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Among the many challenges that entrepreneurs must face is assembling the resources necessary to build a successful business. Most entrepreneurs will go through an iterative process of building a team, raising capital, and developing an ecosystem. An entrepreneur's decisions are highly interdependent--for example, the ability to attract customers, partners, and team members may depend on the ability to attract financing, which depends on ecosystem connections and a high-quality team. This Reading addresses 2 of the 3 kinds of resources critical to early-stage ventures: people (attracting cofounders, key employees, and advisors) and a business network (building the ecosystem of customers, suppliers, partners, and evangelists needed to develop products and get them to market). The third resource category, the capital required to finance the launch of the venture, is discussed in detail in Entrepreneurship Reading: Financing New Ventures [HBP No. 8072]. Attracting Talent and Building Ecosystems first explores the talent a new venture needs, including cofounders, key employees, advisors, and board members. The Reading then discusses how entrepreneurs can assemble the ecosystem of customers, partners, and other stakeholders who help develop and launch entry products and services, attract early customers, and gain traction in the market. Finally, the entrepreneurial story of Dan Bricklin, the inventor of the electronic spreadsheet, serves as an example of the process. There is also a glossary of key terms, as well as suggestions for complimentary cases and further reading.

Success in launching a new business depends on an entrepreneur's ability to clearly communicate the market opportunity, outline the proposed solution, describe the implementation plan and expected benefits for all stakeholders, and account for the risks involved. A crisp, well-articulated business plan and pitch are therefore two of the most critical components in building a successful venture. Developing Business Plans and Pitching Opportunities explains how to both evaluate opportunities and translate a business model into a compelling business plan and pitch. The Reading introduces the concept of entrepreneurial planning and relevant debates about its role in early-stage ventures. It also covers the importance of crafting a succinct, powerful pitch for a new business plan, how to practice and present that pitch, and how to craft it so that it effectively conveys the opportunity to different stakeholders in different situations.

Entrepreneurship is a way of thinking, reasoning, and leading. Successful entrepreneurs identify a creative way to address a marketplace problem or need. They then formulate an entry strategy, create a set of experiments to test it, and execute the product development and market entry activities needed to launch the business. Once the business model has been refined and the venture gains traction, successful entrepreneurs know how to identify the resources needed to scale and exploit the full potential of the opportunity. This Reading begins by examining the role of entrepreneurship in the business landscape. Using examples of entrepreneurs such as Amazon's Jeff Bezos, the author discusses the behaviors, decisions, and roles of entrepreneurial leaders as they pursue opportunities and pivot to growth. As the Reading explores what entrepreneurs do, it considers both the activities and leadership skills required in the life cycle of an innovative business, as well as the skills needed to pursue different kinds of opportunities. What kind of person is best suited to entrepreneurship? Decades of research suggest that it is more important to study what entrepreneurs do rather than attempting to identify common characteristics or personality types. This Reading explores the different types of entrepreneurial leadership needed at different times to pursue different types of opportunities.

Having an idea is just the first step in an entrepreneurial journey. Turning that idea into a compelling opportunity requires analytical capabilities, passion, and determination. Successful entrepreneurs know how to take their ideas and shape them into opportunities to create value for all stakeholders. Beginning with the stories of 3 entrepreneurial journeys, this Reading examines that process of identifying and shaping opportunities. Opportunity recognition and shaping comprise 3 distinct activities: (1) perceiving an unmet market need, or a capability that could meet a need that has yet to be identified; (2) discovering the fit between market needs and the capabilities and resources available to the entrepreneur; and (3) creating a product, service, or solution that can be delivered to a specific market to address a specific need while generating value for all stakeholders. The novelty of an entrepreneurial opportunity--whether in market need or in skills needed to execute--influences the level of uncertainty in the assumptions that the entrepreneur must make in shaping the opportunity, which, in turn, influences the level of risk. After sharing the journeys of 3 entrepreneurs, this Reading explores how entrepreneurs identify opportunities and ends by discussing how they shape them by crafting business models and identifying risks and uncertainty. Although entrepreneurial ventures are usually formed in an iterative rather than a sequential manner, and founders are engaged in multiple parts of the new-venture-formation process simultaneously, this Reading lays out sequential steps for simplicity.

This technical note provides information on the evolution and current state of angel investing in Europe. The note first describes the role and types of angel investors, focusing on their investment preferences and practices. It then details the new trends in the market, including the development of policy tools and the proliferation of incubators/accelerators to support angel investors. Finally, the note explores salient issues in angel investing for the future and pays particular attention to the recent developments in crowdfunding.

