E723
Steve Ciesinski, Howard Rosen, Jason Luther, Steven Truong
2020
In recent years the world has witnessed a growing wave of entrepreneurial ventures in developing economies. CB Insights reports as of March 2020, developing economies have produced 160 unicorns, equivalent to 35 percent of all unicorns in the world. Much…
E742
David Dodson, Imogen Mansfield
2020
Robin Mohapatra acquired NCFDD, a for-profit online professional development company serving universities and their faculty members, through a search fund. Based in Detroit, Michigan, NCFDD was growing rapidly and the company’s founder was keen to return…
E741
Robert Siegel, Jack Strabo
2020
The LiveRamp in 2020 case follows the story of Anneka Gupta as she rises from one of LiveRamp’s first product managers to president and head of products and platforms, responsible for overseeing the company’s product, engineering, marketing, and general…
E737
David Dodson, Blake Kavanaugh
2020
This case describes the tumultuous experience Eduardo Ruiz had as CEO of Retail Services & Technologies. Ruiz had acquired Arizona-based RST at the end of his search process, but soon began to experience difficulties with the seller and former CEO. These…
E736
David Dodson, Blake Kavanaugh
2020
This case describes the formation of Trista Engel and Jessica Markowitz’s search fund. It begins by describing their process for deciding if they should pursue entrepreneurship through acquisition and, if so, if they should partner together. Upon deciding…
E735
David Dodson, Blake Kavanaugh
2020
This case describes how Laura Franklin and William Colt conducted their entrepreneurial acquisition process. After the duo honed their method for contacting potential sellers, they found a company they were excited to close a deal with. Over the course of…
SM339
Graham Weaver, Meredith Colton Hazy, Dominic Mirabile
2020
This case details challenges Adeyemi Ajao faced in his career as a founder of three companies: Tuenti, a social media company in Spain, Identified, a data analytics company for recruiters, and Base10 Partners, a venture capital firm. At Tuenti, Ajao…
E734
David Dodson, Scott Mitchel
2020
The Rowell & Mackenzie case follows husband-and-wife executives Sarah Rowell and Scott Mackenzie as they weigh the decision whether or not to embark on a search fund. The case addresses the potential benefits and drawbacks of the search fund experience…
E683
Peter Kelly, Jeffrey Conn
2020
Case outlines the story of founder and CEO Gregg Renfrew and her safe and environmentally responsible beauty company Beautycounter. Case also walks readers through two separate difficult management scenarios experienced by Renfrew. The first focuses on…
E738
H. Irving Grousbeck, David Dodson, Erika Feldhausen
2020
This case follows the story of Jay Davis and Jason Pananos, classmates from Harvard Business School who started a search fund, Nashton Partners. The case covers their decision to launch a search fund, their investment objectives and goals, and then the…
E730
David Dodson, Mitchel Scott
2020
The Unified Dental Care case follows search fund leaders Jason Jackson and Olaide Lawal as they evaluate whether or not to acquire Unified Dental Care, a mid-sized dental practice in Detroit. The case addresses managing audits, accounting issues, and…
E727E
Mark Leslie, Erika Feldhausen
2020
This case introduces students to Sandy Kurtzig, the founder and CEO of the ASK software company, and the first woman to take a Silicon Valley tech company public. It gives a brief background of the protagonist and then presents students with 4 different…
E727B
Mark Leslie, Erika Feldhausen
2020
This case introduces students to Sandy Kurtzig, the founder and CEO of the ASK software company, and the first woman to take a Silicon Valley tech company public. It gives a brief background of the protagonist and then presents students with 4 different…
E721
Robert Siegel, Mitchel Scott
2020
The Klöckner case follows CEO Gisbert Rühl and his team as they prepare for the operational consequences of digital transformation at the century-old German steel distributor. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the Klöckner team must rethink their sales…
E727D
Mark Leslie, Erika Feldhausen
2020
This case introduces students to Sandy Kurtzig, the founder and CEO of the ASK software company, and the first woman to take a Silicon Valley tech company public. It gives a brief background of the protagonist and then presents students with 4 different…
E727A
Mark Leslie, Erika Feldhausen
2020
This case introduces students to Sandy Kurtzig, the founder and CEO of the ASK software company, and the first woman to take a Silicon Valley tech company public. It gives a brief background of the protagonist and then presents students with 4 different…
E727C
Mark Leslie, Erika Feldhausen
2020
This case introduces students to Sandy Kurtzig, the founder and CEO of the ASK software company, and the first woman to take a Silicon Valley tech company public. It gives a brief background of the protagonist and then presents students with 4 different…
E728
Peter Ziebelman , Erika Feldhausen
2020
This case introduces students to the large Brazilian mobile conglomerate, Movile, and its mobile food delivery subsidiary, iFood. It focuses on the experiences of these companies learning business lessons from Silicon Valley and China. In particular, the…
E731
Irving H Grousbeck
2020
The Bomi Mexico case recounts the difficulties faced by Mario Sicilia, a recent CEO of Bomi Mexico, shortly after his acquisition of the company through a search fund. The case specifically highlights a situation where two key employees raise concerns…
E713
George Foster, Sheila Melvin
2020
THRIVE’s mission was to accelerate, invest in, and work with entrepreneurs, investors, and Fortune 500 corporations to advance the future of food and agriculture through innovation. Comprised of top agriculture, food and technology corporations…
E705
George Foster, Sheila Melvin
2020
Privateer illustrates the challenges of a 2011 new venture company in the cannabis market when legalization was on the legislative agenda of several U.S. States. Initial plan was a venture fund to take equity positions in startups. Due to problems in…
E726
Peter Kelly, Sara Heston
2020
The 2020 Search Fund Study reports on the financial returns and key qualities of search funds formed in the United States and Canada since 1984. This report updates the previous 2018 study with data through December 31, 2019.
E729
H. Irving Grousbeck, David Dodson, Jim Ellis, Erika Feldhausen
2020
In May 2017, Tyler Coats signed a deal to become chief executive officer (CEO) of California Medical Transport (CMT), a California-based ambulance services company. Coats took the reins from husband-and-wife team Terry and Susan Smith after closing a…
E724
H. Irving Grousbeck, David Dodson, Erika Feldhausen
2020
The Eyewitness Surveillance II case tells the story of Rush Arnold and RT McCloy, friends who met while studying at Wharton, who raise a search fund under the name Channelstone Partners. In the fall of 2010, after having spent two-thirds of their search…
