LTV Syllabus

LTV Syllabus 

Launching Technology Ventures 

Course Number 1757 

Faculty: Jeff Bussgang, Allison Mnookin

Spring, Q3/4: 3 credits 

Course Syllabus 
The course materials are available online via the course platform (Canvas). 


 

Class date

Case

Guest

 

MODULE 1: IDEATION & CUSTOMER VALUE PROP EXPERIMENTS

1

01/26/26

Classtivity

No Guest

2

01/29/26

Summer Health

Ellen DaSilva

3

02/02/26

C16 Bio

Shara Ticku

4

02/03/26

Wiz

Raaz Herzberg

5

02/10/26

Sober SideKick

Chris Thompson

 

MODULE 2: GO TO MARKET EXPERIMENTS

6

02/11/26

Shippo

No Guest

7

02/17/26

AllSpice

Valentina Ratner & Kyle Dumont 

8

02/18/26

Blitzy 

Brian Elliot & Sid Pardeshi

9

02/23/26

Comun

Abiel Gutierrez & Andres Santos





 

MODULE 3: PF EXPERIMENTS

10

02/24/26

Squire

Dave Salvant & Songe LaRon

11

03/03/26

 Sprout

Alexandria Gentry

12

03/04/26

Fixie

Matt Welsh

13

03/09/26

XYZ Robotics

Peter Chen

14

03/10/26

Business Model Exercise

Coaches 

 

MODULE 4: THE STARTUP ORGANIZATION

15

03/23/26

10x Joiner Workshop 

Mike Grandinetti

16

03/24/26

Build Workshop Part 1

Mike Grandinetti

17

03/25/26

Build Workshop Part 2

Mike Grandinetti

 

MODULE 5: ECOSYSTEM AND ETHICS

18

03/30/26

Founder Field Day

Brandon Farwell 

19

03/31/26

Khatabook 

No Guest

20

04/01/26

Everlywell

Julia Cheek

21

04/06/26
Windsurf
Jeff Wang

 

MODULE 6: FINANCING AND EXITS

22

04/07/26

ReMo

Bhargavi Chevva

23

04/13/26

Chief

Lindsay Kaplan 

24

04/14/26

Alaan

Parthi Duraisamy

25

04/15/26

Pitch Workshop

Jason Yeh

26

04/20/26

Base44/Wix

Maor Shlomo

27

04/21/26

Wrap

No guest



Background Reading:

Students are encouraged to review their notes from the MBA First-Year Course, "The Entrepreneurial Manager” as well as Field, but particularly the following Case Notes:

·             Ten Tools for Design Thinking (UV5187) 

·             The Hypothesis-Driven Entrepreneurship: The Lean Start-Up (812-095) 

·             Business Model Analysis for Entrepreneurs (812-096) 

·             Customer Discovery and Validation for Entrepreneurs (812-097) 


For students who want an accessible primer on software development processes and coding, read:

·             Paul Ford | What is Code?

A more detailed review of the standard methodology for software development, which is central to experimentation, Continuous Development, can be found here:

·             HBS Teaching Note | Continuous Development

Finally, throughout the course we will draw on Professor Jeff Bussgang's books, Entering StartUpLand and Mastering the VC Game, to provide context for how startups are organized and execute experiments in their search for product-market fit. I will assign various chapters throughout the semester.

MODULE 1: IDEATION AND CUSTOMER VALUE PROPOSITION EXPERIMENTS

CLASS 1. CLASSTIVITY

Techstars graduate, Classtivity, has a vision for helping people stay fit by making local gyms more accessible but has struggled to achieve product-market fit. The founders are debating whether to persist with their new model, which is getting some traction, or contemplate launching a second major pivot. There is no class guest.

