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The CEO and founder of ExerciseApp decided to take the plunge and spec out the features of his new iPhone mobile application and supporting website. He planned for ExerciseApp to stream exercise workouts from pro-athletes to followers who wanted to “Train. Play. Be. Like the Pros” and get an edge to their workouts. As he envisioned the application, he realized he would need a lot of help with the technology and the setup of this entrepreneurial venture in order to successfully bring it to market. With limited funding, he must decide on the next steps for the business, including the application’s features, business model and market strategy.

The CEO and founder of ExerciseApp decided to take the plunge and spec out the features of his new iPhone mobile application and supporting website. He planned for ExerciseApp to stream exercise workouts from pro-athletes to followers who wanted to "Train. Play. Be. Like the Pros" and get an edge to their workouts. As he envisioned the application, he realized he would need a lot of help with the technology and the setup of this entrepreneurial venture in order to successfully bring it to market. With limited funding, he must decide on the next steps for the business, including the application's features, business model and market strategy.

Jeffrey Offutt had overcome many hardships and personal difficulties to better himself and build his own graphic-design and corporate-printing business: Jita Printing. Just as it seemed his efforts had begun to pay off in the form of steady work and a loyal clientele, Offutt was hit with two problems. First, designing and printing marketing materials for a small local theater had started as a quick, small undertaking for deeply discounted prices, but had turned into a drawn-out job with multiple design stages. Second, a hardcover book design for a flower shop, involved an entirely new business venture for Jita, and Offutt was having a difficult time coming up with a quote that was both competitive and profitable. How should Offutt deal with these two problems? This case is used in entrepreneurship electives at Darden, but would also fit well in a small business strategy course for non-MBA audiences.

The case focuses on Gram Vikas, an organisation that develops comprehensive water and sanitation systems in rural villages in India. It describes the story and development of Gram Vikas, and focuses on the challenges of scaling up social innovations by transferring them to other organisations, a common challenge in any innovation process.

In 1965 William Elfers left Georges Doriot's American Research and Development Corporation to found Greylock, his own venture capital firm. Over the ensuing three decades followed a series of eight Greylock partnerships, during which time Elfers never lost a general partner or saw a colleague leave to start his own venture capital firm. Furthermore, each of the investors in Greylock's first fund participated in all succeeding partnerships. Elfers was among the first to pioneer the limited partnership structure of the modern venture capital firm with Greylock being organized as a series of limited partnerships, each of which pooled the investment capital that its general partners and limited partners committed for finite lifetimes. Greylock was established against a long historical tradition of New England financial innovation going back to at least the nineteenth century. In essence Elfers helped to create a new organizational approach to venture capital through mechanisms that deeply reflected New England's financial investment culture.

In July 2012, the cofounders of CloudFlare, a Silicon Valley startup that protects websites and accelerates their traffic, are considering the implications of five employees' resignations over the prior three months. Was this natural attrition for a high-tech venture with a staff of 35 experiencing explosive growth, or were the resignations symptomatic of bigger issues with CloudFlare's culture and management processes? After describing CloudFlare's early history, business model, organization structure, and human resources policies, the case presents first-person accounts from employees regarding their reasons for resigning, and then asks whether CloudFlare's cofounders should take any corrective actions.

A $2.4 billion bid made by a competing company presented the founder and chairman of China Huiyuan Juice Group Limited with a dilemma. He had successfully transformed his company from a small-scale canned-fruit manufacturer into the largest juice producer in China. Despite the strong need for external funds to achieve further growth, the company’s founder had always been prudent in introducing outside investments into the firm, carefully maintaining his control of the business. To him, Huiyuan Juice was almost like a child that he had nurtured, rather than a product to be sold. However, the company’s rapid expansion had placed its founder under increased pressure and he now had to decide whether or not he should sell.

