When Afresh CEO and cofounder Matt Schwartz enrolled at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business (GSB) in 2015, he had a singular obsession-healthy food, to benefit both individuals and the planet-and an ironclad determination: to found a business by the time he graduated. His classmate and cofounder, Afresh President Nathan Fenner, had a credo-work with really cool technology, preferably in underleveraged areas-and an orientation: choose work that had positive social impact beyond creating value in the market. Together, they honed in on a thesis: that the fresh food market was wildly under penetrated by technology. This led them, through trial and error, to found Afresh, a "for-profit social impact company" focused on fresh foods in the supply chain inventory management and software business. This case explains how Schwartz and Fenner took their idea from the business school classroom to the market and built a company that, as of early 2022, was valued at $121 million and had signed deals with grocery chains with a total of 3,100 stores-and expected to be live in 4,000 to 5,000 stores by late 2022.
This case details the story of two of Wild Earth's cofounders on their three year journey since starting the plant-based dog food company in Berkeley, CA. It highlights several ups and downs relating to product creation, fundraising, and pricing and distribution issues. The case focuses on several critical decision points the founders faced, and ends with an open ended question regarding the need for a subsequent financing and what path forward the company should pursue.
On November 1, 2018, the Women's National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) informed the league that it had decided to opt out of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that had been signed in 2014 and was scheduled to run through 2021. The opt-out, which was not unexpected, triggered a period of negotiation that was described by WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike as "incredibly complex." This case takes students inside this complicated negotiation process and reveals the dynamics of its successful outcome.
Rick Welts has been one of the most successful and lauded business executives in professional sports. He made remarkable contributions to the NBA league office, and was president of three NBA teams which won seven championships during his tenure. He was elected to the basketball Hall of Fame in 2018, a rare distinction for a business-side executive who was not an owner or commissioner. In 2011, he became the first openly gay high-level sports executive in U.S. male professional team sports. He subsequently became an advocate for, and inspiration to, gay youth. This case describes Welts's career, from his days as a ball boy for the Seattle Supersonics, through college, and the NBA. It includes transcripts of interviews with individuals who shed light on Welts's career, leadership style, and impact.
The United States Golf Association (USGA), operates among a network of associations and organizations in the game of golf. In the ecosystem of golf, there are many stakeholders, but no single governing body with overarching power to direct the action of other stakeholders. While the USGA works to improve the health of the golf industry, and the experience of participants, the actual experience of golfers is dependent on their local facilities, which are not under the control of the USGA. The golf ecosystem includes governing bodies, course owners, equipment manufacturers, professionals, and recreational players. During the first half of the 21st century, the recreational sport was in decline in the United States, as measured by many metrics, while it was growing in Asia. To guide its decision-making, and to inform key stakeholders, the USGA developed a strategic plan for 2020-2022, which it released in October 2019. This case discusses the role of the USGA in the complex golf ecosystem, its management, and the initiatives it undertook to grow the game of golf. The case draws on an earlier Stanford case study, SPM-52: The USGA and Golf Participation in the United States.
In early April 2019, the executive team of San Jose-based Zoom Video Communications gathered in the company conference room to strategize about their messaging for a planned IPO, an event that only a few years earlier would have seemed improbable to many. Indeed, when Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan had first sought venture capital funding to start his company back in 2011, he was turned down countless times. "A new video conferencing entrant at this stage?" wrote Patrick Eggen, of Counterpart Ventures, describing the general response. "No commercial data points, massively saturated market, limited funding to enter the SME space (ughh) and founder with no CEO experience. Red flags galore." But Yuan was absolutely convinced that the world did, in fact, need a new video conferencing solution-one that would not merely suffice, but far surpass the "terrible" existing options and make its users downright happy. So he ignored the naysayers and refused to give up-and the rest is history. This case details the story of Zoom Video Communications from its earliest origins as an idea that came to Yuan while he was a student riding a train in China to its IPO in 2019. It includes interviews with key Zoom executives, including Eric Yuan. A forthcoming B case will continue the story.
Sonoma Raceway, located north of San Francisco, had a long history of hosting premier motor racing events. However, after decades of growth, fan attendance and viewership had started to decline in the 2010s. Fan demographics were changing, with younger fans looking for a different experience than traditional fans. These challenges confronted the entire motorsports industry. As 2020 began, Sonoma Raceway was in the midst of a major shift in its business strategy, impacting all aspects of its operations. The coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of all of the raceway's major events, putting additional stress on the raceway.
