David Hysong and SHEPHERD Therapeutics

Ananth   Raman; John   Masko; Aldo  Sesia

Case | HBS Case Collection | November 2018

David Hysong and SHEPHERD Therapeutics

by Ananth Raman, John Masko and Aldo Sesia

Abstract

In 2016, David Hysong, at age 27, found out he had a rare, incurable cancer. Rather than wait around to die, Hysong, a recent graduate of Harvard Divinity School, decided to launch a biotechnology company called Shepherd Therapeutics to development treatments for his and other rare cancers. Two years later, the company had several drugs in promising stages of development but were at least 3 to 5 years away from commercialization, if they made it through clinical trials successfully. Only about 4% of drugs that enter clinical trials receive U.S. FDA approval. It is October 2018, and Shepherd is running out of money. Hysong needs to raise $5 million to fund operations for 2019 and at least $20 million for the following few years. But the company is too early to attract the type of venture capital he needs. Even if he got financing, Hysong worried that the company’s mission could be compromised by investors more interested in a return on their investment than saving lives, and he worried about the scaling challenges ahead.

Keywords: cancer; therapeutics; drugs; Health Care and Treatment; Business Startups; Product Development; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development Strategy; Problems and Challenges;

Language: English

Format: Print

24 pages

Educators

Citation:

Raman, Ananth, John Masko, and Aldo Sesia. "David Hysong and SHEPHERD Therapeutics." Harvard Business School Case 619-012, November 2018.

For decades, Gera Developments (Gera) was a boutique family-owned real estate development firm in Pune, India. But since 2000, managing director Rohit Gera had turned the company into a dynamic innovator in housing solutions for urban Indian families. Over the 2010s, Gera had multiplied its area under development threefold; it had introduced its new ChildCentric vision of family housing villages (which incorporated children’s academies in skills from swimming to singing into the real estate complex); and it had expanded its operations from Pune to the nearby state of Goa. Meanwhile, Rohit’s brother Nikhil—a California resident—had invested company funds in several construction projects overseas in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2020, the company stood at a crossroads. With Rohit beginning to envision the end of his managerial career, Gera had several key decisions to make: Should it double down on ChildCentric, introduce new age-differentiated offerings to serve its customers throughout their lives, or return to a more commoditized style of real estate development? To what extent should Gera cast in its lot with Nikhil’s U.S. projects? Should the company consider other avenues for international expansion? And to whom would Rohit pass the torch of Gera’s leadership—his daughter Diya, or an outside professional manager?

With the economy in a freefall, MetricStream is losing customers, hemorrhaging cash and struggling to make payroll. Several board members are threatening to quit. Others are pressing to sell the company even at dismally low valuations. It’s 2008 and lightning has struck for Shellye Archambeau once again. As CEO of MetricStream, she had spent the last seven years turning a tech startup on life support after the dot-com bust into a market leader of governance, risk, and compliance software for businesses. As a black female CEO, Archambeau is no stranger to adversity. Becoming a leader had been her goal since high school and she had achieved it through decades of hard work and skillful decision making. Now she faces her most critical leadership decision. She calls a meeting with her board chairman, Gunjan Sinha, to discuss the best path forward: Sell MetricStream while offers are on the table, or try to save it by looking for a big customer of the company’s risk management software against the backdrop of the financial crisis? Both options have dire consequences. Valuations are plummeting by the day. Cash is disappearing by the minute. Archambeau and Sinha need to decide and act swiftly.

Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2020 (Revised September 2020)

The Honor Foundation: Accessing Special Operations Talent

Boris Groysberg and John Masko

In 2020, The Honor Foundation (THF), a nonprofit dedicated to helping U.S. military special operators to transition into civilian careers, was facing a series of strategic challenges. THF had been founded in 2013 by former Navy SEAL trainee Joe Musselman, who observed a disturbing pattern: once special operators left the military in their mid-30s or 40s, they tended to end up in jobs in which they were overqualified, underpaid, and unfulfilled. Musselman attributed this to fundamental disconnects between the world of special operations, whose members had unique and deep skill sets but little experience articulating them in the civilian world, and the world of business. THF’s programs gave transitioning special operators space to reflect on what they wanted out of their transition, and hard skills for interviewing, resume writing, and networking. Over seven years, its three month program had grown to serve over 200 transitioners per year on three campuses plus a virtual campus. But in early 2020, THF was not yet serving America’s largest contingent of special operators: the U.S. Army Special Forces. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, THF CEO Matt Stevens was evaluating how best to incorporate Army special operators and fulfill THF’s mission of serving all the U.S. special ops community. Should THF build another physical campus? Should it use its virtual campus to incorporate Army special operators instead? Or should it take on government funding to scale quickly? Students who read this case will evaluate this strategic problem while becoming familiar with the unique skills of the Special Operations Forces community.

Keywords: Experience and Expertise; Talent and Talent Management; Curriculum and Courses; Executive Education; Social Entrepreneurship; National Security; Recruitment; Retention; Job Interviews; Job Search; Knowledge Use and Leverage; Leadership Development; Leadership Style; Crisis Management; Mission and Purpose; Retirement; Nonprofit Organizations; War; Education Industry; San Diego; Virginia;

Citation:

Groysberg, Boris, and John Masko. "The Honor Foundation: Accessing Special Operations Talent." Harvard Business School Case 421-006, July 2020. (Revised September 2020.) View Details

Cite View Details Educators Purchase

Faculty & Research

David Hysong and SHEPHERD Therapeutics

Abstract

Citation:

About the Author

More from the Author