個案總覽

B case to 820002 In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital-backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had originally focused only on search engine optimization (SEO) software. Aiming to accelerate growth, over the past three years the startup had launched products targeted at content marketers, social media marketers, and small local businesses. Adoption of these new products had been disappointing, and the resource drain and distraction of launching them had reduced the growth of Moz's core SEO product. Management was wrestling with whether to either: 1) shut down or sell the new products; or 2) double down on the new products, funding further investment in them by selling the core SEO business or milking it as a "cash cow."

In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital-backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had originally focused only on search engine optimization (SEO) software. Aiming to accelerate growth, over the past three years the startup had launched products targeted at content marketers, social media marketers, and small local businesses. Adoption of these new products had been disappointing, and the resource drain and distraction of launching them had reduced the growth of Moz's core SEO product. Management was wrestling with whether to either: 1) shut down or sell the new products; or 2) double down on the new products, funding further investment in them by selling the core SEO business or milking it as a "cash cow."

With one satellite aloft and in the midst of beta testing in late 2018, Analytical Space founders Justin Oliveira and Dan Nevius turned to critical questions about the pioneering startup's go-to-market, pricing, and business development strategy. Analytical Space aimed to build and operate a constellation of inexpensive satellites that would receive and relay to the ground data gathered by orbiting Earth observation satellites, thereby speeding and increasing the amount of data their operators could collect and sell to clients in the multi-billion market for information on crops, weather, and other observable changes on Earth. The cofounders now needed to select the best initial customers, validate demand for their unique data relay service, and establish pricing that would both spur adoption and impress investors ahead of their next financing round.

Supplement to case 811055.

Late in 2017, CEO Ryan Williams and his team debated whether Cadre should become not only a technology-enabled investment manager, but also an online trading exchange providing high levels of liquidity for CRE equity investors. Cadre was a pioneering New York City-based startup, offering investors equity in individual commercial real estate properties that its investment team had sourced and vetted. Traditional private equity (PE) funds required investors in CRE equity to accept an entire portfolio of properties, while imposing high fees and holding periods of up to 10 years. Cadre allowed investors both deal-by-deal selectivity and managed accounts of Cadre properties, at fee levels substantially lower those charged by PE funds.

Explains how to identify and capitalize upon marketplace design opportunities. Defines markets and marketplaces and describes the basic functions of each. Discusses attributes (e.g., heterogeneity of participants' preferences and asymmetry in available information) that determine whether and how marketplaces create value. Explains common causes of market failure; presents a framework for designing marketplaces in response. Discusses tactics for building trust and liquidity when launching new marketplaces, as well as challenges encountered as marketplaces mature (e.g., congestion and disintermediation).

In 2017, management at Poppy, which matched families that required occasional childcare with thoroughly vetted caregivers, was formulating plans for the Seattle-based seed-stage startup's next phase of expansion. One option was to grow using the same business model through geographic expansion to cities beyond Seattle. Another option was to deepen penetration within Seattle by recruiting caregivers with less experience and by broadening the range of services caregivers could provide, e.g., driving children to appointments.

In 2017, management at Shift, an online marketplace that uses a "high touch," concierge approach to buy and sell used cars, was formulating plans for the San Francisco-based startup's next phase of expansion. One option was to preserve Shift's current business model and grow through geographic expansion. Another option was to decentralize more tasks to sellers and/or buyers, for example, management of inspections and repairs. While decentralizing tasks would reduce Shift's labor per transaction and thereby improve the venture's unit economics and its scalability, Shift might risk undermining users' trust by handing off responsibility for critical tasks.

To identify design ideas for their own startup, two MBAs compare the different profiling, matching, and monetization approaches employed by five incumbent dating services: Coffee Meets Bagel, OKCupid, Jiayuan, Dating Ring, and HurryDate.

Catalant, founded in 2013 as an online marketplace where MBAs could bid on consulting projects posted by small- to medium-sized businesses, had expanded by 2016 to provide Fortune 1000 companies with access to over 35,000 independent experts. The founders envisioned extending their matching solutions to help enterprises staff projects with a mix of current employees and external experts, hypothesizing that the "future of work" would involve more flexible employment arrangements. They debated how much to invest in new functionality versus improving their existing marketplace, and how to pitch their evolving strategic vision to investors.

The case describes opportunities for and barriers to collaboration between the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Harvard Business School as SEAS prepares to move two-thirds of its faculty and classes to a new campus in Allston, 1.5 miles from its current Cambridge location. Companion cases ("SEAS in 2016," 817-063, and "HBS in 2016," 817-062) provide background on the two schools.

In late 2016, the founders of Flatiron School, a startup offering 12-week coding bootcamps, are formulating their growth strategy. Their new online-only program has matched the excellent job placement results for their in-person bootcamps. Should Flatiron shift investment to aggressively expand online, or grow online and in-person bootcamps in tandem? Should they pursue opportunities to sell online programs to universities and corporations, in addition to their direct-to-consumer offer?

In the fall of 2016, the management team at thredUP, the largest U.S. online retailer of secondhand clothing, is deciding whether to expand into international markets. Over the past 12 months the 7-year old startup, which had raised over $130 million in venture capital, had seen revenue grow 100% and gross margin double. Would moving abroad expand thredUP's total addressable market and help position the company for an IPO? Or would it prove a distraction, derailing momentum in the core U.S. business?

The case explores opportunities and challenges confronting the Harvard Business School as it seeks to maintain its differentiated strategic positioning in the face of a rapidly evolving management education landscape.

The case explores opportunities and challenges facing the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences as it: 1) grapples with rapid undergraduate enrollment growth and its smaller scale relative to other top engineering schools, and 2) prepares to move two-thirds of its faculty and classes to a new campus in Allston, 1.5 miles from its current Cambridge location.

IguanaFix is a rapidly scaling Latin American startup that provides an online platform that connects consumers with home improvement contractors. The founders have acquired customers through both B2C and B2B methods. But in seeking to grow and scale the business, they now must make decisions about the relative emphasis on building their consumer brand or its B2B partnerships, and the implications for product offerings and marketing methods ranging from search engine marketing and Facebook ads to sales and account management.

The founders of Mark43, an early-stage startup that provides software for law enforcement agencies, must decide whether to bid on a request for proposals (RFP) from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). On the one hand, LAPD would be a second large and influential customer for a startup that has just successfully deployed software for its first customer, the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department. On the other hand, pursuing the LAPD RFP could consume most of Mark43's engineering resources for the coming year, pushing other business development opportunities off their roadmap, in particular, plans to target small and medium-sized police departments.