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- September 2021
- Case
On the Bubble: Startup Bootstrapping
By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Tom Quinn and Annelena Lobb
Bubble was a software company in the low-code/no-code market, making tools that allowed users without traditional programming backgrounds or technical skills to build software. The case covers cofounder Joshua Haas’s engineering background, as he experienced a high...
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Keywords:
Business Startups;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business Model;
Business Plan;
Disruption;
Transformation;
Trends;
Customer Focus and Relationships;
Customer Relationship Management;
Decision Making;
Cost vs Benefits;
Decisions;
Entrepreneurship;
Venture Capital;
Equity;
Executive Compensation;
Recruitment;
Selection and Staffing;
Disruptive Innovation;
Technological Innovation;
Job Interviews;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Ownership Stake;
Opportunities;
Software;
Technology Adoption;
Technology Industry;
Web Services Industry;
New York (city, NY);
California;
France
- August 2021
- Case
Allbirds: Decarbonizing Fashion
By: Michael W. Toffel, Ken Pucker and Eren Kuzucu
Allbirds is a footwear startup focused on simple design, comfort, and sustainable natural materials. The case describes the company’s product development process that works with suppliers to develop natural materials including wool and sugarcane to substitute for...
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Keywords:
Decarbonization;
Climate Impact;
Environmental Strategy;
Innovation;
Product Design;
Supply Chain Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Innovation and Management;
Product Development;
Climate Change;
Environmental Management;
Environmental Sustainability;
Apparel and Accessories Industry;
United States;
California
- August 2021
- Case
Yummy: Delivering Value to Venezuela
By: Ayelet Israeli, Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago and Carla Larangeira
By June 2021, Yummy had become Venezuela’s first and largest food delivery app and last-mile logistics company. In Caracas, the nation’s capital, Yummy held a 55% market share, while operations in other cities had already started to take place, including in three of...
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- August 2021
- Case
Livongo: Scaling a Purpose-Driven Organization in Healthcare
By: Ranjay Gulati, Aseem Shukla and Reva Nohria
When seasoned entrepreneur Glen Tullman founded the chronic health care startup Livongo in 2014, it was personal. His son lived with diabetes, and Tullman knew firsthand how taxing it could be to manage such an unrelenting disease. Livongo set out to empower people...
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- August 2021
- Case
Mylestone: Can Multiple Pivots Preserve the Life of a Death Tech Startup?
By: Shikhar Ghosh and Marilyn Morgan Westner
Dave Balter and Jim Myers co-founded Mylestone, a death tech startup that applied technology to transform how grieving people memorialize the dead. The startup addressed a cultural problem and promised to solve a pressing need in the antiquated, multi-billion dollar...
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- August 2021
- Case
Andreessen Horowitz’s Cultural Leadership Fund (A)
By: Anita Elberse, Briana Richardson and Cydni Williams
In May 2020, Chris Lyons, a partner at leading venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz receives the news that his company has reached a verbal agreement with one of Silicon Valley’s hottest social-media startups to lead its ‘Series A’ funding round, in a deal that...
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- July 2021
- Case
A Close Shave at Squire
In 2020, just after closing a $34 million Series B financing round, Dave Salvant and Songe LaRon consider how to adjust their business, Squire Technologies, to the new realities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their barbershop technology, including tools to run a shop...
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- July 2021
- Case
Fynd
By: Ranjay Gulati, Kairavi Dey and Rachna Tahilyani
Fynd is a fast-growing venture that in 7 years since its founding has become India's largest omnichannel retail company with real-time access to over 9,000 stores' offline inventory. It started as a B2B business supporting retailers who didn’t have an online business,...
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- July 2021
- Case
Kevin D. Johnson: To Be a Venture Capitalist or an Operator?
By: Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo
In May of 2021, Kevin D. Johnson had just graduated from a rigorous Executive MBA program, and he quickly needed to decide on his next career move. Johnson was the founder and CEO of a successful media company, Johnson Media Inc., but his career goals had shifted while...
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- June 2021
- Case
uBiome
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Olivia Graham
uBiome provided clinical tests that sequenced the DNA of human microbiome samples, providing data on health conditions directly to consumers or to prescribing physicians. Founded in 2012, the San Francisco-based startup raised $105 million from top-tier venture capital...
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- May 2021
- Supplement
Hello Alfred: Come Home Happy — Operating the Business Model Exercise, Instructor Version
By: Joseph B. Fuller and Christopher Payton
On a mission to "automate the on-demand economy," Harvard Business School classmates Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck launched Hello Alfred in 2013 to provide subscribers with an "Alfred" to complete various chores for a monthly fee. In early 2016, the company has built...
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- March 2021
- Case
Astralis Group: Determining a Brand Strategy
By: Benjamin C. Esty, Mette Fuglsang Hjortshoej and Emilie Billaud
After launching a Danish esports company in July 2019, and going public in December 2019 with multiple brands associated with different games, the Astralis leadership team was contemplating a shift to a single, corporate brand. While the original arguments for...
