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Following its official launch on April 6, 2020, Quibi, a mobile-only short-form video streaming platform that had raised over $1.7 billion had failed to gain the traction it was expecting and fell well short of its first-year growth projections. The company ultimately announced that it was shutting down after just six months in October 2020. Exactly where had Quibi gone wrong, and what lessons could investors learn from their failed investment in the company?

This case studies the unique traits of a serial entrepreneur through the story of Indian entrepreneur G. M. Rao, Chairman of the GMR Group. It describes Rao's entrepreneurial journey from 1978 to 2003. He started his enterprising journey with small jute, diversified into many new business in the following decades. GMR infrastructure group grew to become the significant player in the energy, airports, highways and urban infrastructure sectors. In 2003, Rao had his eye on an ambitious opportunity. He wanted to make a bid for the Delhi airport modernization project that had been announced by the government. This idea sparked much debate among his senior leadership team. The case explores the challenges that an entrepreneur faces in convincing his team and the board of the company to subscribe to his vision and pursue goals that are based on his gut feeling. This case presents his decision dilemma on whether to bid for the Delhi airport project or not. It also presents the dynamics of Indian Airports sector and emergence of public private partnership policy. It was the beginning of the PPP in airport sector which is also the public utility under service sector. Entrepreneur Ecosystem was evolving, infrastructure financing was at nascent stage. Case presents the dilemma Rao faced who always wanted to create the national asset for India. It's a case presenting the passion and patriotism pushing GM Rao to go for next big challenge.

uBiome provided clinical tests that sequenced the DNA of human microbiome samples, providing data on health conditions directly to consumers or to prescribing physicians. Founded in 2012, the San Francisco-based startup raised $105 million from top-tier venture capital firms and recruited prominent biotech executives and scientists as board members and advisors. In April 2019, the FBI raided uBiome's offices to investigate claims that the company had repeatedly billed individuals without their consent to meet aggressive revenue targets. uBiome's cofounders/co-CEOs resigned soon afterward. The company declared bankruptcy later that year after a board committee concluded that management had indeed pursued policies of questionable legality, including improper insurance billing practices, improper use of a telemedicine physician network, overly aggressive marketing tactics, and the presentation of misleading information in fundraising pitches.

In 2017, the chief executive officer (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO) of Swiss-based BauZentral, a privately owned family business, faced a restructuring challenge. BauZentral produced and sold electrical systems, plumbing systems, and smart security and energy solutions. In 2014, when the current CEO took over from his father, the company needed to address the growth associated with its successful international acquisition strategy. However, the firm’s historical structure maintained tight family control, which needed to change to address the realities of the international expansion. The CEO and CFO recognized that the firm had too many different regions with different market conditions, products, and competitive environments to be effectively run from the head office. The CEO and CFO planned to use the family constitution and the firm’s financial targets as criteria to devise a governance system to align the interests of management with the interests of the family owners. Their aim was to restructure the organization to achieve the firm’s goal of becoming a global supplier while also respecting the family’s values. What type of new governance and compensation structure should they design for the firm?

By the end of 2020, the world was still deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and most countries were fighting, in many cases desperately, their second and third waves. China, on the other hand, had managed to effectively control the virus and as a result had succeeded in protecting both the health of its citizens and its economy. China's success in making the country almost free of COVID-19 was important for businesses as it meant a return to certainty and stability, and the ability to plan and work in an environment close to pre-pandemic times. However, as was the case in many countries, at the height of the pandemic, Chinese businesses-often with institutional support-had moved aggressively towards digital transformation as they struggled to find solutions to adapt to the new normal of lockdown. By March 2020, Expo-One, a Chinese exhibition firm had seen its traditional business collapse as a result of the pandemic lockdown, travel restrictions and the resultant cancelation of events. In haste it launched a start-up project called 'Cloud Expo' to digitalize its business. The company's owner and CEO, Irina Zhang, led this incredible digital transformation effort and it seemed that the company had adapted to the new reality. However, matters were not that simple. As China settled back down to normality it was not at all clear whether all of the efforts to establish a new online exhibition experience and develop new products made sense. Should Expo-One return to its traditional offline exhibition format and mothball the problematic digital model?

After graduating from Stanford Graduate School of Business, Nicholas Heinrichsen and Christopher Coleman launched Carlypso, a peer-to-peer marketplace for selling used cars. Carlypso hoped to disrupt the $400 billion used car market by making it easier and more convenient for both sellers and buyers. However, Carlypso ran into difficulty trying to scale its operations, and pivoted to a reverse auction model, where Carlypso worked with leasing and rental companies to make the inventory that was selling at non-public auctions available to its customers. The new model showed some initial promise, but once again, scaling operations was a challenge. Carlypso worked with lenders who were lenders who were unable to finance subprime borrowers, which drastically reduced the size of the addressable market. After struggling to find product-market fit on their own, the founders of Carlypso sold the company to Carvana. After three years of working at Carvana, the pair is ready to try a new entrepreneurial endeavor.

