Matt Fischer

Kevin Ryan shares tips on how to identify a big idea and launch a successful business

How Do You Identify a Big Idea? AlleyCorp’s Kevin Ryan Shares Tips

Kevin Ryan, founder of multiple billion-dollar tech companies, shares his insights on identifying big ideas in an exclusive interview with Shikhar Ghosh.

Turn Your Idea into a Product Users Want: Identify the Right Problem

Ready to start building a prototype? Before you start, it’s important to validate that the problem your product addresses is a problem worth solving. Julia Austin, Senior Lecturer at HBS and expert in product development, shares helpful tips and tools to help you ensure that you’re on the right track.

Portrait of AlleyCorp's founder and CEO, Kevin Ryan, discussing traits of great business leaders

AlleyCorp’s Kevin Ryan on Traits of Great Business Leaders

Kevin P. Ryan, founder of several multiple billion-dollar tech companies spanning industries from mobile gift registry to news shares his process for building a business and hiring an outside CEO.

Two entrepreneurs seated in chairs discusing practical advice for scaling startups

Tips for Scaling Startups from NOW Corp’s CEO

Lara Hodgson, Co-Founder and CEO of NOW Corp, shares practical lessons she learned while scaling 2 startups, including how to build a powerful and passionate founding team, get the most from your board, and maintain balance as you scale.

Graphic of blackboard showing handwritten words related to how to think about co-founder equity splits

Co-Founder Equity Splits—Ways to Approach Allocations

How you divide equity reflects your values, directly impacts your co-founder relationship, and influences how your team and investors perceive your startup. Read more to learn methods for dividing equity that align with your values and can minimize conflict between founders.

graphic of 3 people seated around a table, discussing topics before coming to an agreement

3 Topics to Discuss before Writing a Founders’ Agreement

You found a great co-founder. When should you formalize your relationship? You may be tempted to draft a founders’ agreement to demonstrate trust in the partnership, but before you make a legal commitment, make sure you’re aligned with your co-founder in 3 critical areas.

graphic of silohuette of two heads illustrating different ways of thinking: growth mindset and skill sets

How Hiring for Growth Mindsets Can Help Your Startup Scale

As co-founder, CEO and President of her latest venture, Lara Hodgson doubled the company’s growth twice in four years. As she prepares her team to double in size again, she shares her insights on team building and why focusing on mindset is so important.

Three men (Careem's co-founders) standing in a line with arms on one another's shoulders, smiling, as they managed the pressures of rapid scaling

Managing the Pressures of Rapid Scaling

As you scale, the strengths and habits that enabled you to launch—visionary thinking, working nonstop, or making decisions based on experiential knowledge—can become liabilities that damage your startup’s capacity for long-term growth and have serious negative consequences. In an interview with Shikhar Ghosh, Careem’s co-founders Mudassir Sheikha, Magnus Olsson, and Abdulla Elyas reflect on their meteoric growth from 2012-2014. Candidly sharing the mistakes they made, they identify the consequences of rapid scaling and share practical advice for other founders.

Key Terms to Include in a Founders’ Agreement

A poorly-constructed agreement often leads to founder conflict which can kill your startups. We can’t promise that your founders’ agreement will prevent all founder conflict. But we can provide a framework that will help you avoid common mistakes and equip you to handle conflict.

Graphic image showing circle divided in half, indicating common mistake in structuring equity splits among co-founders.

Structuring Equity Splits to Mitigate Co-Founder Conflict

Before you begin discussing how to divide equity, the smartest thing you can do is to build in mechanisms to make your agreement dynamic. Learn the benefits and drawbacks of common methods.

Should You Add a Co-Founder?

Having a co-founder dilutes your equity and authority. When does adding a co-founder add more value than hiring an executive with similar skills? Understanding the unique role a co-founder plays can help you determine if and when you need one.

How Mission Helps You Build the Best Team

Adam Enbar, serial entrepreneur and investor, shares how having a well-defined mission helped him grow his startup from a small idea into the Flatiron School, a rapidly growing coding school that is disrupting higher education.

Navigating a Deal before You Sign a Term Sheet

How do you assess the offer and navigate a term sheet, ensure you’re getting the best terms, prevent critical misunderstandings, and optimize your level of control and cash upon exit? HBS faculty, serial entrepreneurs and investors identified 3 different angles from which you need to examine terms.

Common Funding Mistakes when Scaling

Many founders conflate raising a significant amount of venture capital or getting a high valuation as validation of their current business model. But as you scale, past behaviors stop working effectively and often processes are strained and break. How do you avoid the most common scaling mistakes?

3 Hacks for Calculating How Much Your Startup Needs to Raise

Many startups make fatal mistakes when calculating how much they need to scale. These 3 essential things can help you figure out how much capital you need to raise to scale effectively, without getting overwhelmed by options and opinions, or swayed by offers.