Matt Barnard, CEO of the indoor vertical farming company Plenty, analyzed the agricultural supply chain in the United States and determined it had a four-pronged problem that people would pay to have solved: flavor, waste, environmental footprint, and nutrition. So, in 2014, Barnard and his cofounders incorporated the business that is now Plenty: a technology company that aimed to reshape the inefficient, but entrenched, agriculture sector and build a global brand by selling fresher, tastier, and more nutritious produce. By early 2020, Plenty had 300+ employees and had attracted hundreds of millions in investment from the likes of Bezos Expeditions, Innovation Endeavors, and SoftBank Vision Fund and had a valuation of $1.05 billion. This case details Plenty's journey from an idea to a path-breaking company that is disrupting the field of agriculture and valued at over a billion dollars.
THRIVE's mission was to accelerate, invest in, and work with entrepreneurs, investors, and Fortune 500 corporations to advance the future of food and agriculture through innovation. Comprised of top agriculture, food and technology corporations, universities, and investors, THRIVE had built a community of more than 2500 startups from 90 countries. With John Hartnett as CEO and Helen Hartnett as COO, THRIVE ran an accelerator, a fund, and, in partnership with Forbes, a major agricultural technology (agtech) summit. Interest in its mission and services seemed to be growing exponentially. Indeed, the sector was generating so much excitement that THRIVE was inundated with a diverse set of opportunities and calls for its founders' mindshare. Excited as they were about the opportunities before them, John and Helen were beginning to feel as if they held a rubber band that was getting increasingly stretched. "Business has grown substantially," explained John, "400 or 500 percent, and it's going really, really well. So we're sitting here in 2020 thinking: How do we expand without bringing ourselves down to our knees?" This case explores THRIVE's options as it looked to expand both domestically and around the world.
This case provides an overview of the founding and scaling story of British health and wellness company Clinova. The case outlines the fledgling company's early marketing successes signing up-and-coming athletes and sports franchises, as well as the difficult capital allocation, strategic and structural decisions Clinova's founders Arsalan Karim and Charles Ebubedike must make between scaling their consumer product lines or building their illness diagnosis mobile application.
On December 5, 2018 The Oak View Group (OVG) broke ground on the Seattle Center Arena (SCA) project. The cost of the project was not insignificant-and it continued to rise. Originally projected to cost $564 million, at groundbreaking the price tag stood at $850 million. Seattle sports fans were thrilled with the project. The city of Seattle had been without a winter sports team since 2008 when the Seattle SuperSonics, a National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise, left the city for Oklahoma. The SCA would be home to a new National Hockey League (NHL) franchise, and the hope was that, sooner rather than later, the NBA would return to Seattle. Tim Leiweke, cofounder and CEO of OVG, was ultimately responsible for the success of the project. A sports industry veteran with experience building sports facilities and developing event and sponsorship revenue for sports facilities, Leiweke believed music and live entertainment were critical to making the finances work. Leiweke would need to walk a fine line between promoting the SCA as venue for music and live entertainment, while at the same time, maintaining the trust and support of Seattle's sports fans.
MedAvante, a provider of clinical trial services and technology solutions to the pharmaceutical industry, struggled to find product/market fit for many years, because its innovative service offering met fierce resistance from other stakeholders in the ecosystem. A strategic pivot to work with the ecosystem, not against it, saved the company and brought its co-founders to the brink of a successful exit. This case explores the difficulties of bringing innovation to a deeply conservative, highly regulated industry. It also analyzes the role that other stakeholders in a market ecosystem can play in encouraging, or blocking, the adoption of a startup's products/services.
On December 5, 2018 The Oak View Group (OVG) broke ground on the Seattle Center Arena (SCA) project. The cost of the project was not insignificant-and it continued to rise. Originally projected to cost $564 million, at groundbreaking the price tag stood at $850 million. Seattle sports fans were thrilled with the project. The city of Seattle had been without a winter sports team since 2008 when the Seattle SuperSonics, a National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise, left the city for Oklahoma. The SCA would be home to a new National Hockey League (NHL) franchise, and the hope was that, sooner rather than later, the NBA would return to Seattle. Tim Leiweke, cofounder and CEO of OVG, was ultimately responsible for the success of the project. A sports industry veteran with experience building sports facilities and developing event and sponsorship revenue for sports facilities, Leiweke believed music and live entertainment were critical to making the finances work. Leiweke would need to walk a fine line between promoting the SCA as venue for music and live entertainment, while at the same time, maintaining the trust and support of Seattle's sports fans.