As consumer shopping preferences shift from traditional retail channels toward e-commerce, the negative effects of e-commerce are easy to see and are often noted in the popular press. Yet, the benefits of this shift are often unseen. In this article, we first consider empirical evidence that suggests technological innovation is generally a net positive for society. We look at the unseen benefits along with each of the seen costs of e-commerce growth to fully understand the impacts on society. To do this, we consider packaging and waste, traffic and emissions, and energy and resource consumption all considered costs of ecommerce. Based on this evidence, we propose that policymakers should exercise caution before developing policies that may alter this shift and limit innovation.

In July 2016, Di Yang and Grace Guo of the leading Chinese private equity group CPE faced a dilemma-a happy dilemma, but a challenge nonetheless. CPE's investment in the waste-to-energy firm SUS Environment had proved to be exceedingly successful. This success had triggered a question, which they needed to address in a recommendation to the investment committee of the private equity group. One possibility would be to view this investment as an "early win," and to begin the process of liquidating their equity stake. This would provide an inconvertible signal to the limited partners of the success of the fund. Alternatively, they could invest more in the company. If the next five years were as successful for SUS Environmental as the last two, this step could lead to a tremendous return. How should CPE resolve this question?

In early 2019, the founders of Anomalie, an online direct-to-consumer provider of bridal gowns, have just agreed to an $13.6 million Series A investment from a Silicon Valley VC. They are considering three major initiatives as they move forward. (1) To scale their very successful organic acquisition process that already engages 25% of the brides-to-be in an active discussion, (2) to automate their largely manual offering that allows the bride to design her own dress, or (3) to invest heavily in technology to support their unique strategy of buying direct from the factories in Suzhou, China bypassing both the distribution and retail channels.

In 2016, Fiona Mungai became Endeavor Kenya's first managing director. In this role, she helped the organization build its inaugural board and select its first Endeavor entrepreneur, a fintech company called Cellulant. Throughout this process, Mungai observed the power of personal networks and connections in the development of the company and the creation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Kenya. As Endeavor Kenya reaches the end of its first five years, Mungai and the board focus on expanding the scope of business operations throughout East Africa and fulfilling Endeavor's global vision.

In 1992, Florent Bélanger purchased Maison Orphée, a company founded in 1983 by a French immigrant who had settled in Quebec City. Recognized as Quebec's first artisanal oil producer, Maison Orphée pioneered the production of organic products and superior quality conventional products. Over the years, combining the art of artisanal oil production with sophisticated manufacturing techniques, the firm fine-tuned its expertise, building a reputation as a master oil maker and a specialist in first cold-pressed oils. In 2010, Florent passed the torch to his two daughters, Elisabeth and Élaine, marking the culmination of a gradual, multi-step succession process spread over several years. Working in tandem, the Bélanger sisters would go on to reinvent Maison Orphée's business model.

Plug and Play, a Silicon Valley-based investor in start-ups including PayPal and Dropbox, introduces a match-making model to engage corporates with start-ups. The case discusses the rationale behind the model and the challenges involved in simultaneously facilitating start-up development and corporate entrepreneurship. It looks at the expansion of the model beyond the US and describes how its match-making efforts fared in France and Italy.

If you're launching a business, the odds are against you: Two-thirds of start-ups never show a positive return. Unnerved by that statistic, a professor of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School set out to discover why. Based on interviews and surveys with hundreds of founders and investors and scores of accounts of entrepreneurial setbacks, his findings buck the conventional wisdom that the cause of start-up failure is either the founding team or the business idea. The author found six patterns that doomed ventures. Two were especially common: "Bad bedfellows." Other parties besides the founders--like employees, strategic partners, and investors--can all play a major role in a firm's demise. Quincy Apparel, for instance, was undone by weak support from its investors and factory partners and inflexible employees. "False starts." Many overlook a crucial step in the lean start-up process: researching customer needs before testing products. Like Triangulate, an online dating start-up, they keep rushing to launch fully functional offerings that don't fit any market needs. The good news is, firms can avoid that pitfall by rigorously defining the problem they want to solve, getting one-on-one feedback from potential customers, and validating concepts with real customers in real-world settings.

Julia Madeline-Coho has decided to start a business-Uptown Hound-that will entertain pets while their owners are away from their homes in the medium-sized mid-Atlantic city of Greenwood. Madeline-Coho's dog Louis (or Lou, as she preferred to call him) was her motivation, along with a dinner guest, Tara Holmes, who she met in her family's house. Holmes was a Darden School of Business graduate concerned about her dog, Winnie, being home alone all day while she was working. Madeline-Coho has been doing research for her potential business and has some decisions to make, such as what services to offer these dogs and what to charge for them, and if and when she should hire any employees. Another decision was whether to expand her services to include cats as well as dogs.