Materials

Readings:

Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. The first business model, the search engine, failed and the team pivoted away. Why did the team make such a large mistake? Can you think of an MVP test they might have conducted that could have saved them 18-24 months of work building the search engine? 
  2. Is Passport working? What is the business model? 
  3. If you were Payal, would you pivot away from Passport and pursue the subscription offering? Does it have to be an either/or decision or can you stick with Passport while experimenting with the subscription offering?
  4. Evaluate Passport's unit economics and compare it with the contemplated subscription offering. Based on the data in exhibits 3, 6, and 9: 
    1. How favorable are the unit economics? 
    2. How would you assess the value proposition for the user and the studio?  
    3. How sensitive are the unit economics to your assumptions? For example, If you wanted a 3x LTV/CAC and assumed a lower conversion than shown in exhibit 9, such as 10%, what monthly price would you need to charge assuming similar churn and class usage? 


CLASS 2. SUMMER HEALTH


Summer Health is a NYC-based pediatric telehealth startup. Founded in 2021, the company offered parents quick, text-based access to licensed pediatricians. The founder, an experienced telehealth executive, was inspired by her own struggles finding reliable after-hours care. As the startup expanded, the rise of generative AI spurred the team to consider integrating the technology. Despite not being an AI company, should they build out an AI platform, potentially altering the product roadmap and company priorities? Our class guest will be Summer Health CEO and founder Ellen DaSilvaLinks to an external site..

Materials

Readings:

Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. Do you think Summer Health has achieved either “nascent” or “developing” product-market fit (level 1 or 2, according to the First Round reading)?
  2. Should the team pause their product roadmap to go “all in” on building out a fully AI-enabled platform? Or should DaSilva insist (as Noam Bardin writes) that the team “hold the line” and stay focused on delivering capabilities to their target customers? Answer this question in the context of two possible options for going “all in” on AI: 1) becoming an AI-native company in terms of internal operations, but preserving the MD-patient interaction as a human one; or 2) investing in leveraging AI in all aspects of the business, including in the MD-patient interaction.
  3. How should DaSilva make this decision? What are the key tests she might run to further collect information? Or should she just “go for it” and jump on the AI wave?

CLASS 3. C16 BIO

C16 Bio is a synthetic biology startup that is replacing natural palm oil, whose harvesting is an environmentally damaging process, with lab-grown palm oil. The founding team is beginning to figure out the science and now needs to turn their attention to the business model. What is the best point of entry for the product in the context of the value chain and what business model should they construct? And should they choose a market focus based on financing availability?

Materials 

Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. Should Shara take advantage of the market buzz/momentum for food and jump right in to that sector or do personal care first and then food later? 
  2. If you think she should focus on personal care, should she:
    1. build her own brand
    2. build a white label end product and get someone else to build the brand
    3. work with a challenger brand
    4. work with a large brand?
    5. why do you recommend this choice?
  3. Given your strategic choice, lay out your 12-18 month plan with respect to fundraising, hiring, experiments, and key milestones. 

 CLASS 4. Wiz

Wiz is a Tel Aviv-based cloud security software startup. Founded in 2020, the company offered an easy-to-read visual map of the cloud components of an enterprise. After raising a large seed round to pursue their ambitious vision, the founders discover that their original concept is too vague and ahead of the market need. They pivot into the crowded "red ocean" market of cloud security and seek to establish differentiation as well as the right definition of their ideal customer profile (ICP). Our class guest will be Raaz HerzbergLinks to an external site., Wiz CMO and VP Product Strategy (via Zoom).

Materials

Readings:

Download Blue Ocean Strategy

Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. What was it about Herzberg's approach or background that enabled her to develop the key insight, as well as the courage, that drove the company's original pivot? Why did the company's founders, despite being seasoned startup veterans, miss this insight?
  2. What truly differentiates Wiz's product? What is their competitive moat, and is it sustainable?
  3. Do you think they are right to "tackle the whole market" or should they define a more narrow ICP?

CLASS 5. SOBER SIDEKICK

Sober Sidekick is an app to support addicts. The founder has successfully bootstrapped the company to $700K in annual recurring revenue but is considering a business model pivot that will temporarily take the revenue down to zero – just as he’s considering a fundraise. Our class guest will be Sober Sidekick Founder & CEO Chris Thompson.

