In February 2023, Emtech's founder Carmelle Cadet is facing a dilemma. Rapidly running out of cash, Cadet has a term sheet from a leading VC but has a choice of how to structure the investment. The decision will have significant implications for Cadet's own stake, as well as her ability to attract top talent. One factor influencing Cadet's decision is her vision of creating a digital currency platform that will facilitate financial inclusion and other values throughout the world. Founded in 2018, Emtech first offered central bank digital currencies to world governments, digital fiat currencies that could be a tool for emerging economies to offer benefits and administer social programs more efficiently. The company later began developing regulatory sandboxes, which allow governments and fintechs to experiment to optimize regulatory environments, while working with financial service providers on innovation and regulation of new products.
Jasmine Crowe founded Goodr to redirect food waste to people in need. Now a profitable enterprise, she's searching for Series A funding and encountering pushback. Scaling and contract concerns are also at the forefront of her mind, but so are her values. Feeding hungry people is at the core of her mission, but potential backers tell her the company is better off without doing so. She thinks, too, about how her race may be holding her back from funding opportunities.
The purpose of the Manizales-Mas case is to show the inner workings of the first three years of a comprehensive economic development project that uses entrepreneurship-extraordinary company growth -as the driving wedge. The BEEP project started in 2010 with a contact by the general director, Ana Maria Gonzales, of the Luker Foundation, a non-profit foundation established by the local Restrepo family that owns Casa Luker, which had focused on education promotion since its inception in 1995. Gonzales approached Babson and BEEP, who together conducted a two-month pilot. Between 2010 and 2012 Gonzales worked hard to coalesce a group of funders and stakeholders to back the project, both financially and in terms of non-financial involvement. Having created a consensus among 11 local organizations, Gonzales then negotiated the project with Babson, yielding numerous conflicts and misunderstandings. Marcela Escobar was hired in late 2011 as project team leader, and conducted the project from that time onward, during Phases 2-3. The case takes place as Phase 3 is transitioning to Phase 4, with several acute problems, such as conflict among the stakeholders and an important staff member, the director of communications, who has just announced her resignation.
In October 2013, Hasan Haider (28), CEO and co-founder of the Tenmou Angel Group in Bahrain, had doubled Tenmou's investment funds from Bahrain Dinar (BD) 1 million to BD2 million (to approximately $5.4 million). Since its founding in 2010, Tenmou had invested half of its capital-about .5 million BD-in 17 Bahraini startups. As of the time of the case, Haider and co-founder and Tenmou chairman Sami Jalal were anticipating the need for more capital in 2014. Haider was realizing that to have any long-term effect on Bahrain's entrepreneurship ecosystem and to position Bahrain as a magnet for the MENA's very best entrepreneurs, much more money would be needed. Haider was contemplating opening up a parallel effort to organize a $100 million fund, which would be the largest in the MENA region by far. He had given himself until the end of 2013 to decide. Notably, as currently structured, he would not receive any of the profits if Tenmou portfolio companies exited. The Tenmou case bridges two areas related to entrepreneurship. One is economic development policy. How can private investment initiatives be optimized for economic development goals, particularly in emerging economies? The second is entrepreneurial finance, in particular, programs and policies that encourage or discourage the flow of funds to entrepreneurial ventures. Thus, the Tenmou case may be used in graduate and undergraduate courses in public policy, entrepreneurial finance, economic development, social innovation, and the like. It may also be used in leadership training programs, such as the Harvard Kennedy School program, Innovation for Economic Development, MIT's Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program, or Babson's new program in "Driving Economic Growth through Entrepreneurship Ecosystems." The case can also be used in regional interventions in order to stimulate discussion about the role of family business in fostering entrepreneurship, as well as the limitations of government engagement.
Bent Mikkelsen is executive director of economic development for Denmark's second largest region, MidJutland (Central Denmark Region).. As the case opens, he is contemplating comments he has read suggesting that one of the main programs within his entrepreneurship responsibilities, the Growth House program, may not be working as well as he and others had hoped. This is the core program in his entrepreneurship development responsibilities, and a flagship program developed for the regions by the federal Danish Business Authority. The case describes Denmark's entrepreneurship and innovation policies, as well as its accomplishments, at least in terms of achieving top rankings in entrepreneurship policies by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the European Union. Whereas more high-growth venture activity has evolved in Copenhagen, no one in Denmark claims that this is sufficient, and serious doubt that this success can be replicated in the other four regions, including MidJutland. Should every region be a locus of high-growth entrepreneurship, when talented entrepreneurs are moving to Copenhagen for its concentration of resources? Despite the fact that historically, numerous global ventures have emerged from the Central Denmark region, it appears that these older-generation entrepreneurs are not very involved in stimulating entrepreneurship among the current generation. Mikkelsen must decide if and how to tap into the expertise of the successful global Danish firms in entrepreneurial development in the region, increase the rate and effectiveness of angel investing in new ventures, and position the Growth House program better so as to accelerate private sector investment. He also wonders if the existing social and economic development programs are actually deterring risk-taking, and whether it might be time for regional authorities to stop playing such an active role.
As Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino had repeated many times before many audiences, between his widely noted 2010 address and May 2012, "There has never been a better time for innovation in urban settings than now and there should be no better place than in Boston."