On the verge of failure, BlackBerry brought in John Chen as CEO in 2013 to orchestrate a bold turnaround of the company. Once an iconic leader in the smartphone market, BlackBerry was best known for its tactile QWERTY keyboard, strong security, and a focus on business users. By 2009 it had come to dominate the North American and global smart phone markets. But Apple and Android entered the market with a strong consumer focus and an extensive suite of apps. BlackBerry's subsequent efforts to emulate their competitors was too little and too late. With few options left, the board brought in Chen. Under Chen's leadership, Blackberry executed a full pivot from a hardware company to a software company, focused on the cyber security market. Leveraging their expertise in security, and funding it by monetizing their extensive real estate holdings and library of intellectual property, Chen led the successful transformation of the company into a software enterprise. Along the way came many challenges including how to delicately manage the ramp down of its hardware business as it ramped up its software business. By 2020, BlackBerry had $1 billion in software revenues, with strong gross margins, and positive operating cash flow. However, BlackBerry was at a crossroads. The stock price had stubbornly plateaued as investors waited for signs of significant growth. Yet in order to grow, BlackBerry might have to sacrifice profitability to gain market share as it competed against both deep-pocketed, large players and agile startups. The decision to invest heavily in growth would have far-reaching implications on BlackBerry's go-to-market strategy, pricing, and distribution. Focusing on market share would violate the model that Chen had worked so hard to put in place. Was this the right strategy? Were there other options the company should pursue?

The OpenGov: Bringing the Cloud to Government case presents the example of OpenGov founder and CEO Zachary Bookman, who creates and scales a high growth venture to serve government. Bookman demonstrates the mindset and skill set required of entrepreneurial leaders able to drive change across legacy institutions. The case unfolds as Bookman exhibits six skills that propel OpenGov to success. It starts with Bookman's ability to "Find the Gap" and spot an opportunity that others don't see. Soon Bookman and his team "Drive for Daylight" by outlining the long term vision for what they seek to accomplish. Through quick decision making and multiple iterations, they "Fly the OODA Loop." Bookman and his team Observe, Orient, Decide and Act to propel OpenGov's growth. Of course, they don't always get it right. They "Fail Wisely" by learning through setbacks and testing ideas through experiments to make failure cheap. At every stage of growth, Bookman and his team "Network Minds" to harness diverse points of view in order to solve problems in novel ways. Bookman is determined to build a culture in which employees "Gift Small Goods" by generously supporting each other. Throughout the case the skills are presented in the context of the entrepreneurial leadership challenge Bookman must deliver on in order to build a thriving business working with the legacy institution of government.

The chief executive officer and co-founder of DoorDash was facing various challenges. Based in San Francisco, California, DoorDash was the market leader in the US food delivery services industry. In December 2020, despite ongoing losses, the start-up launched the largest initial public offering of the year in the United States. Market observers believed that intense competition in the US food delivery services industry and DoorDash’s questionable business model fundamentals would make profitability difficult to achieve. Restaurants were raising objections to food delivery platforms, seeing profits shrink due to commissions paid to the platforms. Consumers were paying at least 40 per cent more on orders made through an online delivery platform compared to self-pickup. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer demand for food delivery services increased and DoorDash reported a profit for the second quarter of 2020. DoorDash was expanding rapidly, after several rounds of funding. Could the co-founder prove critics wrong about the business fundamentals of his food delivery platform? How could he create a sustainable profit for DoorDash?

In late May 2020, the two founding and managing partners at Redhill Capital, in the Pearl River New City district of Guangzhou, China, were considering various reasons why the year was developing far differently than they had expected. The two-year-old venture capital firm’s limited partners and investees were all shocked by the dire developments, as was the entire country and the whole world. Earlier that year, rapidly spreading outbreaks of COVID-19, which had started in Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province, had led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, and many countries were closing down their borders. With the world seemingly plunging into a deep depression, the two founders of Redhill Capital were wondering about the future of their venture capital firm, which normally invested in medical technology and biotechnology. How should the company’s strategy be adjusted to survive the crisis and take advantage of new opportunities in the rapidly changing world?

The Tender case follows the journey of Miles Parker from his early days of joining an equipment financing company as a partner to the company's founder, through pivoting the company's product, and working with several different investors including high-net-worth individuals and private equity.

In March 2020, Zach Sims, co-founder and CEO of online education platform Codecademy, prepared for a meeting with his Chief of Staff Kunal Ahuja to discuss the company's goals. Codecademy billed itself as the largest online resource for computer science literacy and programming skills in the world. It had 45 million active users in 190 countries learning to code by taking its online courses. Ahuja had engaged the leadership team, product managers, and others to outline strategy, with an eye to assessing the venture's longer-term growth prospects and financing needs. The business had only recently started to focus on monetization. It was early innings, but the company had doubled revenues year on year, it was cashflow positive, and the team was hitting its targets. However, 2019 had been a challenging year, including departures of several key members of its leadership team. Much of Sims' time late in the year was spent on recruiting to fill open roles, and dealing with inbound interest from investors. From Ahuja's perspective, the company was "growing up" after the success of its first paid product, Codecademy Pro. But many managers were experiencing burnout given the numerous organizational changes, the grueling work to meet aggressive growth targets, and a host of new processes. How should Codecademy pursue monetization, and how would this decision determine the timing and outcome of its next financing round?