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Two young university graduates evaluate the possibility of introducing a new room reservation system for tourists in Greece, replacing some of the unreliable existing methods. Recent improvements in the telecommunications grid and the emergence of several Internet service providers across Greece, coupled with existing hardware and software technology, paved the way to a window of opportunity for their Ikaros Project, a collection of transactional interactive networked kiosks. The kiosks would allow customers to obtain real-time information on hotel room availability and make their reservations. Convinced that the system would be accepted by the tourists, there were still many considerations to be researched and resolved: acceptance of the system by the hoteliers, connection costs, system capacity, pricing and the system architecture.

The owner of a successful restaurant was approached by his landlord to re-open a restaurant he used to have, the Paragon, under extremely attractive lease terms. He had been considering suggestions from his head waiter that the two of them open a restaurant together, but had not heard of any appealing options until this recent offer. While he knew this was a good offer, he wanted to lay out a precise business plan and thoroughly assess the potential costs of reopening and running the Paragon before making any commitments. Moreover, he strongly questioned whether the income from a second restaurant would be enough to outweigh the stress and risk related to getting involved with an inexperienced partner.

Describes Richard Spellman's decision to leave his existing employer and join an Internet start-up as CEO. Focuses on the terms of a restricted stock agreement and employment agreement that must be negotiated. Includes first drafts of these two agreements.

Presents the final version of the agreements introduced in the (A) case.

One of the founders of a small business owners' purchasing cooperative organized four months earlier, was reflecting on its successful performance. The members of the co-op were willing to share responsibilities in the management of the co-op's primary activities of obtaining price quotes, invoicing members, and making delivery arrangements. The members were currently considering the possibility of extending the types of materials purchased collaboratively to services such as photocopying and printing of brochures and business cards. She wondered how best to promote the growth of the purchasing co-op and therefore, needed to create an action and implementation plan, considering: membership size, types of products and services purchased, qualitative and quantitative benefits of co-op involvement, vendor management and allocation of resources.

Workbrain Corporation was a young firm that offered Web-based time and attendance management systems solutions to companies with a blue-collar workforce. The company was the only player in a market niche that it created, offering proprietary systems that relied on technological excellence and alliances with third party vendors. Currently, it was developing a product at the same time as it was preparing a Request for Proposal for a large potential client. Workbrain Corporation didn't have the human resources, organizational infrastructure or external alliances they needed to present the product they envisioned or grow the company into what the chief executive officer envisioned. The newly-hired vice-president of corporate development was responsible for the strategic growth of the firm both internally and externally. He was faced with the task of organizing and re-orienting the company, and needed to develop a plan to grow the company into a market-oriented organization from the project/product-oriented one it was.

Dan Slavin, CEO of Framework Technologies, is contemplating a complete restart for his company to erase the impact of its shift in product and business strategy since inception. This case describes the issues he must consider, which include the impact of such a change on the employees and the founder, and whether the costs in terms of his time and the company's morale are worth the benefits of a clean slate for future venture rounds. Also presents the rationale of the venture capital firm for its involvement in a later-stage company that still faces early-stage problems.

A start-up team is faced with the challenge of building a senior management team with relevant industry experience. The marriage of e-commerce and the transportation logistics industry creates unusual problems in blending "old economy" employees and employee practices (compensation/equity) and company cultures.

The case presents the challenges of trying to get a highly successful company to embrace entrepreneurship and innovation. Peter Hake has been recently appointed vice president in charge of developing the new business side of the company. Hake has a support staff of five managers reporting to him, and their collective responsibility is to promote entrepreneurship within Intel. Hake saw his central mission as creating a robust portfolio of new initiatives within the organization. After taking the job, Hake and his team have tried valiantly to encourage the young talent in Intel, both engineers and managers, to take some risks and to pursue promising new technologies and businesses. After a year of such activities, their efforts have not shown good results. The case challenges students to think about the conditions necessary for creating a vibrant entrepreneurial culture and climate within a large firm. Ideal for use in courses on: Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Corporate Venturing, Strategy.

