Peter Cohan

Peter S. Cohan is an American businessman, author and teacher.^[1] He is the founding principal of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He has completed over 150 growth-strategy consulting projects for global technology companies and invested in seven startups—three of which were sold for over $2 billion and his most recent—Sofi Technologies—went public in July 2021 at an $18 billion valuation.^[2]

Cohan is an Associate Professor of Management Practice at Babson College. He teaches business strategy, entrepreneurship, leadership, and management consulting to both undergraduate and graduate students.^[3] RETHINK Retail selected him as a Top 100 Retail Influencer in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 and a Top AI in Retail Influencer in 2014 ^[4]

Journalism

Cohan writes the Start-up Economy column for Forbes.com where he is a senior contributor,^[5] and "The Hungry Start-up" column for Inc magazine,^[6] Wall and Main, his Worcester Telegram & Gazette column, helped its Business Matters section win the 2012 New England Newspaper and Press Association award for the best Business page for papers over 30k circulation]. He was a member of the Wharton Blog Network, which received the Gold Award in the 2013 Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District II Accolades Awards program.^[7]

Personal life

From September 2004 to September 2008, Cohan served on the board of the Alzheimer's Association, Massachusetts Chapter. He is the brother of William D. Cohan.

Books

• Brain Rush: How To Invest and Compete in the Real World of Generative AI (Apress: July 2024) (ISBN 979-8868803)
• Goliath Strikes Back: How Traditional Retailers Are Winning Back Customers from Ecommerce Startups (Apress: December 2020) (ISBN 978-1484265185)
• Scaling Your Startup: Mastering the Four Stages from Idea to $10 Billion (Apress: January 2019) (ASIN B07N3WQ1WL)
• Startup Cities: Why Only a Few Cities Dominate the Global Startup Scene and What the Rest Should Do About It (Apress, February 2018) ISBN 978-1484233924
• Disciplined Growth Strategies: Insights From the Growth Trajectories of Successful and Unsuccessful Companies (Apress, February 2017) ISBN 978-1-4842-2447-2
• Hungry Start-up Strategy: Creating New Ventures with Limited Resources and Unlimited Vision (BK Business, 2012), ISBN 978-1609945282
• Export Now: Five Keys to Entering New Markets (Wiley, 2011), co-authored with Frank Lavin, ISBN 978-0470828168
• Capital Rising (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010), co-authored by U. Srinivasa Rangan, ISBN 978-0230612310
• You Can't Order Change (Portfolio, 2009), ISBN 978-1591842392
• Value Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2003), ISBN 978-0787966041
• Net Profit: How to Invest and Compete in the Real World of Internet Business (Wiley, 2001), ISBN 978-0787944766
• E -Profits by Peter S Cohan - The 12 Steps To Creating A State Of The Art E-Commerce Strategy For Any Size Business, ISBN 978-1905953691
• The Technology Leaders: How America's Most Profitable High-Tech Companies Innovate Their Way to Success (Jossey-Bass, Publishers, 1997), ISBN 978-0787910723

He has also contributed to six compendiums of modern management.^[which?]

Business School Cases

With Babson professor Sam Hariharan, he has co-authored five business school cases, two of which are Harvard Business Publishing Best Sellers.^[8]

• Apple in China and India (Babson College: July 2020) (BAB492-PDF-ENG) Harvard Business Publishing Best Seller
• Apple's Electric Vehicle (Babson College: June 2023) (BAB741-PDF-ENG) Harvard Business Publishing Best Seller
• Growing Pains at Commonwealth Dairy (Babson College: July 2020) (BAB239-PDF-ENG)
• Reviving Edwards Lifesciences (Babson College: March 2022) (BAB160-PDF-ENG)
• Warren Buffett and his Newspaper Investments (Babson College: March 2014) (BAB155-PDF-ENG)