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- November 2022 (Revised September 2023)
- Technical Note
SAFE Notes: An Introduction
By: Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui and Jo Tango
A SAFE ("Simple Agreement for Future Equity") is a security increasingly used in seed financings. Not equity or debt, SAFEs allow founders to "get capital now and sell equity later." This Technical Note covers: 1. What is a SAFE and why use one?, 2. The key concepts... View Details
- October 2022
- Case
Single.Earth
By: Rembrand Koning and Emer Moloney
Estonian greentech company Single.Earth is launching a nature-backed token that is linked to and funds the protection of a specific plot fo land. The first landowners had been onboarded to the company's Digital Twin, a virtual representation of the planet's natural... View Details
Keywords: Alternative Assets; Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Green Technology; Natural Resources; Pollution; Analytics and Data Science; Marketing; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Markets; Market Timing; Strategy; Green Technology Industry; Estonia
- October 2022
- Case
Ethena: A Go-to-Market Dilemma
By: Rembrand Koning and Stacy Straaberg
In November 2021, Roxanne Petraeus and Anne Solmssen, founders of Brooklyn-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Ethena, were looking to expand their compliance training business. The founders hired Arnie Gullov-Singh, an outside revenue consultant, to advise on... View Details
- October 2022 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
Founders First Capital Partners: An Approach to Capital Access Equity
By: Brian Trelstad, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein
In June 2021, Kim T. Folsom, the founder and CEO of revenue-based financing firm Founders First Capital Partners (FFCP), must decide whether to issue another loan to OnShore Technology Group, an up-and-coming software validation company. FFCP provided revenue-based... View Details
- October 2022
- Case
Star Magnolia Capital: Becoming Experts at Finding Experts
By: Lauren Cohen, Hao Gao, River Ewing and Grace Headinger
Shinya Deguchi, Founder and Managing Partner of Star Magnolia Capital, a Shanghai-based multi-family office (MFO), considered how to convince a new prospective family that the MFO’s endowment model approach would best suit their needs. In recent decades, there has been... View Details
- October 2022
- Case
Beam Dental (A)
By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani
In May 2014, Alex Frommeyer, cofounder and CEO of Kentucky-based Beam Dental, a seed-stage startup that developed connected toothbrushes that tracked brushing habits, needed to decide which strategy to pitch to a venture capital firm. The first pitch deck played to the... View Details
- October 2022 (Revised November 2023)
- Case
Framebridge (A): Reimagining Custom Framing
By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani
In December 2018, Susan Tynan, founder and CEO of Framebridge, a four-year-old venture-backed startup that sold online custom framing, formulated plans for the future. Her vision was to revolutionize the $4 billion industry by making custom framing easy, transparent,... View Details
- October 2022
- Supplement
Framebridge (B): A New Approach
By: Rembrand Koning and Alicia Dadlani
In 2022, after revamping operations and expanding retail stores, Framebridge founder and CEO Susan Tynan is optimistic for the future but realizes changing market dynamics. New competitors are entering the market, and margin pressures remained. This case is part two of... View Details
- 2022
- Article
Indonesia and the Third Indochina War: The End of Containment
By: Mattias Fibiger
The Third Indochina War called forth dramatic changes in the international relations of Southeast Asia. Foremost among these changes was a shift in the geopolitical orientation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The organization’s founders... View Details
- September 2022
- Case
HPP: Tapping the Netherlands’ Potential
By: Brian Trelstad and Idelès Kaandorp
Stichting Het Potentieel Pakken (HPP) was launched to solve a systemic problem in the Dutch Labor Market: gender inequity that was leading to a large number of women to work part-time in fields that were in desperately short supply of labor, like health care, child... View Details
Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Grants; Scaling And Growth; Nonprofit Organizations; Opportunities; Gender; Income; Employment; Health Care and Treatment; Human Capital; Mission and Purpose; Motivation and Incentives; Growth and Development Strategy; Employment Industry; Health Industry; Education Industry; Consulting Industry; Europe; Netherlands
- September 2022
- Case
Blake Sports: Evolution of the CEO and the Executive Team
By: Boris Groysberg and Katherine Connolly Baden
Cameron (Cam) Barker, CEO and Founder of Blake Sports Apparel, sat in his office at his company’s headquarters in Birmingham, England, feeling stunned and disappointed. Only a few minutes prior, he had wrapped up a meeting with CFO James Ryan, a highly-respected star... View Details
- August 2022 (Revised March 2025)
- Case
Wasabi Technologies (A)
By: N. Louis Shipley and Mel Martin
After launching a successful hot cloud storage company, Founder and CEO David Friend is ready to scale the venture rapidly. Wasabi Technologies had focused primarily on direct sales, but an opportunity to pivot to channel sales was on the horizon. The company’s major... View Details
- August 2022
- Case
Meaningful Gigs
By: Brian Trelstad and Rachel Philbin
In October 2020, just a year after founding their company Meaningful Gigs, founders Ronnie Kwesi Coleman and Stephanie Nachemja-Burton prepared for a vital investment meeting with Rethink Education. They had already reached $400,000 in annually recurring revenue (ARR)... View Details
- August 2022 (Revised January 2025)
- Case
NOW PT (A): Should We Invest?