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Keywords:
Brand Strategy;
Esports;
Video Games;
Corporate Scope;
Positioning;
Ecosystem;
Brands and Branding;
Strategy;
Business Ventures;
Business Startups;
Entrepreneurship;
Ethics;
Sports;
Competitive Strategy;
Value Creation;
Diversification;
Games, Gaming, and Gambling;
Sports Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry;
Denmark;
Europe
- March 2021 (Revised March 2021)
- Teaching Note
Afterpay U.S.: The Omnichannel Dilemma
By: Antonio Moreno and Anibha Singh
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 519-086. In 2018, Nick Molnar, the founder of the Australia-based online payment service Afterpay began its expansion to the U.S. market. The service had gained a loyal following in Australia by enabling customers to pay for online...
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Keywords:
Online Advertising;
Business Startups;
Business Growth and Maturation;
Business Model;
Business Organization;
For-Profit Firms;
Change Management;
Customer Value and Value Chain;
Customer Relationship Management;
Customer Satisfaction;
Financing and Loans;
Microfinance;
Global Strategy;
Marketing Strategy;
Market Entry and Exit;
Market Platforms;
Multi-Sided Platforms;
Product Development;
Supply Chain Management;
Business and Stakeholder Relations;
Networks;
Network Effects;
Online Technology;
Financial Services Industry;
Technology Industry;
United States;
Australia
- March 2021
- Case
VideaHealth: Building the AI Factory
By: Karim R. Lakhani and Amy Klopfenstein
Florian Hillen, co-founder and CEO of VideaHealth, a startup that used artificial intelligence (AI) to detect dental conditions on x-rays, spent the early years of his company laying the groundwork for an AI factory. A process for quickly building and iterating on new...
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Keywords:
Artificial Intelligence;
Innovation and Invention;
Disruptive Innovation;
Technological Innovation;
Technology;
Software;
Technology Adoption;
Technology Platform;
Entrepreneurship;
Technology Industry;
Medical Devices and Supplies Industry;
North and Central America;
United States;
Massachusetts;
Cambridge
- February 2021
- Case
Braintrust: The Blockchain-Powered Talent Network
By: Christopher Stanton, Joseph B. Fuller and George Gonzalez
San Francisco startup Braintrust developed a talent network governed and incentivized by a blockchain token as a way to align incentives between clients and freelancers. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a rise of remote work and accelerated the growth of the platform;...
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- February 2021 (Revised August 2021)
- Case
Marvin: A Personalized Telehealth Approach to Mental Health
By: Regina E. Herzlinger, Thomas Arsenault, Julia Kelley, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Andrew Nguyen and Eshani Sharma
More than one third of Americans were said to suffer some type of behavioral health ailment at some point in their lifetime, with many people requiring chronic therapy or intervention. Despite significant clinical needs, access to reliable treatment has been difficult...
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- February 2021 (Revised July 2021)
- Case
TikTok in 2020: Super App or Supernova?
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Dan Maher and Dan O'Brien
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was launched in 2012 around a simple idea – helping users entertain themselves on their smartphones while on the Beijing Subway. In less than a decade, it had become one of the world’s most valuable private companies, with investors...
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Keywords:
Business Model;
Business Startups;
Business Organization;
Change Management;
Disruption;
Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues;
Global Strategy;
Health Pandemics;
Innovation Strategy;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Growth Management;
Brands and Branding;
Marketing Strategy;
Marketing Channels;
Network Effects;
Two-Sided Platforms;
Product Design;
Product Development;
Partners and Partnerships;
Opportunities;
Social Issues;
Mobile Technology;
Online Technology;
Value Creation;
United States;
China
- February 2021
- Case
Yellow Digital Retailers: Providing Solar Electricity to Transform Rural Africa
By: Lynda M. Applegate, Frank V. Cespedes and Michael Norris
In 2020, Mike Heyink and Maya Stewart, co-founders of the Pay-as-you-Go Solar company Yellow were considering how to grow their startup. They had achieved some success in their first market, Malawi, and had recently entered Uganda, where business was slower. What did...
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- January 2021
- Case
Brigad: The Future of Work
By: Nien-he Hsieh, Elena Corsi and Daniela Beyersdorfer
In 2019 Florent Malbranche, CEO and co-founder of the French tech startup Brigad, pondered the next growth steps. Founded in 2015, Brigad’s objective was two-fold: to help restaurants and bars find qualified staff for punctual shifts, and to make it easier for...
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- January 2021 (Revised August 2021)
- Case
ByteDance: TikTok and the Trials of Going Viral
By: William C. Kirby and John P. McHugh
In 2020, TikTok became the most valuable start-up ever. The short-form, video-sharing social media platform emerged as the crown jewel of the Chinese technology firm ByteDance, realizing 850 million monthly users and an estimated worth of $180 billion. However, a...
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Keywords:
China;
Technology;
Startup;
Start-up;
International Strategy;
Global Strategy And Leadership;
Innovation;
Political Risk;
Regulations;
Trump;
Foreign Policy;
Foreign Investment;
Social Media;
Chinese Internet Market;
Global Strategy;
Crisis Management;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Entrepreneurship;
Globalized Economies and Regions;
Government Legislation;
Innovation and Management;
Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms;
Online Technology;
Technology Industry;
China;
United States