An entrepreneurial company, Zero-Knowledge Systems, provided privacy solutions for Internet-based applications. Their product permitted users to create multiple digital pseudonyms. The entrepreneur and his two sons were looking to U.S. venture capitalists to fund the company's growth and to acquire some expertise. They must put together a list of criteria to use to choose among potential funders and must assign a value to their company, so they will have an idea what percentage of the company they are willing to give up.

As cable operators across Europe go digital, they will require a means of remotely upgrading the applications software on subscribers' digital set-top boxes, using some kind of loader software to do so. Intellibyte Inc., a small Canadian software firm, has developed the only remote loader software that currently meets the specifications of the European Cable Communications Association. However, it must sell the software to manufacturers of set-top boxes before cable operators can use it. The competition is no more than two years behind. The president must decide among several pricing and positioning alternatives for intellectual property products in a complex industry.

Presents an original business plan. Students are challenged to develop assumptions and create financial projections and statements based on business plan text.

Zachary Cohen, who will graduate soon from business school, wants to enter his family's business under certain conditions--he wants shares in the company and wants to change a buy-sell agreement. His father and his uncle seem to want to explore his entering the family business, but do not respond to his proposal.

Supplements the (A) case.

Joe Casey (HBS class of 1992) reflects on the path that has led him into a venture career and contemplating his next moves.

A successful entrepreneur (retailing) starts a new venture in dry cleaning. The case focuses on transferable models, skills, and knowledge from one venture to the next. Areas of emphasis are: managing growth, challenges of operations, financing, and competitive moves.

The vice-president of Robarts Research Institute is attempting to put together a financing structure for a biotechnology company, Diabetogen, being spun off by the Institute. He must assess the worth of the company, how the equity should be divided among its stakeholders, and how much of the company must be given up to first-round investors.

Top management at Research in Motion (RIM) were considering a significant change in strategic direction. RIM manufactured two-way pager, wireless PC card and OEM radio products. With the anticipated convergence of wireless and Internet e-mail, RIM saw an opportunity to sell end users a two-way, e-mail end-to-end solution, including both hardware and telecommunication service. Management had to assess whether this was an attractive opportunity. If they did enter the market, RIM would have to decide whether to target individual users or corporate information technology departments and select channels to reach its targeted customers. RIM also faced some challenging marketing communication issues, since about 50 per cent of potential users showed no interest in a mobile e-mail solution.

Though only five years old, employee-owned St. Luke's Communications has become one of the most talked about advertising agencies in the United Kingdom, increasing its profits eightfold. Chairman and cofounder Andy Law attributes the firm's success to its determination to continuously reinvent itself in a world populated by dot-coms and mega-ad agencies. St Luke's intends to revolutionize the way business is done and provide a credible alternative to the capitalism of both the old economy and the new. To that end, it pushes its people to take enormous risks. As Law says in this candid interview, "We're fundamentally convinced that there is a connection between co-ownership, creativity, collaboration, and competitive advantage." Safety and fear play key roles. No one has ever been fired for poor performance, so employees can feel secure about their jobs, but the firm requires people "to peel away all the levels of their personalities....That's truly frightening." Self-knowledge, Law says, "is the DNA of a creative company in the creative age."

Business incubators such as Hotbank, CMGI, and Idealab! are a booming industry. Offering office space, funding, and basic services to start-ups, these organizations have become the hottest way to nurture and grow fledgling businesses. But are incubators a fleeting phenomenon born of an overheated stock market, or are they an important and lasting way of creating value and wealth in the new economy? The authors argue that one type of incubator, called a networked incubator, represents a fundamentally new and enduring organizational model uniquely suited to growing businesses in the Internet economy. Its key distinguishing feature is its ability to give start-ups preferential access to a network of potential partners. Such incubators institutionalize their networking. That doesn't mean incubatees get preferential treatment; it means only that they have built-in access to partnerships that might not have existed without the incubator. Even with this advantage, however, networked incubators can easily follow the road to ruin. To avoid failure, they must create a portfolio of companies and advisers that their incubatees can leverage.