Ana Barrera has worked for nearly five years building the personal finance startup Aflore as a part of the first cohort of Bogota, Colombia-based incubator Polymath Ventures. Even as Barrera and her team build a customer base within Colombia''s population of "unbanked" citizens, they must overcome some challenges in their working relationship with the Polymath incubator.

The case traces the development of the early gramophone industry through the eyes of the American talent scout and producer Fred Gaisberg. It explores the emergence of the sound recording industry in the US since 1877, including the challenges of defining the application of this new technology, building a market and responding to critics. It then shows the difficulties of gramophone entrepreneurs expanding globally and, in particular, focuses on the .....more

Spreadsheet supplement to case 815055.

Synthetic biology start-up C16 Biosciences wants to solve a big problem: replace palm oil, a major contributor to deforestation and climate change, with a lab-grown substitute. CEO Shara Ticku has ambitious plans to supply her lab-grown palm oil to food manufacturers, who use palm oil liberally in a variety of products from ice cream to margarine. In bringing her product to market, Ticku faces a tough decision. Should she roll out the product first .....more

This case explores the life and career of rapper and music producer Swizz Beatz. Set in 2019, it covers the evolution of Swizz''s musical career and his new venture into the commercial art market.

Set in 2018, this case follows married couple and music industry titans Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys as they consider how best to use their platforms to achieve their goals. Since achieving professional success in the music industry early in their lives, Swizz and Keys had explored many different personal and professional pursuits. Swizz was particularly interested in the arts and had launched an initiative aimed at supporting emerging visual artists .....more

Stephen Scott needed to decide whether to keep his behavioral analytics startup in the people analytics sector or shift his company into the RegTech sector. Starling had develop technology that enabled its customers to anticipate and shape the behavior of their employees by examining company data on employees, including email traffic. Starling had struggled to grow in the people analytics sector while RegTech was an emerging sector that might provide .....more

This case explores the life and career of Alicia Keys, the 15-time Grammy winning singer-songwriter and producer. Set in 2019, it covers the evolution of Keys''s 18-year musical career and additional passions, including acting, entrepreneurship, social justice activism, and collecting art with her husband, rapper and music producer Swizz Beatz. Now a mother of two young sons and with no intentions of slowing down, Keys considers what the next .....more

Since its founding in the late 1990s, JetBlue Airways has been known as an innovator in the U.S. airline industry. This case explores how in the mid- to late-2010s, JetBlue sought to drive further innovation by setting up a corporate venture capital arm. Led by Bonny Simi, a long-time JetBlue executive, commercial airline pilot, former U.S. Olympian, and Stanford alumna, JetBlue Technology Ventures (JTV) seeks to bring external innovation in house. .....more

James ""Hondo"" Geurts, the Acquisition Executive for U.S. Special Operations Command was in the middle of his Senate confirmation hearing in 2017 to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. The questions had a common theme: how would Geurts''s experience running an innovative procurement effort for U.S. Special Forces units enable him to change a much larger-and much more rigid-organization .....more