On December 5, 2018 The Oak View Group (OVG) broke ground on the Seattle Center Arena (SCA) project. The cost of the project was not insignificant-and it continued to rise. Originally projected to cost $564 million, at groundbreaking the price tag stood at $850 million. Seattle sports fans were thrilled with the project. The city of Seattle had been without a winter sports team since 2008 when the Seattle SuperSonics, a National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise, left the city for Oklahoma. The SCA would be home to a new National Hockey League (NHL) franchise, and the hope was that, sooner rather than later, the NBA would return to Seattle. Tim Leiweke, cofounder and CEO of OVG, was ultimately responsible for the success of the project. A sports industry veteran with experience building sports facilities and developing event and sponsorship revenue for sports facilities, Leiweke believed music and live entertainment were critical to making the finances work. Leiweke would need to walk a fine line between promoting the SCA as venue for music and live entertainment, while at the same time, maintaining the trust and support of Seattle's sports fans.
This case traces the journey of Juan Pablo Zorrilla and Javier Velasquez as they conceive the idea for a debt-settlement business in Mexico, develop the business, and expand it to Colombia, Argentina and Spain. Zorrilla and Velasquez modeled Resuelve (Spanish for "resolve") after Freedom Financial Network, an American debt-settlement business founded by two of their fellow Stanford University alumni. The case examines issues including early fundraising challenges, gaining traction, regulation, bringing on new investors as the business grew, and expanding into international markets. Resuelve was founded in 2009 and by 2017 had grown to more than 1,000 employees and 150,000+ clients. Annual revenues topped $37 million.
Melody McCloskey, founder and CEO of StyleSeat, discusses the earliest stages of her hair-appointment booking platform, from bootstrapping to fundraising, from a potential business model pivot to potential obstacles in the future.
Established in 2010, the endurance event start-up Tough Mudder experienced rapid international expansion in the years following the company's inception. By 2013, the company had developed a cult-like following and an extremely powerful brand. However, near the end of 2013, Tough Mudder's growth began to slow. Eager to turn the tide, founder Will Dean wondered what steps he could take to reinvigorate the company. "Tough Mudder: Scaling Dynamics after Early Traction" explores the challenges that a start-up inevitably faces once its initial momentum begins to slow.
Monisha Perkash cofounded Lumo Bodytech during an incubation program organized by Innovation Endeavors - the venture capital firm started by Eric Schmidt - in 2011. At the time, she had barely met her cofounders and the team was expected to launch a business after six months of design thinking and prototyping efforts. The result was a start-up focused on improving posture and helping solve the common problem of back pain. As of 2018, Lumo Bodytech was still alive and thriving, but the journey had not been free of obstacles and difficult decisions for the CEO. Even before the conclusion of the incubation phase, one of the cofounders had expressed his dissatisfaction with the direction of the ideation process and threatened to quit if nothing changed. He was an accomplished software engineer who had become a friend in just a few months of work. Additionally, the equity for the new business had already been split among the four cofounders, which could further complicate any exit negotiations. Around a year later, Lumo Bodytech had successfully launched but the wearables fever was dying down and the financial needs of the young start-up became more pressing by the day. That was when Perkash was approached by a large Asian manufacturer who would be willing to invest if the company implemented a significant change in its strategy, from focusing on a single product to adopting a platform approach to its product line. It was a hard decision to face so early in their trajectory, but Perkash knew she had to make a choice. The challenges related to financing the company would knock on Perkash's door once again in mid-2014, when the company had to decide between raising venture debt or settling for a smaller round of equity financing. To make matters worse, there seemed to be a central misalignment between the cofounders and one of the board members about how to approach the issue.
Privateer Holdings was a Seattle-based private equity firm that was "shaping the future of the legal cannabis industry." In late 2017, Privateer held an expanding portfolio of global brands intended to "lead, legitimize, and define the future of cannabis" and was preparing to announce the closure of a Series C round that had raised more than $100 million. It was an opportune moment for its founding triumvirate to contemplate the future direction of the path-breaking firm they had established back in 2010 and the global companies they had built, through a combination of acquisitions, investments, and incubation, and in which they held 100 percent ownership. Privateer's founders had committed to hold true three core beliefs which formed their fundamental investment thesis: -"cannabis is a mainstream product consumed by mainstream people; -the end of cannabis prohibition is inevitable; -brands will determine the future of the cannabis industry." But, as market velocity and opportunities expanded with ever-increasing speed, it seemed the right time to consider how best to steer, and structure, Privateer Holdings going forward. While the potential growth options were many, there was much uncertainty as to many factors that could impact the cannabis industry.