Materials

Readings: 


Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. Who is SoberSidekick’s customer? Should all startups start out with only one “true North” customer? 
  2. Should Thompson take his revenue to zero and focus his business model on insurance payors?
  3. In your judgment, what milestones does Thompson need to achieve to raise a seed financing? Who would be the right capital partner for him and why?
  4. Should Thompson focus on building a VC-backed, extremely valuable business or does he have a special obligation to trade off profits for "customer success" and impact given the nature of the customer he's serving?


MODULE 2: GO TO MARKET EXPERIMENTS


CLASS 6. SHIPPO

Shippo is an SF-based startup trying to revolutionize e-commerce shipping and fulfillment. The company is struggling to decide the best go to market approach: API-based or application-based. Which path will position the company best for success and why?


Materials 

Readings:

Optional Readings:

  • Jeff Bussgang | Entering StartUpLand Chapter 3: The Business Development Manager

Assignment Questions

  1. How would you assess the Shippo founding team’s founder-market fit?
  2. How do you interpret the volume figures in exhibit 7 and the churn numbers in exhibit 8? Does the app strategy appear to be working? What are the app strategy’s unit economics as compared to the API strategy? To answer this question, calculate LTV and CAC for each of the two strategies, making educated assumptions about the churn rate and gross margins.
  3. What should Behrens Wu do: continue to focus on the app, pivot to the API, or try to do both?
  4. For each go-to-market strategy, what changes – if any – would you make to the sales and product organizations? 
  5. Does Shopify appear to be a friend or foe for Shippo? How can the company best ride the Shopify wave while avoiding being disintermediated?


CLASS 7. ALLSPICE

AllSpice is a SaaS platform to help hardware developers collaborate during their product development processes (aka “Github/Gitlab for hardware”). The company closed its seed round and launched its product just before a severe market correction in early 2022. The founders need to decide how fast to ramp their burn rate in light of their early success, despite the turmoil in the capital markets, as well as their go to market approach. Our class guest will be AllSpice cofounder Valentina Ratner.

Materials 

Readings: 

Optional Readings: 

Assignment Questions

  1. If you were Valentina, would you ramp your burn rate? Why or why not? 
  2. What go to market approach should AllSpice pursue? Examine their goals for the Series A (exhibit 7b) under each of the three scenarios. Which scenarios seems more attractive to investors? Which scenario is the better approach to build a long-term, sustainable and valuable business? Are these two goals in synch in your opinion?
  3. Neeraj Agarwal’s blog post shares a commonly understand conventional wisdom for SaaS company growth. Assume AllSpice’s goal for the Series A is to raise $10m on $30m pre (i.e., $40m post). If an investor’s goal is to achieve a 10x on this investment (i.e., a $400m valuation), when do you think AllSpice will grow into that valuation? Assume the company’s valuation would be at a 10x revenue multiple and assume the company follows whatever growth path you think appropriate from their YE 2023 goals. Does that seem realistic? Does that multi-year pro forma affect your thinking on burn rate and go to market? 

CLASS 8. BLITZY

Materials 

Readings: 


CLASS 9. COMUN

In the spring of 2023, Abiel Gutierrez and Andres Santos, the co-founders of Comun, faced a pivotal moment. Their digital banking startup, designed to provide financial services to Latino immigrants in the U.S., had seen rapid growth. But alongside the early success came rising fraud and restrictive partner demands, threatening the company's core value proposition. With only a year's worth of runway and the fintech landscape heating up, Gutierrez and Santos needed to decide: stick with their existing partners and rapidly address their operational challenges or risk switching to new ones. What path would lead Comun to long-term success?

