At almost every stage of a startup's evolution, founders face a tension between attracting the resources needed to maximize the venture's value and maintaining control of the enterprise
When Noam Wasserman (HBS MBA 1999) spent his MBA summer internship working for a VC firm, he observed important universalities in the decisions that founders faced. He also saw that the "fundamental implications of those decisions were getting the startups into trouble down the road." That's when Wasserman realized that he wanted to learn more about the dilemmas inherent in launching ventures. He returned to HBS, first to earn a PhD (in 2002) and then as a professor, dedicating his research to the pitfalls of founding and how to avoid them.
This article was provided with permission from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.