Case Studies

500 Startups continued its expansion of accelerators and venture capital to cover a global footprint for underserved entrepreneurial markets between 2014 and 2016.  As investment returns began to occur, the organization looked to grow and expand beyond…

Since 1996, the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (CES) at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) has conducted a series of studies on the performance of search funds.  These studies endeavor to gather data and gain insight into all known search…

Lending Club follows the path of founder and CEO Renaud Laplanche as he scales his successful P2P lending company both pre- and post-IPO. From debating with bankers on the proper valuation metrics for the company, to managing customer acquisition costs as…

The SkinSpirit case tells the story of Lynn Heublein, an entrepreneur who started her career during the technology boom of the 1990s and eventually achieved success as a pioneer in the medical spa industry. In 1993, Heublein cofounded Catapult…

Data centers represent the heart and lungs of the information technology industry, and typically include three major infrastructure components: servers, networking, and storage.  Servers are organized into cabinets, and connect to each other, to storage…

In 2016, the €75 billion French multinational energy conglomerate ENGIE was massively transforming its strategic and operational imperatives toward renewable energy. The 200-year old company owned Europe’s biggest natural gas pipeline and was a major…

David Dodson started the septic company roll-up Wind River Environmental after mixed results in his previous entrepreneurial ventures.  This case tracks three difficult situations faced by Dodson during his tenure as CEO and Chairman of the company.  In…

The Lucky & Baker case examines several managerial challenges that Mary Chowning encountered during her first year as chief financial officer (CFO) of the fictitious company. Through Chowning’s tribulations, the case provides an opportunity for students…

“Mesosphere: Creating Lasting Value on Top of Open Source Software” explores the challenges associated with building a company on top of open source software.  In 2013, Florian Leibert, Ben Hindman, and Tobias Knaup founded Mesosphere.  By combining…

Faced with declining fisheries and ineffective government solutions, environmental organizations turned to market solutions in the mid-1990s to promote sustainable seafood. Broad-reaching, innovative leaders used a combination of consumer education…

The FreeMobility case describes the fictional story of Sara Chen and Michael Conroy, graduates of Stanford Graduate School of Business (who also happen to be in a romantic relationship).  The two take on the role of co-CEOs of a power wheelchair company…

“Keyssa: Unraveling the Laws of Physics” explores the challenges associated with growing a start-up around a brand new technology.  In October 2012, Eric Almgren became CEO of Keyssa.  Founded in 2009, Keyssa reinvented the physical connector, an…

The SAP Design Thinking case follows the path of Sam Yen, Chief Design Officer at SAP, on his quest to infuse design thinking into the SAP organization. Through a series of programs and events, Yen discovered that while employees of the multinational…

The SAP Design Thinking case follows the path of Sam Yen, Chief Design Officer at SAP, on his quest to infuse design thinking into the SAP organization. Through a series of programs and events, Yen discovered that while employees of the multinational…

Bonnier News was Sweden’s leading media group and a paragon in the nation’s cultural, economic, and political circles.  It was one of six divisions of Bonnier AB, a company founded by Gerhard Bonnier in 1804 that remained wholly owned by the Bonnier…

“Carlypso: Overcoming Bumps in the Road in the Used Car Industry” explores various challenges associated with scaling a start-up.  In 2013, Christopher Coleman and Nicholas Hinrichsen cofounded Carlypso, a company that simplified the process of buying and…

In July 2013, Kesha Cash transitioned out of her stable role as co-founder of and fund manager for Jalia Ventures (“Jalia”), an initiative investing in early-stage mission driven “businesses operated by entrepreneurs of color,” to launch her own impact…

In January 2015, Jennifer Carolan, who had served as the managing director of the NewSchools Venture Fund Seed Fund (“Seed Fund”), spun off from the nonprofit venture philanthropy firm to create a for-profit social impact fund focused on education…

In the summer of 2015, after reporting another year of strong growth in programming and fundraising at miraclefeet.org, a nonprofit dedicated to providing treatment to children born with clubfoot in developing countries, co-founder and executive director…

In 2015, Generation Investment Management celebrated the successful 10-year track record of its flagship Global Equity Fund, which outperformed its benchmark index by over 500 basis points per year. A mainstream investment firm whose founders included…

In June 2009, the online gaming company Zynga launched the free social game Farmville on Facebook, which set a new record by reaching one million Daily Active Users four days after launch, skyrocketing to 30 million in six months. The case takes an inside…

At the end of 2011, Microsoft was closing its acquisition of Skype for $8.5 billion.  Skype had more than 500 million registered users, revenue exceeded $600 million, and the company accounted for 40 percent of international long-distance traffic, making…

In June 2015, Peter Phillips, Chief Operating Officer of Frontier Services Group (FSG), was preparing an update for the board on how operations would support the company’s new strategy. Given the ongoing decline in the price of oil and the extractive…

In 2016, Santa Clara County was launching a six-year project aimed at reducing the enormous costs of treating its most acute mental health care patients − $45 million a year − while improving their treatment and quality of life. For the project, the…