Materials

Readings:

Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. If you were the founders, what would you do about your underperforming partners? Develop a plan for the next twelve months that factors in (a) your cash on hand; (b) your burn rate; (c) the current marketing funnel performance and unit economics (see below); and (d) your team’s capabilities.
  2. If you were an investor, what milestones would you need to see before investing in Comun with high conviction?
  3. What are Comun's Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) for TikTok and Facebook? Which channel appears more scalable, and what strategies would you recommend to improve CAC across these channels?
  4. Examine the payback curve for Comun's LTV/CAC ratio. What assumptions must hold true for LTV to exceed CAC over time? Analyze the impact of different monthly revenue figures (e.g., $6 vs. $3 per customer) on the payback period and LTV. What would the LTV look like under these scenarios?


MODULE 3: PF EXPERIMENTS

CLASS 10. SQUIRE

Squire is a vertical SaaS start-up for barbershops. The company has struggled to convince investors that its market size is large enough to be “venture-scalable” and just as the founders feel like they’re getting traction, COVID-19 hits and their end users are forced to shut down. Should the founders adjust their business model to meet the needs of their customers or the feedback from their investors?

Materials

Readings: 
Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. Why are the founders getting push back from investors on total available market (TAM) size? Is it justified? What is your math with respect to the TAM/SAM/SOM for Squire? 
  2. Are the company’s unit economics attractive? In answering this question, calculate LTV and CAC based on the data from the exhibits. What assumptions do you need to believe for the company to have an attractive business? 
  3. What should the founders do at the end of the case in terms of pricing (i.e., waive SaaS subscription fees?) and staffing (i.e., initiate a layoff?)?  


CLASS 11. SPROUT

Manilla-based Sprout is a leader in SaaS in the Philippines, an attractive but small market. The founders are set to expand beyond their initial application and initial market segment but are unsure of which direction to pursue – and which is more financeable. Our class guest will be Sprout co-founder Alex Gentry.

Materials

Readings:

Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. What should the founders do:  double down in the Philippines or expand throughout SE Asia? If you think they should double down in the Philippines, does that mean you disagree with OpenView’s Kyle Poyar? If you think they should expand throughout SE Asia, how can they reconcile this with their “true north” of impacting lives in the Philippines? 
  2. For whatever decision you recommend, create the first page of the pitch deck to investors using no more than four bullet points. Then, make the first page of the “all hands” company meeting to announce the new direction.
    • Bonus:  e-mail Jeff your two pages in advance (one page Series B pitch deck, one page internal pitch) and volunteer to present it to the class.
  3. Should the team pursue international or local investors? Does their expansion path dictate their investor profile? 


CLASS 12. FIXIE

SF-based Fixie was founded by a technical team with the vision of making generative AI useful in the enterprise. The company is off to a fast start and the market is white hot – perhaps too hot. Just as Fixie’s vision crystallizes and on the eve of launching their initial product, ChatGPT announces the creation of a competing platform. Now what? Will this startup be a casualty of the generative AI wave or can it nimbly position itself to be a winner? Our class guest will be Fixie founder Matt Welsh.

Materials 

Readings:

Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. How should Welsh and team respond to the news that ChatGPT is building essentially what they are planning to launch?  
  2. What are some of the team’s key hypotheses? What experiments should they run to test these key hypotheses in the light of the news?
  3. When and how would you communicate to your prospective series A investors? 


CLASS 13. XYZ ROBOTICS 

In August 2023, Jiaji Zhou, the founder and CEO of XYZ Robotics, a China-based startup striving to revolutionize the warehouse and manufacturing industries with advanced robotics solutions, faced a pivotal moment in his company's journey. Despite raising over $100 million in capital and receiving significant attention from the industry, XYZ was grappling with strategic challenges amid a shifting macroeconomic landscape. Zhou’s dilemma centered on whether to focus on one of the company’s two core products—the picking robot or the 3D machine vision system—or to continue pursuing both. As Zhou prepared to present his recommendation to the board, the question of focus, execution, and financing loomed large.