Mobile broadband carriers provide network access to the Internet for a range of devices (typically portable or mobile), including consumer devices such as smartphones, tablets and E-Readers, but also a host of new emerging devices. Mobile broadband networks enable data to travel in packets over telecommunication (telecom) companies' wireless (or cellular) networks. The number of worldwide mobile cellular subscriptions reached 6 billion in 2011, reflecting a penetration rate of 87%. This note provides some industry context for the advent and opportunities associated with mobile broadband.

In 2013, Brigitte Baumann, founder of the Pan-European angel investing provider Go Beyond Investing, reflected on the evolution of her venture and the way forward. Her company, which offered deal flow and training to novice and experienced angel investors and ran investor groups in several European countries, had reached a critical size, and Baumann needed to make a strategic decision to ensure its future growth in an industry that was undergoing rapid competitive and regulatory change. Her options required a decision on whether to keep her venture independent, and use a financing round to grow and scale it to a European leader in early stage investing, or whether to cash out and/or have it evolve more quickly through a partnership or sale. Possibilities included a future sale to a private bank that was looking for ways to expand their investment offerings for high net worth individuals, or joining forces with one of the emerging crowdfunding networks that targeted small investors. All of these options would require adjustments to Go Beyond Investing's strategy, capabilities, financing, and organizational structure.

In 2010, Experience! The Finger Lakes (ExperienceFLX), a tour operator offering guided tours and concierge services in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, was at a crossroads. The business was poised for growth, and its owners, Laura and Alan Falk, were considering signing a deal with Groupon, the online coupon firm, to see if a Groupon deal would help the ExperienceFLX bring in new customers. While the prospect of marketing ExperienceFLX's business to a new customer base through Groupon was very appealing, the Falks found that designing a deal that met Groupon's requirements while still allowing ExperienceFLX to make money and without endangering their relationships with area winery partners was a real challenge. The Falks had to decide whether a Groupon deal worked well for them, and if so, how to manage Groupon redemptions by their customers in a way that made financial sense.

This case enables discussion of organizational and industry transformation.

This case explores the use of social media to support product design, customer support, marketing and HR activities at National Instruments (NI). Based in Austin, Texas, with over $1 billion in 2011 sales, NI designs, produces, and sells software and hardware platforms that simplify development of its customers measurement and control systems. Its customers, ranging from individuals (professors and their students) to large corporations, consist primarily of scientists and engineers-a pedigree shared by most NI employees. Since dedicating a full-time position to formalizing the use of social media tools in 2006, NI has infused social capabilities into its internal and customer-facing business processes, strengthening relationships and value delivered. NI's story deepens our understanding of how to build a social business strategy, create game changing innovation processes, and measure the value of its social technology investments-a key challenge facing the company. By touching on NI's history and culture, the case also allows students to consider what elements of this company's organization and culture have allowed it to build a robust social business model.

Spreadsheet supplement for case 811078.

The case follows leading Scandinavian media company Bonnier as it establishes a designated R&D division for the first time. The case, in particular, focuses on its first flagship project, called Mag+, in which it creates a digital platform for publishing digital magazines on the iPad. The case is intended, in part, as an introduction to the challenges media companies face due to the disruptive effects of digitalization, where traditional products and services are challenged by new digital category breakers such as the iPhone, Hulu, or Netflix. To this end, it offers a short tour of the changing print media landscape and reviews major upheavals in its business models. The Bonnier case illustrates how to engage in and manage a radical digital innovation process. In particular, it discusses the challenges associated with responding to the disruptive effects of digitalizing printed magazines. It illustrates concrete challenges that the Bonnier R&D manager Sara Öhrvall needs to tackle as she starts as the first R&D manager at Bonnier.

David Liniger, cofounder of RE/MAX, LLC., wondered if his business was prepared to exploit the next wave of business opportunities in the real estate market. This industry had moved from one in which broker/owners controlled all of the consumers' access to information, to an industry in which the agents were empowered as independent contractors with a fee-based obligation to the brokers, to an industry in which the buyer and seller have direct access to and control of information. Could RE/MAX use the next wave of IT to support its agents while also reaching out to today's well-informed and tech-savvy home buyers and sellers? Would a shift towards direct consumer support jeopardize RE/MAX's franchise sales and agent recruitment and retention?