The urgency of financial inclusion had been well-recognized by policy makers, the government, the Reserve Bank of India and banks as a national priority that would play a crucial role in promoting inclusive economic growth. New technology could enable innovative sustainable business models to reach previously excluded customers. This case presents FINO’s technology-based model for financial inclusion and the challenges presented to the Kohlapur district coordinator as he starts the process of building the local organization.

A recent business school graduate has enjoyed moderate success with her YouTube channel, which is devoted to videos detailing how to artistically transform T-shirts into unique fashion items. The entrepreneur has successfully monetized the site by allowing YouTube to place ads on it, through the YouTube Partner Program. The case outlines the entrepreneur’s efforts, describes her participation in YouTube’s Partnership Program and asks students to consider her next steps. The options include monetizing her videos by renting them through YouTube or another channel, creating and selling do-it-yourself kits, opening a physical store to sell her creations and to conduct classes or extending her brand into other arts and crafts.

Supplement for case 813074

Supplement for case 813074

Supplement for case 813074

Brent Grinna is evaluating different options for the technology development of his start-up's iPhone app, including hiring local programmers, finding a CTO, or outsourcing. He only has a little over two months before he presents his alumni networking app to Brown University, in the hope that they will adopt it and fund his company, EverTrue. He lacks the technical knowledge necessary to make the prototype himself, and so has to quickly decide on the best option. He is considering multiple ways to find a developer, including hiring a local programmer or making use of a local app-development company; using an outsourcing platform like oDesk; contracting with Dashfire, a friend's company that charges low fees for product development in exchange for equity; or finding and hiring a CTO or technical co-founder. Grinna must weigh issues like cost, speed of development, equity retention, proximity and ease of collaboration, and control of intellectual property. The case further provides an opportunity for discussing the business models of global firms like oDesk and Dashfire.

In November 2006, Chris Michel left Military.com, which he founded in 1999, to start Affinity Labs, a global network of online communities. That month, Michel raised a Series A round of venture funding and established a partnership with Monster, which he had sold Military.com to. Within its first year of operations, Affinity Labs launched eight vertical portals including PoliceLink, NursingLink, TechCommunity, and IndiaOn. While the company was well ahead of its original plan to release four portals in 2007, Michel still faced a number of challenges. He had learned a great deal from Military.com and Affinity Labs' first launches, but in the case of each new community was faced with how best to construct the vertical and attract a sufficiently large audience. While the model seemed highly scalable because each vertical used the same core technology, every sector had its unique features. In the fall of 2007, executives from Monster opened up a dialogue with Michel about selling the company or expanding their relationship. Michel wondered if the time was right to sell or if he should grow Affinity Labs further with the hope of creating a company that could command the high valuations seen recently by a number of social networking concerns.

MuMate, a fictional cult beverage company, requires capital to fund national expansion. Its cofounders, who have bootstrapped to this point, are now negotiating with venture capital firms to raise a $3 million funding round. The case describes MuMaté's inception, early history, business model, and factors that have fueled its rapid recent growth. As the case ends, the cofounders are debating whether to raise funds from VCs, angels, or asset-based lenders. The cofounders share their concerns about valuation and whether investors will seek to change the company's strategy and organizational culture.

Arthur Rock was known as one of the country's first venture capitalists and was instrumental in launching major Silicon Valley firms, such as Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel Corporation, Apple Computer, Inc., Scientific Data Systems and Teledyne Incorporated. He was the first venture capitalist to be featured on the cover of Time magazine. Rock was adamant that his success was due to luck and being in the right place at the right time. Others argued differently, emphasizing in particular his unique style of investing and his focus on selecting the right people. Was this a case of luck or a classic example of the principle: back the right people?

MuMate, a fictional cult beverage company, requires capital to fund national expansion. Its cofounders, who have bootstrapped to this point, are now negotiating with venture capital firms to raise a $3 million funding round. The case describes MuMate's inception, early history, business model, and factors that have fueled its rapid recent growth. As the case ends, the cofounders are debating whether to raise funds from VCs, angels, or asset-based lenders. The cofounders share their concerns about valuation and whether investors will seek to change the company's strategy and organizational culture.