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- January 2011
- Case
Aardvark
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Alison Berkley Wagonfeld and Lauren Barley
Aardvark is an online social search service that allows users to pose questions and receive answers from other users in their extended social network. The case explores the process that Aardvark's founders used to design and develop their product based on intensive... View Details
- January 2011
- Case
Sidoti & Company: Launching a Micro-Cap Product
By: Boris Groysberg, Paul M. Healy and Sarah Abbott
It is 2010 and Sidoti & Company, a New York-based brokerage firm specializing in small capitalization stocks, has just launched a new product- micro cap stock research. The firm has hired a group of five analysts who will produce written research reports on micro-cap... View Details
- December 2010
- Compilation
VCPE Strategy Vignettes II
By: Josh Lerner, G. Felda Hardymon, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf, Ann Leamon and Lisa Strope
These three vignettes present various issues around the strategy and management of venture capital and private equity firms. In one, a senior partner must decide how to manage an over-extended colleague and how to reduce the risk of the firm's portfolio; the second... View Details
- December 2010 (Revised November 2014)
- Case
Steven Carpenter at Cake Financial
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
After investing $9 million of venture capital, Cake Financial had failed to reach critical mass. In early 2010 Cake's assets were sold and the company was dissolved. Founded in 2006, the San Francisco-based Internet company allowed users to monitor their investments... View Details
- November 2010
- Case
Bling Nation
By: William A. Sahlman and Liz Kind
Bling Nation, a Palo Alto, CA startup, was founded in 2007 as a mobile payment service provider that bypassed industry participants such as Visa and MasterCard. Bling Nation partnered with local community banks and merchants in small towns. The banks provided their... View Details
Keywords: Culture
- November 2010 (Revised August 2012)
- Case
The Indego Africa Project
By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Rachel Gordon
Two young attorneys found and begin to build the Indego Africa Project, an NGO partnering with women's cooperatives in Rwanda. Indego connects the cooperatives to the international retail market for handmade artisan products, helps the cooperatives build their business... View Details
- October 2010
- Case
innocent
By: William A. Sahlman and Harry Wake
This case describes a set of issues confronting the founders of innocent, a 10-year old beverage company that dominated the UK smoothie market. The team must decide how to proceed with expansion of the product line and outside the UK and Ireland. They must also decide... View Details
- September 2010 (Revised April 2012)
- Case
Better World Books
By: Michael I. Norton, Fiona Wilson, Jill Avery and Thomas J. Steenburgh
Better World Books, a young start-up, provides a socially conscious alternative to Amazon, collecting and selling used books to keep them out of the waste stream, while donating a portion of their profits to support global literacy efforts. The case presents an... View Details
- September 2010
- Case
Quanta Research Institute: Rainforest or Hothouse?
By: Willy C. Shih, Jyun-Cheng Wang and Ho Howard Yu
Barry Lam, the CEO and founder of Quanta Computer (the largest notebook computer manufacturer worldwide), has recognized for many years that he had to transform the company to decrease its dependence on producing commodity hardware for other global brands and move the... View Details
- August 2010 (Revised October 2010)
- Case
Patagonia
By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, Hyunjin Kim and Forest L. Reinhardt
Patagonia was deeply committed to the environment. This commitment, at times, conflicted with the company's goal to create the most innovative products in its industry. Patagonia's founder and executives welcomed imitation of both its environmental commitment and its... View Details
- 2010
- Working Paper
Corporate Governance When Founders Are Directors
By: Feng Li and Suraj Srinivasan
We examine CEO compensation, CEO retention policies, and M&A decisions in firms where founders serve as a director with a non-founder CEO (founder-director firms). We find that founder-director firms offer a different mix of incentives to their CEOs than other firms.... View Details
- May 2010
- Supplement
Tremblant Capital Group Exhibits (CW)
By: Robin Greenwood
Brett Barakett, CEO and founder of Tremblant Capital Group, a New York-based hedge fund, must decide what to do with his fund's position in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, which has dropped in value by more than 40 percent in recent months. Tremblant is a hedge fund... View Details
- May 2010
- Supplement
Tim Westergren of Pandora Radio
By: Willy C. Shih and Halle Alicia Tecco
Pandora Radio is at a crossroads. Founder Tim Westergren has just been told by a well known VC to get rid of his unprofitable customers in order to get his costs down, but Westergren is not sure that such actions are consistent with his company's business model.... View Details
- April 2010 (Revised May 2017)
- Case
Tremblant Capital Group
By: Robin Greenwood
Brett Barakett, CEO and founder of Tremblant Capital Group, a New York–based hedge fund, must decide what to do with his fund's position in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, which has dropped in value by more than 40% in recent months. Tremblant is a hedge fund that... View Details
- March 2010 (Revised November 2010)
- Case
Pandora Radio: Fire Unprofitable Customers?
By: Willy C. Shih and Halle Alicia Tecco
Pandora Radio is at a crossroads. Founder Tim Westergren has just been told by a well known VC to get rid of his unprofitable customers in order to get his costs down, but Westergren is not sure that such actions are consistent with his company's business model.... View Details
- February 2010
- Case
Go Mobile: The Phirbol Franchise
By: Rajiv Lal and Natalie Kindred
To grow Phirbol, a telecom retail franchise chain in Delhi, India's underdeveloped markets, its founders were exploring ways to offer more value to the franchisees. In mid-2009, the Phirbol franchise was comprised of some 150 franchisees that had converted their small... View Details
- January 2010 (Revised April 2013)
- Case
Aubrey McClendon's Special Incentive Compensation at Chesapeake Energy (A)
By: Paul Healy, Clayton S. Rose and Aldo Sesia
Aubrey McClendon, founder and CEO of Chesapeake Energy, was, according to Fortune Magazine, the highest paid U.S. CEO in 2008 receiving over $100 million in total compensation. McClendon received this compensation despite a significant drop in the company's stock price... View Details
- November 2009 (Revised March 2013)
- Case
PureCircle
By: David E. Bell and Aldo Sesia
In December 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined that high-purity Rebaudioside A (Reb A), a natural and calorie-free product that a young company named PureCircle manufactured from the Stevia plant, could be used in beverages, foods, and as a... View Details
- October 2009 (Revised August 2013)
- Case
Carolina for Kibera
By: Kathleen L. McGinn and Cailin B. Hammer
A growing NGO based in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya, is facing a complete change in leadership as the founders step back. At the same time, a $1 million grant presents new opportunities and challenges. View Details
- October 2009
- Case
Noble Group
By: C. Fritz Foley, Michael Shih-ta Chen, Matthew Johnson and Linnea Meyer
What role does trade finance play in facilitating global supply chain management? Richard S. Elman, founder and CEO of Noble Group Ltd., a global commodities trading company based in Hong Kong, must raise capital to support the firm's working capital and investment... View Details