Jibo: A Social Robot for the Home

Jeffrey J. Bussgang; Christine  Snively

Case | HBS Case Collection | December 2015 (Revised May 2016)

Jibo: A Social Robot for the Home

by Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Christine Snively

Abstract

In January 2015, Jibo Inc. had completed a raise of $25.3 million in Series A financing after a successful 2014 crowdfunding campaign for preorders of Jibo, the first social robot for the home. Over 4,800 Jibo units were preordered, generating $2.6 million in sales. On one snowy morning in January, CEO Steve Chambers met with co-founder and Chief Scientist Dr. Cynthia Breazeal and newly hired VP of Consumer & Development Relations Lynda Smith to prepare for their first meeting with the board. The team planned to discuss Jibo's business development strategy and considered how best to engage with the developer community to expand Jibo's portfolio of capabilities. How could the team best attract third-party developers to create Jibo Skills (apps) for this new platform that would not ship until 2016? Should the team develop a full set of Jibo Skills in-house? The team also hoped to establish partnerships with large content providers. How could they convince potential partners that Jibo was a worthwhile investment?

Keywords: business development; Entrepreneurship; Software; Hardware; Business Startups; Technology Industry;

Language: English

Format: Print

17 pages

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Citation:

Bussgang, Jeffrey J., and Christine Snively. "Jibo: A Social Robot for the Home." Harvard Business School Case 816-003, December 2015. (Revised May 2016.)

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Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2018 (Revised January 2019)

ZappRx

Jeffrey J. Bussgang and Olivia Hull

In October 2015, ZappRx founder Zoe Barry is deciding between two business models for her health technology start-up. Her product, a software application that aims to expedite the prescription fulfillment process for patients with rare diseases, has attracted interest from specialty drug manufacturers who wish to build an exclusive platform for patients taking their medications. But Barry, against the advice of her management team, is considering an alternative business model, which would open the platform up to all manufacturers in a given disease area. Instead of financing product development through individual contracts, the comprehensive platform would be free to doctors and pharma alike and financed via an aggressive fundraising strategy and through the sale of the prescription data collected on the app. Barry is willing to take the risk, but her management team is staunchly opposed. Which path should ZappRx take? The case is a window into the early go-to-market and business model decisions that an entrepreneur must make, in this case in the face of pushback from her own management team. The case also provides a detailed picture of the specialty pharmaceutical industry and challenges students to think about target customer identification and talent management in a start-up environment.

Keywords: Speciality Drugs; Hub Services; Pivot; Speciality Prescriptions; Health Care and Treatment; Customization and Personalization; Online Technology; Business Model; Decision Choices and Conditions; Pharmaceutical Industry; Massachusetts;