Login
Email: 
Password: 

Remember me 
| Register
top-left
top-right
The Money of Invention
book
Paul A. Gompers Biography
Paul Gompers, Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, specializes in research on financial issues related to start-up, high growth, and newly public companies. Professor Gompers has an appointment in both the Finance and Entrepreneurial Management areas. He received his A.B. summa cum laude in biology from Harvard College in 1987. After spending a year working as a research biochemist for Bayer Chemical AG, he attended Oxford University on a Marshall Fellowship where he received an M.Sc. in economics. He completed his Ph.D. in Business Economics at Harvard University in 1993. Professor Gompers spent two years as an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Graduate School of Business, the University of Chicago where he created a new course entitled "Entrepreneurial Finance and Management." His course development efforts at the Harvard Business School focuses on issues affecting entrepreneurial firms and their investors.

His research focuses on the stru...
· Josh Lerner Biography
Josh Lerner is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School, with a joint appointment in the Finance  and the Entrepreneurial Management  Units. He graduated from Yale  College with a Special Divisional Major which combined physics with the history of technology. He worked for several years on issues concerning technological innovation and public policy, at the Brookings Institution, for a public-private task force in Chicago, and on Capitol Hill. He then undertook his graduate study at Harvard's Economics Department.

His research focuses on the structure of venture capital organizations, and their role in transforming scientific discoveries into commercial products. (Much of his research is collected in The Venture Capital Cycle, MIT Press, 1999 and The Money of Invention, Harvard Business School Press, 2001.)  He also examines the impact of intellectual property protection, particularly patents, on th...
Harvard Business School Press
2001-11-15 320 pages ID: 820 Rating: 
Link to Amazon
Description: When the economy was booming and dot-coms were flying high, venture capitalists were admired as impresarios of innovation. Then the market tanked, start-ups fizzled, and those same deal-makers were rebuked as predators out for a quick score. So which portrayal is accurate? Where is this much-hyped industry heading? And what will it mean for the future of innovation in the global economy?

In this definitive book, industry experts Paul Gompers and Josh Lerner provide the first cool-headed explanation of the venture capital industry and the role it plays in our economy. They underscore that, regardless of the economic conditions, innovation is incredibly difficult to finance, take to market, and translate into value. While venture capital has evolved to address these problems-the industry has fueled innovation, economic growth, and wealth creation for decades-features of the venture industry have left it vulnerable to boom-and-bust cycles. In the near future, say the authors, the industry must transform dramatically, with important implications for industry players and the entrepreneurs and organizations they serve.

Drawing from compelling research and industry "war stories," Gompers and Lerner present a series of practical frameworks for understanding the relationships among venture capital, innovation, and entrepreneurial success. They demystify how the venture capital world operates, and outline the opportunities and obstacles faced by all players in this evolving arena. They explore:

- The problems entrepreneurs encounter in securing financing, and how the venture capital model can help innovators to resolve them

- How venture capitalists can effectively pursue promising opportunities while building a sustainable franchise
- How corporations, nonprofits, and government institutions can harness the power-and avoid the pitfalls-of the venture capital model when applying it in their own sectors

Whether the industry is enjoying an incredible growth spurt or weathering an economic slowdown, readers will find this book an immensely practical guide to leveraging the venture capital model to turn innovation into value.
bottom-left
bottom-left