Jeff BussgangGeneral Partner, Flybridge and Senior Lecturer, HBS. Former entrepreneur. AI nerd.

Inside HBS with Jeff Bussgang - November 17, 2020

Name: Inside HBS with Jeff Bussgang - November 17, 2020
Uploaded: 2020-11-17T18:39:02+00:00
Duration: 2 min 24 s
Channel: Jeff Bussgang
Description: Jeff Bussgang (Harvard Business School) gives a short video update noting that HBS has moved fully remote due to a COVID-19 resurgence and that in-person…

17 Nov 2020 · 2 min

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2:24

Jeff Bussgang (Harvard Business School) gives a short video update noting that HBS has moved fully remote due to a COVID-19 resurgence and that in-person meetings are suspended. He summarizes that the LTV class discussed two cases that week: (1) Chief, a female executive networking startup, framed around the tension between blitzscaling and lean experimentation and questions about pacing growth given business model, capital availability, investor preferences, and founder ambition (case conclusion: highly ambitious scaling). (2) An acquihire case in the course's fourth module (financing, exits, ethics) covering Yahoo’s acquisition of Stamped—Marissa Mayer’s first acquisition as CEO with Jackie Reses leading corporate development—and the misaligned incentives among the corporation, the startup, and investors when startups pursue acquihires rather than achieving product-market fit. The video closes with a brief sign-off.

Chapters

Hey everybody. Jeff Busgang from Harvard Business School here. Excited to tell you about this week's LTV class lineup. But before I do, just a note for those who don't know. HBS has gone fully remote due to the resurgence of COVID 19. It's unfortunate that we can't meet with students in person, but it's reality to keep this community safe. Everybody's masked up when we're not in a private setting in an office. And again, no more meeting with students, which is obviously too bad as at least until the end of the semester.
But let me just give you a little bit of a heads up on how this week has gone. In the LTD class. We've had two fascinating cases that we've had the opportunity to discuss. The first was on Chief, which is a female executive network for women. And it's an amazing case because it talks about this tension between Blitzscaling and lean startup experimentation and asks the question what's the right decision to make in terms of the pacing of scaling based on the business model, based on availability of capital, based on your investors and what their preferences are, and based on really what the founder's vision is in terms of how ambitious they want to be? In the case of Chief, the answer is very ambitious. Our second case this week is an acquihire case and this is part of our fourth module on financing, exits and ethics. And you can see here the four modules and we're now in our fourth module and the case today is focused on Yahoo and Stamped, which was the first acquisition that Marissa Mayer pursued as during her tenure as CEO of Yahoo, led by Jackie Rhesus, who was the head of corporate development, business development and and HR as Marissa's right hand woman. And so it's a really interesting case because it takes both perspectives. If you're a larger company, why would you acquihire a startup? And if you're a startup, why would you join a big company? And we noticed that there's a misalignment between the corporate entity, the startup and the investors as we explore the incentives across all parties. So a really fascinating case that many startups face if they don't absolutely crush product market, fit out of the gate and need to pursue exits and other opportunities. So that's the lineup for this week. Look forward to seeing you more next week. And thanks so much for tuning in.