The case centers on the dilemma faced by Carlo Fontana, the owner-operator of a small chain of two four star urban hotels located in Lugano, Switzerland and the other in Milan, Italy. Having developed an extensive customer service and operations information system, called Happy Guests Relationship Management, Fontana is entertaining the possibility of commercializing his innovation. Doing so may provide a welcome new source of income during the greatest economic slowdown in recent history and it would help in keeping the HGRM design and development team motivated to refine and improve the solution. However, commercializing the innovation may also stretch his organization too thin, and bring his team into a business, the software industry, completely foreign to them.

In 2010, the U.S. retail market value for next-generation non-handset wirelessly-enabled devices was just over $1 billion. By 2011 it had grown 1,141% to $13.2 billion and was forecast to reach $24.7 billion in 2015. At the same time, user demand for data was surging with the popularity of mobile Internet, e-mail, and messaging, which left carriers scrambling to increase network capacity. To capture more revenue in the data market, AT&T formed the Emerging Devices Organization (EDO) in 2008 as a distinct internal initiative to identify and partner with manufacturers developing the next generation of mobile broadband devices - from eReaders to tablets, to implanted medical devices, to supply-chain tracking devices, to dog collars and many more. AT&T executives believed that these partnerships would position the company for its next "winning play," following the path it blazed in 2007 with Apple for the iPhone. The EDO was run by Glenn Lurie, who had led the team that partnered with Apple. He knew from experience that to capture the market with the next game-changing device, his team would need to develop a new partnership model, both inside AT&T and with the ecosystem of partners who were poised to lead the global mobile broadband revolution. Doing so within a company the size of AT&T would be tough, but Lurie believed his group was up to the task.

Start-Up Chile is a unique program to encourage entrepreneurs to bring their new ventures to Chile. Policymakers must evaluate its effectiveness in achieving economic and social goals.

Since its founding in 2004, INRIX, a leading global provider of traffic information and driver services, had received four rounds of financing from leading venture capital (VC) firms and by 2012 had been cash flow positive for the past six quarters. Its founder, Bryan Mistele, was looking to pivot into high growth and faced several intriguing options. However, competition in the sector was rapidly shifting, and Mistele also knew that while INRIX's industry-leading technology platform and customized services had set the firm apart, large location-based services companies could more easily enter the sector, posing a significant threat. In recent years, due to the proliferation of smartphones, large firms such as Google and Apple had increased access to location data, potentially threatening to enter the real-time traffic information (RTTI) space. Current competitors Navteq and Tele Atlas were also looking to grow through global expansion. Mistele also knew that the VC firms that held controlling stakes in his company were looking to cash out soon, either with a sale or by taking the company public through an IPO. He pondered both options and surveyed the challenges that each presented. If Mistele and INRIX decided to go public, Mistele would need to be confident that INRIX's strategic position and capabilities differentiated the company from other competitors and potential entrants. INRIX's "exit" options-sale or IPO-also implied different organizational decisions across the firm; Mistele wondered how best to organize INRIX to defend its current position and achieve growth as it continued to operate in a larger and more complex environment.

Matt Bruno, founder and general manager of ReSource Pro, left his job working for a New York City-based insurance program shortly after the World Trade Center bombing and arrived in China. Initially he planned to teach English, but soon the entrepreneurial spirit of the country caused him to begin exploring opportunities. He returned to New York and talked his former boss into allowing him to start a back-office services firm for their insurance company clients, which grew into ReSource Pro. By year-end 2007, ReSource Pro employed 250 people, of whom only 4 were U.S.-based. With aggressive growth plans, Bruno began examining potential cities in China for expansion. After narrowing his list of potential expansion sites to the five Chinese cities of Chengdu (the capital of Sichuan Province), Jinan (capital of Shandong Province), Nanjing (capital of Jiangsu Province), Suzhou (Jiangsu), and Wuhan (capital of Hubei Province), he now had to make a final choice.

Chris Exline founded Home Essentials, a furniture rental business targeted toward expatriates, in Singapore but rapidly moved the base of operations to Hong Kong. The company was highly successful in Singapore and Hong Kong and then pursued rapid global expansion. Lacking frameworks for deciding upon countries to enter and services to deliver in each country, Exline used gut instinct. Lacking control systems and information, he failed to identify problems early and had trouble understanding the root cause of failures. The global financial crisis intensified the problems. The case ends by describing how Exline was able to turn around the troubled company and develop necessary governance systems. The question of whether to once more attempt to grow beyond Hong Kong and, if so, the approach to take in selecting countries, is a central issue Exline faced at the time of the case.