Peter Cohan


Peter S. Cohan is an American businessman, author and teacher. 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.
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. 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

Journalism

Cohan writes the Start-up Economy column for Forbes.com where he is a senior contributor, and "The Hungry Start-up" column for Inc magazine, Wall and Main, his Worcester Telegram & Gazette column, helped its Business Matters section win the 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 District II Accolades Awards program.

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
  • Goliath Strikes Back: How Traditional Retailers Are Winning Back Customers from Ecommerce Startups
  • Scaling Your Startup: Mastering the Four Stages from Idea to $10 Billion
  • Startup Cities: Why Only a Few Cities Dominate the Global Startup Scene and What the Rest Should Do About It
  • Disciplined Growth Strategies: Insights From the Growth Trajectories of Successful and Unsuccessful Companies
  • Hungry Start-up Strategy: Creating New Ventures with Limited Resources and Unlimited Vision,
  • Export Now: Five Keys to Entering New Markets, co-authored with Frank Lavin,
  • Capital Rising, co-authored by U. Srinivasa Rangan,
  • You Can't Order Change,
  • Value Leadership,
  • Net Profit: How to Invest and Compete in the Real World of Internet Business,
  • E -Profits by Peter S Cohan - The 12 Steps To Creating A State Of The Art E-Commerce Strategy For Any Size Business,
  • The Technology Leaders: How America's Most Profitable High-Tech Companies Innovate Their Way to Success,
He has also contributed to six compendiums of modern management.

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.