Philip Reade

The case begins by setting forth Philip Reade’s well-researched business case for starting a shrimp farming company in the northeast of Brazil. Philip, a Brazilian native and Stanford Business School graduate, makes preliminary attempts at raising money in the US and quickly realizes that he must focus on the very limited supply of risk capital available in Brazil. For both personal reasons, and compelling strategic arguments, Philip chooses to establish an office in San Francisco, CA. He is able to find a partner, (who was also a childhood friend), Paulo Barbosa, willing to live and work in the northeast of Brazil. After a very successful summer selling farmed fish abroad, Philip comes back to Brazil and is confronted with a dramatic and devastating unraveling of his partnership, followed by several disheartening realizations about the realities of doing business in the shrimp and seafood industry in Brazil.