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- October 2018 (Revised July 2019)
- Case
BulkWhiz: Negotiating as a Startup Founder in the UAE
By: Katherine Coffman, Christine Exley and Alpana Thapar
This case follows Amira Rashad as she founds BulkWhiz, a Dubai-based buy-in-bulk grocery delivery platform. Following its launch in September 2017, BulkWhiz experiences rapid growth of 30 percent per month in the United Arab Emirates. Despite this initial success,... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Management; Start-ups; Startup; Female Entrepreneur; Technology; Decision-making; Negotiations; Co-founders; Fundraising; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Management; Internet and the Web; Growth and Development Strategy; Decision Making; Negotiation; Expansion; E-commerce; Middle East; United Arab Emirates
- October 2018 (Revised July 2023)
- Case
The Boston Beer Company (A): New CEO
By: Christina R. Wing and Marco Iansiti
In 1984, when the Boston Beer Company’s Samuel Adams Boston Lager was first sold, founder Jim Koch had helped ignite a craft beer movement by making small-batch premium beers in an era of industry consolidation. By 2018, Boston Beer was a publicly traded company that... View Details
- September 2018 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
An Innovative Anti-bribery Commitment?
By: Eugene Soltes
Reebonz, an online luxury goods platform based in Singapore that operates across the Asia-Pacific region, offers its investors the opportunity to redeem shares if either the firm or its founder are investigated by the U.S. or U.K governments with regard to complying... View Details
- September 2018 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
Careem: Base Camp or Mountain Peak? Designing an OS for Scaling
By: Shikhar Ghosh, Gamze Yucaoglu and Alpana Thapar
This case focuses on designing a fast growing organization. It is part of a two-case set that is taught together to cover the scaling journey.
Careem, a Dubai-based ride-hailing service aimed to ‘simplify and improve the lives of people, and build an awesome... View Details
Careem, a Dubai-based ride-hailing service aimed to ‘simplify and improve the lives of people, and build an awesome... View Details
- September 2018
- Case
OYO: Creating Effective Spaces
By: Das Narayandas, Sunil Gupta, Rachna Tahilyani and Mahima Rao-Kachroo
Twenty-four-year old Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO of India-based online hotel branding network OYO Rooms, has tackled the issue of unreliability in India's highly fragmented budget hotel industry. In 2018, OYO branded 8,500 properties across 200 cities and managed... View Details
- September 2018 (Revised April 2019)
- Case
Sigfox: Building a Global IoT Network
By: Rajiv Lal, Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej and Emilie Billaud
In 2018, Ludovic Le Moan and Christophe Fourtet, co-founders of the French tech startup Sigfox, reflected on the evolution of their venture and the way forward. Founded in 2009, Sigfox was a company that provided a global connectivity network for devices connected to... View Details
- August 2018
- Teaching Note
IguanaFix
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Thomas Eisenmann
Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-056. IguanaFix, based in Argentina, is a platform business that connects consumers with home improvement contractors. The founders are evaluating growth options and an investment offer. The case focuses on scaling issues for a venture... View Details
- August 2018
- Teaching Note
Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas
Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-013. Magpie is a startup with a platform that allows publishers to natively tag the products discussed in their content and thus allows consumers to purchase those products without needing to leave that publisher’s web page. A key aspect... View Details
- August 2018 (Revised October 2020)
- Case
Tailor Brands: Artificial Intelligence-Driven Branding
By: Jill Avery
Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology, startup Tailor Brands set out to democratize branding by allowing small businesses to create their brand identities by automatically generating logos in just minutes at minimal cost with no branding or design skills... View Details
Keywords: Startup; Services; Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Digital Marketing; Brand Management; Big Data; Internet Marketing; Analytics; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Brands and Branding; Information Technology; Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Business Model; Consumer Behavior; AI and Machine Learning; Analytics and Data Science; Advertising Industry; Service Industry; Technology Industry; United States; North America; Israel
- August 2018
- Case
BlackBuck (A)
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Shweta Bagai
The case presents the challenges of scaling an asset-heavy company (that relies on its operations). It highlights how decisions on the early team impact a company’s ability to scale, linkage between growth and cash flows, as well the organizational impact of high... View Details
- August 2018 (Revised February 2023)
- Case
Hubble Contact Lenses: Data Driven Direct-to-Consumer Marketing
By: Jill Avery and Ayelet Israeli
