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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.

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.

Sarah Harris, a young, recent MBA student, sets out to raise a search fund and acquire a company in the hospitality business. Serves as a backdrop to role play various selling situations for a would-be entrepreneur. Five vignettes illustrate different situations where understanding the sales process and strategies would benefit the situation: negotiating the acquisition of a small reservations management company, soliciting a potential search fund investor, hiring a key employee, having the contract renewal of a key account put into question, and selling a new client.

Offers the opportunity to examine two important challenges in starting a company: selecting partners and finding capital. Presents a candid view into the struggle of a young entrepreneur, Dan Stilton, and his two newly acquired partners, Scott Bettor and Henry Tellsworth, as they look for capital to launch their venture, Florida Air, a regional airline.

Describes Donna Coe and her illustrious 15-year career in the towing industry. Donna is an accomplished woman with a great deal of experience in managing employees in a difficult and demanding work environment. Presents a series of four vignettes taken from Donna's day-to-day management experiences. Each situation presents a different problem faced by Donna and by many managers working in similar labor-intense businesses. Problems of discipline, insubordination, embezzlement, and promotion are also presented.