Materials

Readings:

Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. What should Jiaji Zhou do next – pivot towards the mobile manipulation market and develop the "Rocky" robot or continue to develop and incrementally improve its current product lines? How should he balance the company's growth ambitions with the need for profitability, especially in the context of current macroeconomic challenges?
  2. What process should Zhou undertake to assess the potential risks and benefits of this new direction? What implications does this decision have for the company’s future? 
  3. How would you communicate your decision to the board of directors (in three bullet points)?
  4. Conduct a pro forma financial analysis of the two possible scenarios for XYZ Robotics using the provided income statement (Exhibit 7). Feel free to pair up with another student or two to team up on the analysis. Make whatever assumptions you think make the most logical sense for these two scenarios:

    a. Invest & Pivot: XYZ invests heavily in R&D to accelerate the development of its mobile manipulation robot, targeting rapid growth in this product line, while gradually phasing out the 3D Vision System over the next three years.

    b. Grow Gradually: XYZ adopts a more conservative growth strategy, maintaining its current product lines while prioritizing profitability by reducing operational and R&D costs.

    c. For each scenario, calculate the high level P&L and cumulative cash flows over the next five years (2023-2027) and estimate the potential exit valuation (i.e., how valuable is this company under this scenario?) in 2027.

  5. What are your takeaways from your pro forma analysis and what does it say about Zhou’s decision?


CLASS 14. BUSINESS MODEL EXERCISE

In this exercise, teams of three or four students will analyze one team member’s proposed business model for a new venture with the goal of refining the model and specifying MVP tests for key hypotheses. 

Materials

Readings:

Assignment 

In this exercise, your job is not only to evaluate your classmate’s planned experiments (i.e., process quality) but also their overall business model (i.e., idea quality). The BME instructions will provide the rubric and the blog post from Goetzman will help prime your thinking on the latter. See you in the Hives!

MODULE 4: THE STARTUP ORGANIZATION

CLASS 15. 10x Joiner Workshop

Information forthcoming 


CLASS 16. BUILD WORKSHOP PART 1

Objectives

In this exercise, students will experiment using AI tools to further refine their proposed business models and prototype an artifact to get real customer feedback. Our learning objectives:

  1. Explore the possibilities for prototyping enabled by the latest AI tools.
  2. Think critically about the trade-offs of using AI in validating a business model.
  3. Develop your skills and confidence in building with AI tools, prototype, and increase your leverage beyond this class.

Materials

Readings:

Optional Readings:

Assignment & Submissions

See Build Workshop Instructions. Note that there are multiple levels of complexity and output that you can strive for as a team. This exercise is an opportune moment to experiment and push yourself when the stakes are low.

Note: Please bring your laptop to class. 


CLASS 17. BUILD WORKSHOP PART 2

In today’s class, we will conduct an exercise focused on startup hiring. We have touched on some of these themes with many cases and will use this class session to deconstruct the nuts and bolts of how to source, interview, and close candidates. Our class guest will be Claire Hughes Johnson, former COO and current Board member of Stripe.

In preparation, please read the articles below (each of them is quite short).

Materials

Readings: 

Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. For each hiring vignette, choose the candidate you would want to make an offer to (if any) and design a compensation offer appropriate to the company’s stage, funding, market, and the role (consider base, bonus / contingent, and equity).
  2. What reservations do you have (if any) about your chosen candidates for each vignette? How might you mitigate those concerns through role structure, compensation, onboarding, and ongoing management?
  3. If you don’t like any of the candidates for a vignette, why? What would you look for instead?
  4. How will AI impact hiring processes going forward? As an employer of talent, what specifically will you do differently in your hiring process?
  5. As a job seeker, how will you leverage AI to assist you in pursuing a more effective search process?

MODULE 5: ECOSYSTEM AND ETHICS


CLASS 18. FOUNDER FIELD DAY

Born out of Harvard Business School, Rothenberg Ventures is off to a fast and promising start. Founded by Stanford and HBS alumnus, Mike Rothenberg, the firm aspires to be a disruptive force in the staid venture capital industry. Does the firm’s fall from grace represent an individual anomaly or something more systemic and insidious about StartUpLand? Our class guest will be former Rothenberg Ventures general partner Brandon Farwell. NOTE: Just focus on pages 1-8 of the case. The remainder can be skimmed as it is anchored on Fran Hauser’s decision, which is not the focus of our class discussion.

