Jibo: A Social Robot for the Home
Citation:
Bussgang, Jeffrey J., and Christine Snively. "Jibo: A Social Robot for the Home." Harvard Business School Teaching Plan 816-084, March 2016. View Details|
Case HBS Case Collection December 2015 (Revised May 2016) Jibo: A Social Robot for the Home |
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;
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.)
