This case examines the founding story California ice cream chain Smitten Ice Cream and CEO and Founder Robyn Sue Fisher, who invented a liquid nitrogen-fueled ice cream machine which mixes the world's smoothest ice cream. Students will be confronted with numerous common entrepreneurial issues including prototyping, dealing with failure, discovering product-market fit, hiring, financing, and scaling organizations.

Rachel Braun Scherl and Mary Wallace Jaensch are marketing consultants for J&J who uncover the opportunity to buy Zestra Laboratories, a South Carolina company which makes a product proven to improve women's sexual health. The case explores the process by which the team conducted diligence, raised funding, and eventually bought the assets of the company out of bankruptcy. It covers the challenges of changing a retail business model to a hybrid of retail and direct-to-consumer, as well as the marketing challenge of connecting with a target customer about a need that is not often publicly discussed.

Amanda West is a GSB graduate who has launched a healthy fast food restaurant out of business school. She developed the business plan with her S356 team and validated the idea throughout the course. After graduation she decided to launch the business on her own. She successfully formed a board of advisors, raised angel financing and has been searching for a location for her first restaurant site. Her search has lasted eighteen months and she has yet to sign a lease.

Amanda West is a GSB graduate who has launched a healthy fast food restaurant out of business school. She developed the business plan with her S356 team and validated the idea throughout the course. After graduation she decided to launch the business on her own. She successfully formed a board of advisors, raised angel financing and has been searching for a location for her first restaurant site. Her search has lasted eighteen months and she has yet to sign a lease.

The case follows Rose Hanna and her three business partners (Richard Hanna, Bob Francis and Faye Francis) as they launch and grow a scientific instrument company, MicroSample. It covers the idea discovery stage, their decision to work together as a team, and their approach to bootstrapping the company. The case then highlights some of the complexities involved in managing a new and growing business. Specifically, the founders go through a lengthy process trying to find a licensing partner, only to then discover that the economics make much more sense for them to remain independent and sell directly to customers. Finally, the case covers the interpersonal dynamics and relationships of the four founders (two married couples) and some resulting problems and issues.

The case follows Rose Hanna and her three business partners (Richard Hanna, Bob Francis and Faye Francis) as they launch and grow a scientific instrument company, MicroSample. It covers the idea discovery stage, their decision to work together as a team, and their approach to bootstrapping the company. The case then highlights some of the complexities involved in managing a new and growing business. Specifically, the founders go through a lengthy process trying to find a licensing partner, only to then discover that the economics make much more sense for them to remain independent and sell directly to customers. Finally, the case covers the interpersonal dynamics and relationships of the four founders (two married couples) and some resulting problems and issues.

In the tenth year of their business, Circles' co-founders, Janet Kraus and Kathy Sherbrooke, had completed a successful exit for their company. They had worked closely for years, building their early venture into a leading provider of concierge services with over $40 million in annual revenues. In preparing the company for exit, the two not only had to package the business for sale, but also prepare themselves for the next phases of their careers. Sherbrooke would move on to a corporate role with the acquirer, Sodexho, as the CEO of Circles, and Kraus would take on leading an early stage company, Spire, a Circles spinoff. The transition would not be just one for the company, but also one for their relationship as co-founders and true business partners.

Starts by describing a typical day in the life of Randy Hetrick, the founder and sole full-time employee of Fitness Anywhere. Hetrick starts his work day on Friday, September 10, 2004, at 6:00 a.m. By 8:30 p.m., he has accomplished a lot. However, he has only been able to get to a few items on his morning's to-do list . . . and his list is growing by the day. Chronicles the creation of Fitness Anywhere--how Hetrick developed the product as a Navy SEAL; how he put together a business plan for commercializing the product during his two years at Stanford's Graduate School of Business; and his first full year of operations, 2003/2004. In describing the first full year of operations, focuses on Hetrick's fundraising efforts, the product's development, and the three market segments that he has targeted--military, commercial health fitness, and retail. By September 2004, Hetrick surveys the major topics on his to-do list; the activities that need to be completed to generate military, commercial, and retail sales; the activities related to protecting the product's intellectual property; completing a business plan, deciding his fundraising strategy and raising capital before the company runs out of it; and hiring his core team.

Professional cycling teams use road bikes made up of several parts or components: frames, forks, wheels and tires, saddles, seat posts, handlebars, and pedals. Pedals hold a cyclist's special shoes in place so they can "clip in" for greater control and power, and several companies make different models of pedals. Lance Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour de France, uses Shimano pedals. Shimano, founded and based in Sakai City, Japan, makes many of the key components of a bike. The fact that each of the different components to a high-end road bike are manufactured by different companies makes for a complicated bike industry supply chain. By 2006, Shimano had grown from a family-based business (founded by Shozoburo Shimano in 1920) that focused on freewheels, to a $1.6 billion global company (with net income of $186 million) that not only manufactured mid- to high-end bike components (and low-end components as well), but also made fishing tackle. Eighty percent of the company's sales were from high-end bike components and 20 % from mid-range bicycle components. Seventy-five percent of the company's earnings could be attributed to components. Shimano led the bike component industry, owning over 80 % of the high-end component market. But growth did not come overnight. Shimano's leaders reflected on the company and its growth trajectory. They were particularly proud of Shimano's market domination, largely attributable to the company's commitment to research and technology, as well as to the amount of value the company had been able to leverage from the industry's supply chain. As new technologies and new companies began to enter the market, and the longer term sales trend of a mature road bike industry remained relatively flat--despite the "Armstrong effect"--Shimano's leaders and their team wondered how to continue their growth in the mid- to high-end components market and achieve growth on an even greater global scale.

Mother and son tandem Toby and Greg Waldorf started Destination-U, an online college matching service, in April 2004. Greg had a deep background in start-ups and technology companies, most notably as an early investor in eHarmony, an online dating service. Toby had 15 years of experience as a college counselor. With Destination-U's social mission and family ties, the pair was able to raise start-up capital with ease. Although the company had been successful in building a useful matching service and getting visitors to the site by July 2005, it had yet to earn a significant volume of sales from its subscription-based business model. With the busy fall college selection season approaching, Destination-U had to rethink its business model.

Capital One CEO and founder, Rich Fairbank, had much to be proud of both in terms of his and co-founder Nigel Morris' accomplishments and the accomplishments of Capital One. However, he and Morris didn't want to rest on their laurels. In 2000, they called a meeting with their senior managers to assess the company's strategy. Specifically, Fairbank wondered whether the company had executed on the optimal strategy throughout its history and whether the company's strategy was consistent, yet fluid and flexible, during changing times. Also, had the various functions optimally aligned with the company's strategy? Other financial companies imitated Capital One's successes. Fairbank wanted to ensure that the company remained ahead of the competition, while maintaining its culture of testing and innovation.

This case follows a team of founders--recent graduates from the Graduate School of Business (GBS)--from the earliest phase of company formation to the company's launch and successful beginnings. The four founders met and began discussions as students at the GSB. This case covers in some depth the specifics of the team formation, including discussing and establishing values, sharing and explicitly stating goals, and determining ownership and management roles. The team formally came together well before it had determined its business plan or even the business area it would pursue. It covers the team's search for a viable business idea and touches on the various paths for idea generation as well as some challenges the team faced. After the team has determined it will pursue an opportunity in wireless, the case covers its search for appropriate financing and for a strong management team to round out the founders' experience and skills.