Ilya A. Strebulaev (born May 17, 1975) is a Russian- American financial economist, researcher, author, and speaker with expertise in

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

startups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses tha ...

, and corporate innovation. He has been a professor at the

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective ...

since 2004. From 2018 to 2022 he was on the board of directors of

Yandex Yandex LLC ( rus, Яндекс, r=Yandeks, p=ˈjandəks) is a Russian technology company that provides Internet-related products and services including a web browser, search engine, cloud computing, web mapping, online food ordering, streaming ...

, the Russian equivalent of Google.

Early life and education

Ilya Strebulaev was born in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, Russia on May 17, 1975, to a family of scientists and engineers. He received a B.A. in

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

from

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

and an M.A. in economics at the New Economic School in 1999. He then moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where he pursued his

doctoral studies A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

at the

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degree, Master's degrees in management and finance, Master of B ...

under Stephen Schaefer. His doctoral thesis was on corporate financial

decision-making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the Cognition, cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be ...

. He received a Ph.D. degree in

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

in 2004.

Career

In 2004, Strebulaev moved to

Stanford, California Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is the home of Stanford University, after which it was named. The CDP's population was 21,150 at the United States Census, ...

, when he was hired by the Stanford University Graduate School of Business as an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

of finance. He received

tenure Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 2010 and was promoted to full professor in 2014. In 2016, Strebulaev was appointed a chaired professor, becoming the inaugural holder of the David S. Lobel Professorship, the first endowed professorship in

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

at Stanford. Since 2010, he has been a

research associate Research associates are researchers (scholars and professionals) that usually have an advanced degree beyond a Bachelor's degree such as a master's degree or a PhD. In some universities/research institutes, such as Harvard/Harvard Medical Scho ...

at the

National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic co ...

. In 2015, Strebulaev founded the Venture Capital Initiative at the

, and he has been its faculty director since then. In 2018, he became a member of the board of directors of

, Russias largest internet and tech company and in March 2022, he resigned from it.

Personal life

Strebulaev is married to Anna Dvornikova; the couple has two children. He holds dual US and Russian citizenship.

Work

Strebulaev developed a framework with

Will Gornall Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

that assesses the value of private

(VC) backed companies. Their valuation model is built on the option pricing methodology and takes into account complicated shareholder structures of VC-backed companies. They found that most

unicorns The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

(highly valued VC-backed companies) are overvalued, with a median overvaluation of 50%. Strebulaev's research also includes studies on the

startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to ...

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital the investor usually purchases some species of pr ...

s, the organization and design of VC and corporate VC units, and the importance of venture capital in

innovation Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or service (economics), services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a n ...

and the

economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

. He has shown that the VC industry led to the creation of most large public US companies in the last 50 years and is an important growth engine behind the US innovation economy. His work has been widely published in leading academic journals including ''

The Journal of Finance ''The Journal of Finance'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Finance Association. It was established in 1946. The editor-in-chief is Antoinette Schoar. According to the ''Journal Citation R ...

'', ''

The Review of Financial Studies ''The Review of Financial Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of finance. It is published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies. It was established following discussions at the 1986 ...

'', and '' The Journal of Financial Economics''. Strebulaev has received many awards for his work, including the First Paper Prize of the Brattle Award in ''the Journal of Finance'' and The First Place of the Fama-DFA Prize at ''the Journal of Financial Economics''. He is known for actively sharing his research and teaching insights o
LinkedIn
and other social media platforms.

Teaching

Strebulaev has been teaching at

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

, MSx, Ph.D., and

Executive Education Executive education (ExEd or Exec. Ed) refers to academic programs at graduate-level business schools for executives, business leaders and managers, globally. These programs are generally non-credit and non-degree-granting, but sometimes lead to ...

programs at

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

. In 2013, Strebulaev developed an MBA-level course on

angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

and venture capital financing and

, which he has been teaching with famous VCs for the past ten years, with almost 1,000 students taking the class. The class covers many aspects of VC financing, the decision making of startup investors, and startup valuation. Strebulaev also developed a class on the private equity industry in 2021. In 2009, Strebulaev received the MBA Distinguished Teacher Award at the

. He also received the Master's in Management Inaugural Best Teacher Award at the

in 2010 and the Sloan Teaching Excellence Award at the

in 2013. Strebulaev frequently leads workshops and executive sessions on corporate innovation,

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

, and strategic

for senior leaders around the world.

External links

Instagram page

LinkedIn page

Twitter page

Stanford University Faculty website

SSRN Author Page

Google scholar page

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strebulaev, Ilya Living people Moscow State University alumni New Economic School alumni Alumni of London Business School Stanford University Graduate School of Business faculty American people of Russian descent 1975 births Stanford University staff 21st-century American economists 21st-century Russian economists