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…
Entrepreneurship, On Campus
September 5, 2012
PollKarma: A start-up making a difference in a minute
It all started in class. In those precious few moments before the session begins – what is there to do but play some Angry Birds? Let’s face it – we all waste a ton of time on our phones. The data (thankfully) shows we’re not alone in this – the average smartphone owner spends more…
Entrepreneurship, Features
September 5, 2012
My Start-Up Summer
Pupillary distance, eye exam room dimensions, street-level city permitting regulations & fees, and legal contracts — this is only a small sampling of the many new topics I learned about this summer during my internship at Warby Parker. For quick context, I spent my 12 weeks at Warby focusing on two big marketing initiatives. The…
Entrepreneurship
May 11, 2012
LookMazing: A Start-Up Featuring You
HBS has contributed immensely to the burgeoning fashion start-up scene. But the vast majority of fashion start-ups are focused on innovative new selling strategies (Gilt famously built its business model around flash sales). In contrast, LookMazing focuses on the curation and expression of personal fashion styles, and enables fashion discovery through social networking. I sat…
Entrepreneurship
April 18, 2012
Venture Corner: bcalm Gets its Start in the Beverage Industry
There’s a calm taking HBS by storm. One day soon, out of the corner of your eye when walking by Spangler, you will notice a green and silver glimmer in a section mate’s hand thanks to Dan Rumennik, founder of bcalm. I wanted to learn more about the beginnings of this beverage start-up, so I sat down with Dan to learn more.
Entrepreneurship
April 18, 2012
The Heat is On for SolidEnergy: HBS/MIT Partnership Produces Series of Wins
After winning $120,000 at the Rice Business Plan Competition as well as the top prize at MIT Accelerate, Louis Beryl (HBS 2012) is understandably optimistic about the future of SolidEnergy, a business which he co-founded with Qichao Hu, an MIT Grad student.
Entrepreneurship
April 17, 2012
Venture Corner: Pymetrics Uses Neuroscience to Assess Personality
WHO: are we? We are Pymetrics. We have developed a new, neuroscience-based tool to perform a better assessment of people. It is like the Myers-Briggs for the 21st century: it is based on neuroscience rather than psychology. The tool will tell you two things: 1. Your cognitive and emotional strengths and weaknesses, and 2. What people with…
Entrepreneurship
April 17, 2012
Peace Love & Pooches: A Startup Guide for Partners
the birth of Peace Love & Pooches – a website where dog owners can list and trade dog services with a trusted network of people in their community. According to the American Pet Products Association, pet industry sales reached $50+billion last year – $4 billion of which was spent on services.
Entrepreneurship
April 3, 2012
An Inside Look at Trunk Club
Last summer, I had the opportunity to intern with Trunk Club, a men’s clothing service that makes it easy to find great clothes without any shopping. It was my first experience working at a start-up; when I joined, the company had just hit their first full year of sales, and was growing quickly. What makes…
Entrepreneurship
April 3, 2012
Reflections on a Failed Business Plan
It was disappointing, depressing, and, like everything else in the 6-8 weeks we’d taken to develop the plan, a tremendous learning experience, one I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Entrepreneurship
April 3, 2012
Venture Corner: CIMLS.com Discovers How to Open the Floodgates and Harness Data to Power Its Business
As a refresher, what was your business and your progress at the time of the last Harbus interview? CIMLS.com (The Commercial Investment Multiple Listing Service) is a commercial real estate research service. We collect and provide access to a huge database of information ranging from property listings to local market demographics www.replicabestsale.co.uk. At the time…
Entrepreneurship
March 27, 2012
Venture Corner: Distinc.tt Pivots to Create a Community of Communities
What industry are you in? “Location social.” Facebook paved the way for online social interaction and foursquare paved the way for location-based check-ins. Recently the social location sphere has shown a lot of activity (e.g. Sonar, Highlight, Glancee), suggesting that the market is ready. It’s a very exciting place to be right now. How has…
Entrepreneurship
March 7, 2012
ThredUp’s HBS Founders Master the Art of the Pivot
All Silicon Valley entrepreneurs know about The Pivot, the shift a start-up makes when it changes course with its business. Few recent HBS entrepreneurs have pivoted better or more boldly than James Reinhart and Chris Homer (both MBA, 2009) with their venture-backed company ThredUp, the leading online children’s clothing exchange. Reinhart, who also received his…
Entrepreneurship
February 15, 2012
Venture Corner: supperclub
What is your business? Supperclub is a group dating service that matches single graduate students and alumni on fun, casual group dinners designed to spark connections. In a world where many students and young professionals are frustrated with current dating opportunities, supperclub provides an opportunity to meet new like-minded people outside of one’s usual social…
Entrepreneurship
February 14, 2012
Venture Capital Goes xPerimental: Is the dot-com bubble repeating itself, or are we finally on the plateau of productivity?