Materials

Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. What accounts for RV’s initial success as a new VC entrant at the time of the case? Why might Brandon Farwell find it an appealing firm to work for?
  2. After reading the assigned articles that came out after the case, why do you think things went so wrong at the firm? If you were an LP on the firm’s advisory committee, what might you have done differently?
  3. If you were Brandon Farwell and discovered issues with Mike’s behavior 6-12 months before the TechCrunch articles came out, what should you do? What might you have done differently going into the partnership with Mike?


CLASS 19. KHATABOOK

India-based Khatabook is a digital ledger app for small businesses to record financial transactions and accept payments online. The company’s product-led growth strategy has yielded promising results in the face of strong competition. But with zero revenue and sky-high expectations, the founding team is faced with a series of dilemmas regarding where to focus next. 

Materials 

Readings:

Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. What should Naresh do at the end of the case:  focus on growth/top of the funnel, usage/bottom of the funnel, or monetization? 
  2. What is your assessment of Khatabook’s decisions to date with respect to monetization timing? 
  3. Do you agree with the Naresh's choices to date more generally? How would you compare his actions and approach in building Khatabook to other entrepreneurs we have studied far? 
  4. Generally, when is it ok for a startup to "fake it 'til you make it" and when is it not?


CLASS 20. EVERLYWELL

Everlywell is an at-home lab testing startup achieving strong growth in a competitive market. In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic begins to sweep through the United States and the company is faced with both the challenge and opportunity to step in and develop at-home coronavirus tests despite concerns from regulators and the risk of distraction from their core strategy.

Materials

Readings:

Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. Did Cheek do the right thing to pursue the coronavirus test from a shareholder perspective?
  2. What experiments could the company have run to reduce regulatory risk?
  3. Given the FDA news, what should Cheek do now?

CLASS 21. Windsurf

Info forthcoming

MODULE 6: FINANCING AND EXITS


 CLASS 22. REMO

ReMo is a climate tech startup with little technical innovation but significant business model innovation that is capital intensive to execute. The founders have a clear vision but are struggling with the execution and financing path to realize it. Our class guest will be ReMo co-founder Bhargavi Chevva.

Materials 

Readings: 

Optional Readings: 

Assignment Questions

  1. In The Engine's "Blueprint for Tough Tech Entrepreneurs", there is a venn diagram outlining a series of four risks. Characterize the ReMo business model in the context of how you would rank it across each of these four risks:  high, medium, or low.
  2. Take a look at Exhibit 3, which lays out the project economics by plant size. Based on these figures, what size plant should they plan to build as their first experiment? Which investors should they make this pitch to -- VC firms or project financing capital providers? 
  3. From an investment standpoint, are the increased risks associated with ReMo justified by an increased reward if the company gets it right? How much will ReMo be worth at scale and why? 

CLASS 23. CHIEF

Chief is a private network for female executives. The company has gotten early positive indications of product-market fit post-launch but the founders are unsure how aggressively to expand the service. Should they abandon lean principles and blitzscale? 

Materials

Readings:

(Students can skim the two Chief Role cases but read the Scaling at Chief case thoroughly)

Optional Reading:

Assignment Questions

  1. Does Chief represent an attractive business model (i.e., 10x revenue or 2x revenue)? Why? 
  2. Has Chief achieved product-market fit (PMF)? What more would you like to see to have high conviction on PMF if you were Childers and Kaplan?
  3. The two assigned readings represent different approaches to startup scaling – or do they? What should Childers and Kaplan do with respect to their scaling decision: how aggressive should they be and how much money should they attempt to raise? 
  4. The case notes on page 5 that Chief’s seed round was $3m and led by two early-stage VC firms. The case doesn’t disclose that the two lead partners on the deal from each firm are men. How should that effect the founders’ thinking on who it should raise money from in the next round, if at all?