By: George A Riedel, Amy Klopfenstein and Mel Martin
In fall 2021, a team of students from the HBS Impact Investing Fund considered Neurologic Optimal Wellness Physical Therapy (NOW PT) for a potential investment. Dr. Banks, the founder of NOW PT, drove to visit patients. She sought an investment from the fund to open a... View Details
- August 2022
- Case
One Tiger Per Mountain: The He Family Office
By: Lauren Cohen, Fei Wu and Grace Headinger
Roy He, founder and majority shareholder of his family construction material production company, was preparing to pass down the family business through its first generational handover to his children. His decision would establish his familial legacy and set a precedent... View Details
- August 2022
- Case
SuperRare: Turning an NFT Marketplace into a DAO
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Scott Duke Kominers and Amy Klopfenstein
In June 2021, John Crain and Jonathan Perkins, the founders of SuperRare, a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), contemplate whether to transform their company into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). Crain and Perkins founded SuperRare in 2018 to... View Details
Keywords: NFTs; Crypto Economy; Alternative Assets; DAOs; Arts; Governance; Governance Controls; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Information Technology; Technology Adoption; Internet and the Web; Digital Platforms; Innovation and Invention; Technological Innovation; Disruptive Innovation; Finance; Currency; Investment; Markets; Auctions; Bids and Bidding; Demand and Consumers; Network Effects; Market Design; Market Transactions; Market Timing; Web Services Industry; North and Central America; United States
- August 2022 (Revised May 2025)
- Case
Fresh Food Generation
By: Brian Trelstad, Amy Klopfenstein and Mel Martin
This case highlights one of five BIPOC entrepreneurs in the Boston area as part of the HBS Impact Investment Fund. In fall 2021, a team of HBS students reviewed the financial statements of Fresh Food Generation (FFG), a Dorchester, Massachusetts-based food service... View Details
- August 2022
- Case
Rocket Learning: Evidence in Action
By: Brian Trelstad, Tomas Rosales and Malini Sen
Founders of Rocket Learning, an India-based nonprofit which focused on early childhood education (ECE), received an invitation from MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (JPAL), a development research organization, to test its intervention for ECE with a... View Details
- July 2022
- Case
Bringing Ideas to Life: The Story of Paul English
By: Youngme Moon, Frances X. Frei and F. Katelynn Boland
Paul English is one of the most imaginative innovators of his generation. This case explores his process of creative idea generation. The case includes an exercise for students to generate value-creating ideas from scratch. View Details
- July 2022 (Revised February 2024)
- Teaching Note
The DivaCup: Navigating Distribution and Growth
By: Ayelet Israeli
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-055. When the mother-daughter founders of DivaCup set out with a mission to disrupt the menstrual care industry with an innovative product form, they initially struggled to gain legitimacy and convince retailers to carry their unique... View Details
Keywords: Female; Female Ceo; Female Entrepreneur; Female Protagonist; Health ＆ Wellness; Healthcare; Price Policies; Minimum Advertised Price; Differentiation; Positioning; Growth; Health; Health Care and Treatment; Price; Disruption; Distribution; Distribution Channels; Competitive Strategy; Competition; Growth Management; Mission and Purpose; Product Development; Product Marketing; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Advertising; Business Startups; Internet and the Web; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Social Issues; Social Enterprise; Retail Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Health Industry; Green Technology Industry; Education Industry; Distribution Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Canada; United States; United Kingdom