Shield AI

Mitchell  Weiss; A.J.  Steinlage

Case | HBS Case Collection | October 2018

Shield AI

by Mitchell Weiss and A.J. Steinlage

Abstract

Shield AI’s quadcopter – with no pilot and no flight plan – could clear a building and outpace human warfighters by almost five minutes. This was not to say that it was better than the warfighters or would replace their jobs, but it was evidence that autonomous robots deployed in this fashion could keep up with the pace of operators, serve as a force multiplier, and help protect civilian and service member lives. But was it evidence that the Shield AI team should ask their newest potential customer for a contract 50-60 times more than their only two contracts to date? Would asking for what a system of coordinated, exploring robots really cost - $50 to $60 million - scare off their U.S. government customer? No one would blink if Lockheed Martin, Boeing, or other large defense companies proposed a $60 million effort to do the same, but would it make Shield AI, barely two years past founding, look arrogant, ignorant, or both?

Keywords: public entrepreneurship; artificial intelligence; AI; entrepreneurial sales; government; defense; Shield AI; Brandon Tseng; Ryan Tseng; Andrew Reiter; robots; robotics; UAV; UAVs; government sales; Entrepreneurship; Public Sector; Sales; Government Administration; National Security; Business and Government Relations; Technology Industry; United States;

Language: English

Format: Print

21 pages

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Citation:

Weiss, Mitchell, and A.J. Steinlage. "Shield AI." Harvard Business School Case 819-062, October 2018.

Among the many competing definitions of entrepreneurship, the one adopted in The Entrepreneurial Manager at HBS was authored by Howard Stevenson in the 1980s and elaborated on in the decades since. Stevenson provided a managerial take on the term; he described entrepreneurship as a distinct approach to management. That approach is the subject of this brief note. The note provides his definition of entrepreneurship ("the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled") and six domains that differentiate entrepreneurial managers from administrative managers.

This is the course overview note for The Entrepreneurial Manager, taught in the first year at Harvard Business School. Students will learn how to be opportunity-driven managers and how to lead under uncertainty. They'll learn how to identify opportunities, how to design and develop integrated operating models to pursue those opportunities, how to resource those activities amidst uncertainty, and, ultimately, how (and if) to scale them. The note covers the motivation for the course, historical and contemporary, and the course structure.

This teaching note pairs with a case that is used in a course on Public Entrepreneurship, for a first module on "ideas." The case is designed to help students work through the question: where do new ideas to stubborn problems come from? And, in particular, the question of looking to insiders vs. outsiders for new ways forward. It may be useful for looking at that question generally, and also in the specific context of hackathons. Are they a useful platform for bringing on outside ideas? And, if so, how? Hackathons have become popular in private companies as well as in government. The case references private and public examples and involves private and public actors. The case can be used in courses that focus in either direction.

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Shield AI

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