Publications
Publications
- August 2022 (Revised November 2024)
- HBS Case Collection
Sweet Teez Bakery: Projecting the Dough's Rise
By: Emily R. McComb, Mel Martin and Amy Klopfenstein
Abstract
In 2021, the HBS Impact Investment Fund student team met with entrepreneur Teresa Maynard, who had applied for a $25,000 impact investment loan. The students thought the former Harvard Data Scientist’s bakery business, Sweet Teez Bakery, showed promise. Maynard had bootstrapped the business, growing it from a small-scale venture to a point where she now considered expanding her corporate clientele and possibly opening a brick-and-mortar location. Alas, funding for such small businesses had been sparse, and Maynard needed working capital to take her business to the next level.
The student team was eager to evaluate her financials and submit a recommendation to the investment committee. However, Maynard had taken meticulous records of her financial transactions but had yet to compile them into comprehensive financial statements, meaning that Sweet Teez’s financial health was difficult to parse. The HBS student team wondered: How could they best build a reliable financial model from the currently fragmented historical information?
Keywords
Impact Investment; Entrepreneurship; Social Entrepreneurship; Finance; Investment; Goods and Commodities; Financial Reporting; Small Business; Food and Beverage Industry; United States; Massachusetts
Citation
McComb, Emily R., Mel Martin, and Amy Klopfenstein. "Sweet Teez Bakery: Projecting the Dough's Rise." Harvard Business School Case 223-004, August 2022. (Revised November 2024.)