Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Working Knowledge
Business Research for Business Leaders
  • Browse All Articles
  • Popular Articles
  • Cold Call Podcast
  • Managing the Future of Work Podcast
  • About Us
  • Book
  • Leadership
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Entrepreneurship
  • All Topics...
  • Topics
    • COVID-19
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Finance
    • Gender
    • Globalization
    • Leadership
    • Management
    • Negotiation
    • Social Enterprise
    • Strategy
  • Sections
    • Book
    • Podcasts
    • HBS Case
    • In Practice
    • Lessons from the Classroom
    • Op-Ed
    • Research & Ideas
    • Research Event
    • Sharpening Your Skills
    • What Do You Think?
    • Working Paper Summaries
  • Browse All
    Venture Capital
    29 Apr 2008Research Event

    Venture Capital

    by Josh Lerner
    Professor Josh Lerner provides a summary report on the recently held HBS Centennial colloquium on venture capital.
    LinkedIn
    Email

    Date: January 9-10, 2008
    Faculty Chairs: Josh Lerner, William Sahlman

    Faculty Summary Report:

    Colloquium: Venture Capital

    What were the overall goals of the colloquium?

    The VC Conference is one in a series of 14 alumni and practitioner forums Harvard Business School is hosting as part of its Centennial celebration. Through it, HBS honors the important contributions made by its graduates to the development of the VC industry, and who today are estimated to make up more than 20 percent of the world's venture capitalists.

    The contributions of HBS faculty and alumni to the development and shaping of the industry cannot be over­emphasized: they included pioneering players who launched important firms and invested in some of society's most important companies. As VC increasingly becomes a worldwide phenomenon, moreover, HBS will continue to have a decisive impact on the national and international economy.

    It is appropriate that the conference took place in Silicon Valley. This all but unique confluence of ideas, research, financing, and human resources has served as a matrix in which venture capital has either invented or revolutionized whole industries and changed the U.S.—and now the world—economies forever.

    The conference addressed some major issues and questions:

    • What strategies are most effective in creating a top-decile firm?
    • Will those strategies also work in the face of new challenges and a global environment?
    • If not, why not, and how should the industry evolve new strategies?
    • How are opportunities for VC changing with globalization?
    • How should VC firms organize to take advantage of new opportunities in their home counties and abroad?

    Those attending the Conference represented the leaders of the venture capital industry. It is our hope that listening to the speakers and panel discussions and engaging in dialogue will stimulate further discussions, generate new ideas, and nurture the community of HBS graduates and others in the VC industry worldwide.

    What did your participants identify as some of the major trends or issues as they looked at the current state of the industry?

    We asked participants what venture capitalists foresee as the significant upcoming strategic developments in their industry. What problems do they anticipate? They raised issues of reorganization, diversification, new sites for operation and investment, and the problems raised by the U.S. economy and policy. Among the major points of discussion:

    • The importance of right-hand tail companies.
    • Distribution of returns and the tensions between limited and general partners.
    • Human capital: where is it coming from now, and where is it going.
    • Changing the model for venture capital: a good idea.
    • Fighting the "headwinds" for venture capital expansion.

    What were some of the learnings from your discussions on strategy, opportunity, human capital, regulation, and globalization?

    Many in the venture capital industry have argued that it has no strategy, it just follows the crowd. Panelists believe that strategies of various kinds—to differentiate, to locate and hire in foreign countries and cultures, to build trust, even about whether to go global or not—are a necessity now that the VC industry operates in a globalized world. Among the major points discussed:

    • How venture capital firms strategize and differentiate.
    • Global strategy—a new form of herd behavior? How to scale up the partnership to the global operations level.
    • Protecting venture capital operations from legal shortcomings and corruption.

    What did your participants identify as a research agenda for the coming years in this area?

    This was not a major focus of the conference.

    What insights or surprises did you walk away with?

    • The extent of our alumni base in the industry.
    • The keen intellectual interchange that characterizes the venture industry at its best.
    • The extent to which venture capital is increasingly being run as businesses, with associated questions of strategy and tactics coming to the forefront.

    What will be published or will there be other output from the colloquium?

      Trending
        • 28 Mar 2023
        • Research & Ideas

        The FDA’s Speedy Drug Approvals Are Safe: A Win-Win for Patients and Pharma Innovation

        • 25 Jan 2022
        • Research & Ideas

        More Proof That Money Can Buy Happiness (or a Life with Less Stress)

        • 23 Mar 2023
        • Research & Ideas

        As Climate Fears Mount, More Investors Turn to 'ESG' Funds Despite Few Rules

        • 01 Mar 2023
        • What Do You Think?

        How Much Does 'Deep Purpose' Matter to the Bottom Line?

        • 25 Feb 2019
        • Research & Ideas

        How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

    Josh Lerner
    Josh Lerner
    Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking
    Contact
    Send an email
    → More Articles
    William A. Sahlman
    William A. Sahlman
    Baker Foundation Professor
    Dimitri V. D'Arbeloff - MBA Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus
    Contact
    Send an email
    → More Articles
    Find Related Articles
    • Finance
    • Financial Services

    Sign up for our weekly newsletter

    Interested in improving your business? Learn about fresh research and ideas from Harvard Business School faculty.
    This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
    ǁ
    Campus Map
    Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
    Baker Library | Bloomberg Center
    Soldiers Field
    Boston, MA 02163
    Email: Editor-in-Chief
    →Map & Directions
    →More Contact Information
    • Make a Gift
    • Site Map
    • Jobs
    • Harvard University
    • Trademarks
    • Policies
    • Accessibility
    • Digital Accessibility
    Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College