a social venture”- this is how Professor Allen Grossman framed the November discussion with Gerald Chertavian, MBA class of 1992 and Founder of award-winning nonprofit Year Up. Chertavian, who’s organization seeks to close the opportunity divide by equipping urban youth with skills, experience and empowering…
Entrepreneurship, Features
November 27, 2012
So What’s the Deal with Spotify, Anyway?
Chris Sumner (NA) reflects on the rapid rise of Spotify and the winners and losers in the face of this ‘freemium’ innovation. Spotify first appeared in the United States twelve months ago. A small Swedish import with a ‘freemium’ music streaming model and an interesting group of backers (including ex-Napsterer Sean Parker), Spotify was a highly…
Entrepreneurship, Features
November 5, 2012
From FIELD 3 Concept to Kickstarter Campaign
Most of us have iPads, but most of us don’t have kids. That’s what I shared with Phyl Georgiou, the co-founder of Tiggly, who explained why I, and any adult that knows a toddler, could find Tiggly’s iPad toddler-toy useful. We all know a two-year old, right? In my case, I know plenty, so I…
Entrepreneurship, On Campus
October 30, 2012
Entrepreneurship for Ecuador: Building a Clean Water Business
In the summer of 2006, Alex Harding (NA) was working at a local hospital in Muisne, Ecuador, when he recognized a familiar face in the emergency room. It was Surullo, a 5-year old boy from his neighborhood, and he looked awful, severely dehydrated due to an unrelenting bout of diarrhea. Infected with intestinal parasites, Surullo…
Club Corner, Entrepreneurship
October 30, 2012
TechMedia Club to Host 8th Annual Cyberposium
The TechMedia Club will host its eighteenth annual Cyberposium on Sunday, November 4th. The club’s flagship event, entirely student organized, is the largest MBA technology conference in the world and is one of the most attended conferences on Harvard Business School’s campus every year. This year, conference co-chairs Vinay Kashyup, Jason Sorger and Pallavi Kansal…