Ilya Strebulaev

Ilya A. Strebulaev is The David S. Lobel Professor of Private Equity and Professor of Finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he has been a faculty member since 2004, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He also is the founder and director of the Stanford GSB Venture Capital Initiative. He graduated from the London Business School with a doctorate in finance. He also holds degrees from Lomonosov Moscow State University (BSc Economics) and the New Economic School, Moscow (MA Economics).

Professor Strebulaev is an expert in corporate finance, venture and angel capital, innovation financing, corporate innovation, and financial decision-making. His work has been widely published in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Financial Economics. He has been awarded a number of prestigious academic awards, including the First Paper Prize of the Brattle Award for the best corporate paper published in the Journal of Finance, the Fama-DFA Prize for the best asset pricing paper published in the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Trefftzs Award by the Western Finance Association. His research has also been featured in a variety of media, including New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

His most recent research has examined many aspects of the venture capital industry. In the largest ever survey of VCs to date, he and his co-authors analyze all the aspects of decision-making by venture capitalists. He and his co-author developed a valuation framework of private VC-backed companies. In applying this framework to the valuation of highly valued VC-backed companies (called “unicorns”), hey found that these companies on average are overvalued by 50% and that many of the so-called unicorns lose their unicorn status once their fair value is taken into consideration.

Professor Strebulaev teaches the MBA, MSx, PhD, and executive education programs, and has been awarded the Stanford MBA Distinguished Teaching Award, the Sloan Teaching Excellence Award, as well as the inaugural Masters in Management Best Teacher Award at the London Business School. He developed an MBA-level course on Angel and Venture Capital that he has been teaching for the past ten years. The course enables the students to study many aspects of innovation financing at various stages, including decision making, attracting venture and angel investments, negotiating contractual terms, valuing VC-backed companies, and analyzing the performance of venture capital funds. Recently, he also developed a course on the private equity industry that covers all aspects of the organization and design of PE firms and funds, as well as the relationship between general partners of these funds and their investors, limited partners.

Professor Strebulaev has also led many workshops and executive sessions on new innovation trends, venture capital, the ecosystem of Silicon Valley, corporate innovation, and strategic decision making for senior business and government leaders around the world. He also has been consulting companies and investors around the world on valuation of VC-backed companies, selection of VC investments and managers, and portfolio allocation. He also serves as an expert witness in litigation matters.

When not teaching or doing research, Ilya enjoys spending time with his family, reading, traveling, listening to classical music, and appreciating fine wine and art.

Research Interests

• Innovation Financing, Venture Capital, Corporate Innovation, Innovation Ecosystems
• Corporate Finance, Financial Decision Making

Teaching Statement

At Stanford, Professor Strebulaev teaches MBA, MSx, PhD, and executive education programs. He developed a course on Angel and Venture Capital and Decision Making that he has been teaching for the past ten years. The course most aspects of startup financing and venture capital. He also developed a course on the private equity industry that he has been teaching for the past two years. Professor Strebulaev has been awarded the MBA Distinguished Teaching Award and the Sloan Teaching Excellence Award at Stanford as well as the inaugural Masters in Management Best Teacher Award at the London Business School. Professor Strebulaev has also led many workshops and executive sessions on new innovation trends, venture capital, the ecosystem of Silicon Valley, corporate innovation, and strategic decision making for senior business and government leaders around the world.

Academic Degrees

• PhD in Finance, London Business School, 2004
• MA, New Economic School, 1999
• BSc, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1997

Academic Appointments

• At Stanford University since 2004

Awards and Honors

• Shanahan Family Faculty Fellow for 2021–22
• Dhirubhai Ambani Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship for 2014-15
• Shanahan Family Faculty Scholar for 2013–14
• The Sloan Teaching Excellence Award, Stanford, 2013
• First Place, Fama-DFA Prize for Best Paper, Journal of Financial Economics, 2012
• The Masters in Management Inaugural Best Teacher Award, London Business School, 2010
• The MBA Distinguished Teacher Award, Stanford, 2009
• First Paper Prize, Brattle Award for Best Paper, Journal of Finance, 2007
• The Trefftzs Award for the Best Student Paper, WFA, 2004
• Award for Best Paper, Dimitris B. Chorafas Foundation, 2004