This case deals with supplier difficulties faced by WildChina - a travel service provider in China. WildChina is a classic case of a company that is trying to bring a local, within-country product to a market outside the country (in this case, travelers to China from around the world). In doing so, startups have to build competences to deal with local suppliers and global customers. The case describes the operations of WildChina, providing detailed information on how they evaluated suppliers to determine their appropriateness, given WildChina's customers. The decision in the case revolves around what the founder should do when faced with a supplier who is trying to bypass WildChina to reach customers directly - a common problem faced by intermediaries.
Studies from around the globe consistently link entrepreneurship with rapid job creation, GDP growth, and long-term productivity increases. That's why the new holy grail for governments in both emerging and developed countries is to create an environment that nurtures and sustains entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, many governments take a misguided approach to building entrepreneurship ecosystems. They pursue some unattainable ideal and look to economies that are completely unlike theirs for best practices. However, today the most effective practices often come from remote corners of the earth, where resources-as well as legal frameworks, transparent governance, and democratic values-may be scarce. Drawing from lessons learned in such countries as Rwanda, Chile, Iceland, Israel, and Colombia, this article defines nine principles for building a successful entrepreneurship ecosystem: (1) Stop emulating Silicon Valley. (2) Shape the ecosystem around local conditions. (3) Engage the private sector early. (4) Favor the high potentials. (5) Get a big win on the board. (6) Tackle cultural change head-on. (7) Stress the roots. (8) Don't overengineer clusters; help them grow organically. (9) Reform legal, regulatory, and bureaucratic frameworks. Each of these is critical to entrepreneurship-yet insufficient to sustain it. They key is to integrate them all into one holistic system.
Carl Bistany is struggling with how the global educational management company, SABIS, can grow 100-fold in the coming twelve years. Founded in 1886 in Lebanon, SABIS is the world's largest and only global education management organization (EMO), with schools in the US, Europe, and Middle East.
Mrs. Ebtissam Algosaibi has created the leading high end jewelry company in the Middle East, Erum Jewelry, based in her home town of Alkhobar, Saudi Arabia. She believes Erum has the potential to be a world player similar to Cartier and Chopard. How should she expand Erum beyond the Saudi market? The case also deals with the new opportunities and old challenges for women entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East.
Daniel Birnbaum, new CEO of Soda-Club, has taken charge of a company with significant market penetration, brand equity, and revenues in certain European markets. The company is also plagued with hostile relationships with major distributors. He needs to decide how to turn the situation around and create opportunity out of crisis.
Nik Nesbitt is preparing a presentation of his Kenyan contact center startup to a group of angel investors visiting for the first time. The task has given him cause for some soul searching: has it been worth it to battle the impoverished infrastructure and inappropriate government regulations to launch this venture?
Shane Immelman, founding CEO of the Lapdesk Company of South Africa, is facing a number of challenges in taking Lapdesk from South Africa and into the rest of the African continent. How should the African strategy be different from that of South Africa? What is the appropriate structure?
Abhi Shah ('06) co-founding CEO of Clutch Group in the US and Bangalore, must decide whether to risk a law suit by recruiting an entire legal services team from a large US corporation. His decision and how he implements it will have a dramatic impact on the legal process outsourcing startup.
For over a century, start-ups began by focusing on their home markets. More and more, however, are now being born global - chasing opportunities created by distance, learning to manage faraway operations, and hunting for the planet's best manufacturing locations, brightest talent, most willing investors, and most profitable customers wherever they may be - from day one. That's not easy. In his research, Harvard professor Isenberg has found that global start-ups face three challenges. First are the logistical problems and psychic barriers created by distance and by differences in culture, language, education systems, religion, and economic development levels. Even something so basic as accommodating the world's various workweek schedules can put a strain on a small start-up's staff. Second is managing the challenges (and opportunities) of context - that is, the different nations' political, regulatory, judicial, tax, and labor environments. Third, like all new ventures, global start-ups must find a way to compete with bigger incumbents while using far fewer resources. To succeed, Isenberg has found, global entrepreneurs must cultivate four competencies: They must clearly articulate their reasons for going global, learn to build alliances with more powerful partners, excel at international supply chain management, and create a multinational culture within their organization. Entrepreneurs shouldn't fear the fact that the world isn't flat. Being global may not be a pursuit for the fainthearted, but even start-ups can thrive by using distance to gain competitive advantage.
Robert Wessman took over Actavis in 1999 when it was a failing 90-person domestic generic pharmaceutical maker in Iceland. Within 7 years he had brought Actavis to number 5 worldwide, with 11,000 people, active in 40 countries, global manufacturing, and $1.6 billion. The case explores the reasons for the success of this global venture.
Studio Moderna is the leading electronic retailer in 20 countries in and around Central and Eastern Europe, and use a multi-channel business strategy, organizational structure, and IT system. When management conflicts arise, Sandi Cesko, CEO and co-founder must decide whether to change his in-sourcing strategy to out-sourcing.
CEO and founder Atsumasa Tochiasako (52) sat in his Washington D.C. headquarters, looking with pride at the copy of a press release that would announce the latest in a broadening line of financial services that Washington D.C.-based Microfinance International Corporation (MFIC) had been providing for two years to a growing number of "unbanked" Hispanic nationals in the United States and their home countries.