As its Series A extension round approaches, the founders of Hubble, a subscription-based, social-media fueled, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand of contact lenses, are reflecting on the marketing strategies that have taken them to a valuation of $200 million and debating... View Details
Keywords: DTC; Direct To Consumer Marketing; Health Care; Mobile; Attribution; Experimentation; Experiments; Churn/retention; Customer Lifetime Value; Internet Marketing; Big Data; Analytics; A/B Testing; CRM; Advertising; Marketing; Marketing Channels; Marketing Strategy; Media; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Digital Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Acquisition; Growth and Development Strategy; Customer Focus and Relationships; Social Media; E-commerce; Analytics and Data Science; Health Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; North America; Europe
- July 2018
- Teaching Note
Cumplo.com
Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-039. Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-039. Cumplo is a Chilean-based fin-tech startup that provides investors and small businesses with opportunities to access loans and investments in ways distinct from traditional financial institutions in... View Details
- June 2018 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
Valuing Snap After the IPO Quiet Period (A)
By: Marco Di Maggio, Benjamin C. Esty and Gregory Saldutte
Snap, the disappearing message app, went public at $17 per share on March 2, 2017, making its two 20-something founders the youngest self-made billionaires in the country. Over the next three weeks, 14 analysts made investment recommendations on Snap: two with buy... View Details
Keywords: Sell-side Analysts; Underwriters; Investment Banking; Social Network; Discounted Cash Flow; Cost Of Capital; Conflicts Of Interest; Corporate Governance; Advertising; Quiet Period; ＂DCF Valuation,＂; Business Startups; Digital Marketing; Initial Public Offering; Information Infrastructure; Valuation; Venture Capital; Forecasting and Prediction; Social Media; Advertising Industry; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Web Services Industry; United States; California
- June 2018 (Revised July 2018)
- Teaching Note
Mark43
By: Thomas Eisenmann, Mitchell Weiss and Matt Higgins
Teaching Note for HBS No. 817-016. The founders of Mark43, an early-stage startup that provides software for law enforcement agencies, must decide whether to bid on a request for proposals (RFP) from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). On the one hand, LAPD would... View Details
- May 2018 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions
By: Anita Elberse
In March 2017, Jason Blum, the founder and chief executive officer of film and television production company Blumhouse Productions, has another blockbuster on his hands with the movie Get Out, produced for just $4.5 million. Remarkable returns for its micro-budget... View Details
Keywords: Entertainment; Media; Film; Movies; Creative Industries; Product-portfolio Management; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Talent; General Management; Strategy; Marketing; Blockbusters; Film Entertainment; Innovation and Management; Talent and Talent Management; Competitive Strategy; Management Style; Marketing Strategy; Motion Pictures and Video Industry
- April 2018 (Revised September 2019)
- Case
Shanda Family Office
By: Christopher Malloy, Lauren Cohen and Essie Alamsyah
Tianqiao Chen, founder and CEO of Shanda Group, has set up his family office in the U.S. in 2016 after exiting from Shanda's Internet games business in China in 2014, again pioneering an unconventional approach to the management of a family office. View Details
Keywords: Family Business; Management; Strategy; Investment; Goals and Objectives; China; United States
- April 2018
- Teaching Note
InsideSales.com (A) and (B)
By: Frank Cespedes
Teaching Note for HBS Nos. 817-018 and 817-042. InsideSales.com (ISC) has been successful selling its software to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB). But for various reasons, the founders see “the next stage of growth” as building a scalable sales and service... View Details
- April 2018 (Revised May 2018)
- Case
Goldman Sachs: Making an Imprint in Impact Investing
By: Shawn Cole, Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Reimers Brumme and Lynn Schenk
Goldman Sachs acquired Imprint Capital Advisors, a small firm that specialized in advising clients on environmental/social/governance (ESG) and impact investments. The founders sold Imprint with the belief that joining a global financial firm would help to scale impact... View Details
- Article
Space, the Final Economic Frontier
After decades of centralized control of economic activity in space, NASA and U.S. policymakers have begun to cede the direction of human activities in space to commercial companies. NASA garnered more than 0.7% of GDP in the mid-1960s but is only around 0.1% of GDP... View Details
- March 2018 (Revised July 2020)
- Case
Nectar (A)
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport and Thomas O. Jones
In late 2017, Nectar was a rapidly emerging player in the “bed-in-a-box” online market for direct-to-consumer foam memory mattresses. Barely a year old, it had achieved a revenue run rate of $85M and looked ahead to another year of blistering growth. The founding team... View Details