Publications

Journal Articles

• A Unified Model of Distress Risk Puzzles
  Zhiyao Chen, Dirk Hackbarth, Ilya A. Strebulaev Journal of Financial Economics November 2022 Vol. 146 Issue 2 Pages 357–384
• Proactive Capital Structure Adjustments: Evidence from Corporate Filings
  Arthur Korteweg, Michael Schwert, Ilya A. Strebulaev Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis February 2022 Vol. 57 Issue 1 Pages 31–66
• Venture Capitalists and COVID-19
  Paul Gompers, Will Gornall, Steven N. Kaplan, Ilya A. Strebulaev Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (open access) August 13, 2021
• Strategic Risk Shifting and the Idiosyncratic Volatility Puzzle: An Empirical Investigation
  Zhiyao Chen, Ilya A. Strebulaev, Yuhang Xing, Xiaoyan Zhang Management Science May 2021 Vol. 67 Issue 5 Pages 2751–2772
• How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?
  Paul Gompers, Will Gornal, Steven N. Kaplan, Ilya A. Strebulaev Journal of Financial Economics January 2020 Vol. 135 Issue 1 Pages 169-190
• Squaring Venture Capital Valuations with Reality
  Will Gornall, Ilya A. Strebulaev Journal of Financial Economics January 2020 Vol. 135 Issue 1 Pages 120-143
• Beyond Random Assignment: Credible Inference and Extrapolation in Dynamic Economies
  Christopher A. Hennessy, Ilya A. Strebulaev Journal of Finance November 16, 2019
• Macroeconomic Risk and Idiosyncratic Risk-taking
  Ilya A. Strebulaev, Zhiyao Chen The Review of Financial Studies March 2019 Vol. 32 Issue 3 Pages 1148-1187
• Financing as a Supply Chain: The Capital Structure of Banks and Borrowers
  Will Gornall, Ilya A. Strebulaev Journal of Financial Economics September 2018 Vol. 129 Issue 3 Pages 510-530
• Investment Busts, Reputation, and the Temptation to Blend in with the Crowd
  Steven Grenadier, Andrey Malenko, Ilya A. Strebulaev Journal of Financial Economics January 2014 Vol. 111 Issue 1 Pages 137-157
• The Mystery of Zero-Leverage Firms
  Ilya A. Strebulaev, Baozhong Yang Journal of Financial Economics February 2013 Vol. 109 Issue 1 Pages 1-23
• Dynamic Models and Structural Estimation in Corporate Finance
  Ilya A. Strebulaev, Toni M. Whited Foundations and Trends in Finance November 2012 Vol. 6 Issue 1-2 Pages 1-163
• Cash Holdings and Credit Risk
  Viral Acharya, Sergei Davydenko, Ilya A. Strebulaev Review of Financial Studies October 2012 Vol. 25 Issue 12 Pages 3572-3609
• A Market-Based Study of the Costs of Default
  Sergei Davydenko, Ilya A. Strebulaev, Xiaofei Zhao Review of Financial Studies 2012 Vol. 25 Issue 10 Pages 2959-2999
• Corporate Bond Default Risk: A 150-Year Perspective
  Kay Giesecke, Francis A. Longstaff, Stephen M. Schaefer, Ilya A. Strebulaev Journal of Financial Economics 2011 Vol. 102 Issue 2 Pages 233–250
• The Levered Equity Risk Premium and Credit Spreads: A Unified Framework
  Harjoat S. Bhamra, Lars-Alexander Kuehn, Ilya A. Strebulaev The Review of Financial Studies February 1, 2010 Vol. 23 Issue 2 Pages 645-703
• Temporary vs Permanent Shocks: Explaining Corporate Financial Policies
  Alexander S. Gorbenko, Ilya A. Strebulaev Review of Financial Studies 2010 Vol. 23 Issue 7 Pages 2591-2647
• The Aggregate Dynamics of Capital Structure and Macroeconomic Risk
  Harjoat S. Bhamra, Lars-Alexander Kuehn, Ilya A. Strebulaev Review of Financial Studies 2010 Vol. 23 Issue 12 Pages 4187-4241