Speak with any member of the staff of HBS’s Entrepreneurial Management Department, and he or she will describe a time when venture capitalists were like barbarians at the HBS gates www.replicabestsale.co.uk. They would snatch HBS and Harvard students from campus either through funding Harvard startups at huge valuations, or by incenting students to work at…
Entrepreneurship
November 19, 2011
i-lab Opening Day Photo Gallery
Check out these awesome photos taken by Harbus photography Derek Shi (HBS 2012). Be sure to check back with the Harbus later for detailed coverage of opening day. [portfolio_slideshow size=large]
Entrepreneurship
November 14, 2011
HBS-founded CloudFlare is Sky High
We know Google traces its roots to Stanford, Dropbox to MIT, and Facebook to Kirkland House, but what recent high-tech company will HBS be bragging about years from now. The answer could be CloudFlare, founded by HBS MBA ‘09 grads and Section D classmates Matthew Prince and Michelle Zatlyn. What exactly is this behind-the-scenes, 20-person…
Entrepreneurship
November 2, 2011
Entrepreneurship is Overrated
I mean, we really, deeply, unabashedly, lust after entrepreneurship. It’s the dream job. Do whatever you want! No rules! Your own office, your own schedule, everything exactly the way you like it. There’s all kinds of statistics pointing to our collective interest in the profession (though, rather than having me actually research and cite any,…
Entrepreneurship
November 2, 2011
Can’t Afford the Big Game? ScoreBig was Made for You
In a world with too many fees and not enough trust, ScoreBig offers a welcomed reprieve. The website allows the casual fan to pay deep discount prices for sporting or event tickets, but also alleviates the concerns of unfairness to season ticket holders or other individuals who paid face value for similar tickets. Adam Kanner…
Entrepreneurship
November 1, 2011
Listen, Learn, Communicate, and Change: How My Employees and I Transformed Union Corrugating Company
In 1992, just after graduating from HBS, I became President of Union Corrugating Company, my family’s metal roofing manufacturing business. The $9mm revenue company was in a severe state of decline replica breitling, facing operational red ink, the loss of a customer accounting for 25% of sales, outdated equipment, demoralized employees, and poor customer relationships,…
Entrepreneurship
October 26, 2011
(Business) Design: Fad or Fact?
Currently a Professor at Case Western University’s Weatherhead School of Management, Richard Buchanan is one of the world’s leading design theorists replica watches. Former head of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design, Buchanan joined Weatherhead’s faculty in 2008. He is also co-editor of Design Issues, a premier design journal published by MIT Press. Buchanan defines…
Entrepreneurship
October 26, 2011
Disrupting Innovation: Going Beyond the Buzz-Word of the Day
Why does design theory matter, what we can learn from it, and how we can practice it? I had the opportunity to speak to Tom Hulme (HBS ‘07), Design Director at IDEO London, on the topic of design and its integration with business //www.replicaforbest.co.uk/replica-breitling-watches-sale-for-uk.html, which enabled me to conclude that the concept of innovation is…