Ted Ladd

Ted Ladd
Born	United States
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, scholar, professor
Known for	Entrepreneurship professor at Hult International Business School; platform entrepreneurship courses at Harvard University; research on multi-sided platforms
Notable work	The Platform Canvas; Innovating with Impact; columns at Forbes; publications in Harvard Business Review and Stanford Social Innovation Review

Ted Ladd is an American entrepreneur and scholar associated with Harvard University and Hult International Business School.

Career

Ladd holds a professorship in entrepreneurship at Hult International Business School's San Francisco campus, where he previously occupied roles including Dean, Dean of Global Research, and founding Academic Director for the Doctorate in Business Administration program. His teaching spans Hult's international campuses located in Boston, New York, London, Shanghai, and Dubai. Furthermore, he delivers courses on platform entrepreneurship at Harvard University. His academic appointments have also included visiting professor positions at Stanford University and Copenhagen Business School, as well as leadership of the social entrepreneurship faculty at Bainbridge Graduate School (now integrated into Presidio Graduate School).

In the corporate sector, Ladd was Director of Ecosystems at WIMM Labs, a company acquired by Google to advance its WearOS smartwatch platform utilized by numerous global manufacturers. He acted as platform evangelist and spokesperson for Palm Inc., influencing the evolution of mobile handheld devices. Serving as Vice President of Business Development at HOMER energy—subsequently acquired by UL—he played a role in developing hybrid renewable energy software tools. Throughout his career, Ladd has founded, managed, invested in, or exited several startups.

He contributes as a board member to Lower Valley Energy, which provides electricity and natural gas services to commercial and residential customers across regions of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. Ladd is also part of the Advisory Board for the Wyoming Small Business Development Center, an organization supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration alongside state agencies. Between 2003 and 2009, he was appointed by Governor Freudenthal to serve on the Wyoming Business Council board. Additionally, he has held a position on the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole's board. In 2004, Ladd campaigned for Wyoming’s U.S. House seat and was subsequently acknowledged among Wyoming's top 40 business leaders under 40 years old.

He is an Advisory Board member at Nth Venture, a venture studio focused on nurturing early-stage startups. Ladd also advises Ethical Compass Advisors, a consultancy specializing in embedding ethical frameworks within technology governance for clients such as Meta and Anthropic.

Research

Ladd’s research investigates how entrepreneurs conceptualize and validate innovative ideas to establish businesses, with a particular emphasis on multi-sided platforms akin to Lyft and Airbnb. Notable publications include:

• A recurring column at Forbes
• Innovating with Impact, co-authored with Alessandro Lanteri and published by The Economist
• The Platform Canvas, created with Marcel Alleins and Markus Proesch; this work received the Best Conceptual Paper award at the USASBE annual conference and was featured in Forbes
• "Success and Self-Confidence Through Rejection," delivered at TEDxHultAshridge
• "The Limits of Lean," appearing in Harvard Business Review
• "The Embedded Enterprise," published in Stanford Social Innovation Review
• "Customer Development and Effectuation: A Review of Textbooks to Teach a Contemporary Introduction of Entrepreneurship," featured in Management Teaching Review
• "Business Models at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Leveraging Context in Undeveloped Markets," presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting in 2014
• "How To Reinvent Your Business To Thrive After The Coronavirus," published in Forbes

A full bibliography can be accessed via ORCID.

Awards

• Recognized for Best Conceptual Paper at the annual conference of the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• Recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, honored with the SyCip Distinguished Lecturing Award in the Philippines
• Appointed Research Fellow in the Engaged Practitioner-Scholar program at Case Western Reserve University
• Honored as Best Teacher in the Program at Hult from 2015 through 2024
• Awarded for the paper deemed "most applicable to practicing entrepreneurs" by the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• Earned Best Paper distinction in Social Entrepreneurship at the Academy of Management

Education

Ladd holds a PhD in management from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. He also completed an MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, along with a joint master’s degree with honors in international economics from SAIS at Johns Hopkins University. His undergraduate studies culminated in a BA cum laude from Cornell University, where he pursued triple majors in biology (focusing on ecology and systematics), government, and technical sociology. Additionally, he obtained a farrier’s certification from the Oklahoma School of Horseshoeing.

Personal

Ted Ladd lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with his wife, Laura Ladd, and their dog named The Project.