CLASS 24. Alaan

In November 2022, Parthi Duraisamy (CEO of Dubai-based fintech Alaan) faced a confounding valuation gap, which required him to weigh the tangible value of capital against the intangible value of the YC network. Was YC's extra dilution and substantially lower valuation worth it? 

Materials

Readings:

Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

  1. Is Alaan's business an attractive one? How would you assess the market opportunity and business model compared to US counterparts like Brex or Ramp?
  2. Using the data in Exhibit 9 and the terms described in the case, model out the impact on Parthi and his co-founder's ownership under the following three scenarios: 
    •    Scenario A: They accept only the YC offer ($125k for 7%). 
    •    Scenario B: They accept only the Investor SAFE ($4M at $42M Cap). 
    •    Scenario C: They accept both. Note: Assume the SAFE converts immediately for the purpose of this snapshot, and ignore the YC MFN clause for the sake of simplicity.
  3. Based on your math and the strategic context, what should Parthi do? If you were the existing investor offering $4M at $42M, would you want Parthi to take the YC deal and your deal or just your deal? What would convince you one way or the other?


CLASS 25. PITCH WORKSHOP
The startup pitch exercise will be an opportunity to learn about how to pitch your startup and then watch four of your classmates put the learnings in action. There is no case to prepare for the session. Instead, please read the two assigned readings below and come ready to both support and critique your classmates.

Materials

Readings:

  • Background Note | Raising Startup CapitalDownload Raising Startup Capital
  • Jeff Bussgang | Mastering the VC Game Chapter 1 Download Mastering the VC Game Chapter 1Links to an external site.
  • Watch this video of Jeff BussgangLinks to an external site. (on 1.2x speed, it will take ~ 16 minutes) or skim the transcript (~ 8-10 minutes) for a tutorial on how to effectively pitch your startup.
  • Mini StoriesLinks to an external site. video from Jason Yeh

    • This tool can be used to answer important questions investors might have with more impact. When you’re good at using mini stories, you can address a variety of questions with just a few, go-to mini stories.

    • Documenting a story even once will help activate pathways in your brain around a narrative structure for telling it in the future so you won’t have to make something up on the fly. Writing mini-stories is more about creating goal posts to help you tell a natural story.

    • Another great exercise for developing helpful mini-stories is “First, Last, WOW”. Create a grid and fill out reminders of the FIRST story you can remember, the most recent (LAST) story, and the most eye-popping (WOW) story for each of the topics. This brainstorm will remind you of some great things that could be used in a variety of conversations.

Optional Readings:

CLASS 26. Base44/Wix

Base44 is a Tel Aviv-based vibe coding startup. Founded in 2025 by a solo founder (“solopreneur”), the company offered a platform that automatically (and somewhat magically) created software applications from English prompts. Founder Maor Shlomo raised no money and no employees, and yet built the company to be one of the leaders in the hot sector. Now he has to decide whether to raise VC or sell the business. 

Materials 

Required Readings:

  • HBS Case XXX-XXX | Base44Download Base44
  • MIT Technology Review | What is vibe coding, exactly?
  • Harvard Business Review | What founders need to know before selling their startup

Optional Readings:

  • Base 44 | What is Vibe Coding?

Assignment Questions

  1. If you were Shlomo, would you sell Base44 to Wix or raise capital? Defend whatever decision you think he should make, both in terms of his personal goals and the market context.
  2. If you were the CEO of Wix, would you buy Base44 and, if so, at what price range? To be clear, articulate your walk-away price.
  3. If Wix decides not to buy Base44 or can't agree to the terms, how should they create an AI-native culture?
  4. If Wix does buy Base44, how should Wix integrate the company?


CLASS 27. WRAP

This final class is dedicated to reviewing and discussing the concepts learned during this course as well as stepping back and sharing a few observations about an entrepreneurial life. 

Materials

Readings: 

 
Optional Readings: 

Assignment Questions:

  • Please complete the Feedback Poll on LTV Cases & Sessions.
  • Please bring your laptop to class to complete the HBS Course Evaluation.

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