Finding gold in glitter : a framework for assessing the prospects of early stage ventures

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2009.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Thirunavukkarasu, Bharath
Other Authors: Henry Birdseye Weil.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54871
_version_ 1811069483041685504
author Thirunavukkarasu, Bharath
author2 Henry Birdseye Weil.
author_facet Henry Birdseye Weil.
Thirunavukkarasu, Bharath
author_sort Thirunavukkarasu, Bharath
collection MIT
description Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2009.
first_indexed 2024-09-23T08:11:09Z
format Thesis
id mit-1721.1/54871
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
language eng
last_indexed 2024-09-23T08:11:09Z
publishDate 2010
publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/548712019-04-09T17:10:44Z Finding gold in glitter : a framework for assessing the prospects of early stage ventures Framework for assessing the prospects of early stage ventures Thirunavukkarasu, Bharath Henry Birdseye Weil. System Design and Management Program. System Design and Management Program. System Design and Management Program. Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2009. This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-81). During the last decade and half, the hi-tech industry has seen a phenomenal pace of innovation fueled primarily by venture capital funded startups. In spite of the innovation pace, very few of these ventures have gone on to become successes that have created wealth for all the stake holders involved. The failure rate of early stage ventures is still very high. A maxim of the VC industry from the late 90's and 2000's is, for every 10 venture investments in a VC portfolio, two fail soon; five were walking dead and unless someone bought them out they would eventually die; two returned average returns and only one would go on to become the phenomenal success - an outlier like Google, Amazon, eBay or an YouTube, on which the entire portfolio return depends. The current approaches to evaluating these early stage venture plans are not very reliable. What we need is a new paradigm. To pursue any endeavor and achieve desired success repeatedly we need certainty, consistency and predictability - none of which exists in the hi-tech venture business. In order to get there, we need a shift in our current paradigms on evaluating hi-tech startup ideas. We need a new model that clearly explains the forces that the products from those ventures would be subject to and help us understand why things happen the way they do. It should help us clearly relate the effect with the actual cause. This would go a long way to help us make better decisions and would provide a start in introducing certainty, consistency and predictability in the business of hi-tech ventures. (cont.) This would improve the rate of venture success. Early stage ventures would not be a game of chance anymore. This thesis puts forth a new framework drawn from multiple sources to help assess how a proposed early stage venture may perform with its intended strategy. The framework is then validated by applying it to a series of ventures - past and present, to check how it stands up. by Bharath Thirunavukkarasu. S.M. 2010-05-25T19:22:13Z 2010-05-25T19:22:13Z 2009 2009 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54871 612322661 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 81 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle System Design and Management Program.
Thirunavukkarasu, Bharath
Finding gold in glitter : a framework for assessing the prospects of early stage ventures
title Finding gold in glitter : a framework for assessing the prospects of early stage ventures
title_full Finding gold in glitter : a framework for assessing the prospects of early stage ventures
title_fullStr Finding gold in glitter : a framework for assessing the prospects of early stage ventures
title_full_unstemmed Finding gold in glitter : a framework for assessing the prospects of early stage ventures
title_short Finding gold in glitter : a framework for assessing the prospects of early stage ventures
title_sort finding gold in glitter a framework for assessing the prospects of early stage ventures
topic System Design and Management Program.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54871
work_keys_str_mv AT thirunavukkarasubharath findinggoldinglitteraframeworkforassessingtheprospectsofearlystageventures
AT thirunavukkarasubharath frameworkforassessingtheprospectsofearlystageventures