Classtivity

Introduction

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:

• HBS Case 817-002 | Classtivity

• Chris Dixon | The idea maze

• Marc Andreessen | The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 4: The only thing that matters 

Optional Readings:

• Chris Dixon | Founder/market fit 

• Nicholas Fruend | How the psychology of pivots holds us back

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? 

c16 bio

Introduction

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? Our class guest will be C16 CEO and founder, Shara Ticku.

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case 820-008 | C16 Bio

• Bill Aulet | Beachhead Market and How to Select a Beachhead Market

• Vin Lingathoti | Commercializing Deep Tech Startups

Optional Readings:

• Bill Gates | The Green Premium

• Not Boring | Ginkgo Bio

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:

   • build her own brand

   • build a white label end product and get someone else to build the brand

   • work with a challenger brand

   • work with a large brand

   • 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. 

summer health

Introduction

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 DaSilva.

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case | Summer Health

• Noam Bardin | What is a Startup CEO’s Real Job?

• First Round Capital | The Four Levels of Product-Market Fit

Optional Readings:

• Michael Seibel | The Real Product-Market Fit

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?

sober sidekick

Introduction

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:

• HBS Case 823-066 | Sober Sidekick

• Brian Balfour | Product Market Fit 

• Semil Shah | Startup Risk and Fear 

Optional Readings:

• First Round Review | How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product-Market Fit

• Lenny Rachitsky | What Is A Good Activation Rate?

• Sequoia | Selecting the Right User Metric

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?

elevenlabs

Introduction

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case | ElevenLabs

• Blake Bartlett | What is Product-Led Growth?

Optional Readings:

• Jeff Bussgang and Oliver Jay | How to Avoid the PLG Trap

• Alex Immerman and David George | Moats Before (Gross) Margins: Revisited

Assignment Questions

ai labs workshop

Introduction

Materials

Readings:

Optional Readings:

Assignment Questions

blitzy

Introduction

Boston-based Blitzy is an autonomous AI platform for enterprise software development. Founded out of Harvard Business School in 2024, the company's system automatically generated product-ready application code, accelerating how developers build and ship software. Given its rapid growth and the competitive landscape, the company must determine what its 2026 plan should look like. In particular, how aggressive a revenue ramp should they assume, what cost ramp should they plan for, and how should they decide on where to invest the incremental capital across the various roles in the go to market organization. Our class guests will be Brian Elliott & Sid Pardeshi. 

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case | Blitzy 

• Jeff Bussgang | Entering StartUpLand Chapter 6: Sales

• Bessemer | The State of AI 2025

Optional Readings:

• Marty Cagan | Forward Deployed Engineers

Assignment Questions

1. If you were the Blitzy founders, how would you approach planning for 2026 given the highly uncertain and dynamic environment?

2. Assume the three scenarios for the company in 2026 are:

• Conservative: $15 million in year-end (YE) revenue. With this forecast, assume they could raise $16 million on an $80 million post-money valuation sometime in Q1.

• Moderately aggressive (more aligned with Neeraj Aggarwal's T2D3 framework): $25 million in YE revenue. With this forecast, assume they could raise $40 million on a $200 million post-money valuation.

• Aggressive (more aligned with Bessemer's Shooting Star framework): $40 million in YE revenue. With this forecast, assume they could raise $80 million on a $400 million post-money valuation.

3. For each scenario, assuming overall gross margins of 70%, how much money in operating expenses would you want to plan to spend in 2026? What cash position does that leave you heading into 2027, assuming you start 2026 with $5 million of cash on hand?

4. For each scenario, assume half of your operating expenses are spent on the go-to-market organization. How would you staff the organization across the three roles of AE, SE, and FDE? In your answer, make sure to do the math on quota capacity. Why did you make this choice?

4. Bonus:  Create a slide deck representing the first page of the fundraising pitch for each scenario.

turbineone

Introduction

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case | TurbineOne

• Steve Blank | Why Defense Could Be A Market for Startups

Optional Readings:

• Katherine Boyle | Building American Dynamism

Assignment Questions

comun

Introduction

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:

• HBS Case | Comun

• Comun exhibits

• Jeff Bussgang | Every Company Needs a Growth Manager

• Jeff Bussgang | Your CAC Math Is Wrong, too

Optional Readings:

• Sarah Tavel | The Hierarchy of Engagement

• The original growth hacker reveals his secrets | Sean Ellis

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 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?

allspice

Introduction

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 guests will be AllSpice cofounders Valentina Ratner & Kyle Dumont. 

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case 823-022 | AllSpice

• Neeraj Agarwal | Triple Triple Double Double

• Jeff Bussgang | The Sales Learning Curve for Startups

Optional Readings:

• Lee Hower | What Milestones Are Needed to Raise a Series A

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? 

4. Bonus: Create a slide representing the first page of the fundraising pitch for your chosen scenario. Optionally, email your slide to Jeff before class.

MODULE 3: PF EXPERIMENTS

squire

Introduction

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? Our class guest will be Dave Salvant.  

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case 821-073 | A Close Shave at Squire

• Spreadsheet | Squire Exhibits 11, 12, and 13

• SimilarWeb | Market Sizing

• Mike Vernal | The Market Curve

Optional Readings:

• Nick Kalliagkopoulos | COHORT ANALYSIS FOR STARTUPS 101

• Jonathan Hsu | Diligence at Social Capital Part 1: Accounting for User Growth

• A16Z | Fintech Scales Vertical Saas

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?)?  

sprout

Introduction

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 guests will be Sprout co-founders Alex Gentry and Patrick Gentry (via Zoom). 

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case | Sprout

• Kyle Poyar | International Growth Is No Longer Optional for SaaS Companies 

Optional Readings:

• Bessemer | Six Product Strategies to Catalyze Your Second Act 

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. What experiments should they run to help inform this decision? As an entrepreneur with limited bandwidth, how should you think about prioritizing and designing experiments?

3. 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. The tension here is obvious so spend extra time thinking about explaining the narrative of (a) staying in the Philippines but pitching investors and (b) expanding overseas while reorienting your "true north" to the staff.

   • 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.

xyz robotics 

Introduction

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. Our class guest is XYZ Robotics cofounder and CTO Peter Chen. 

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case 825-059 | XYZ Robotics

• XYZ Robotics | Data Exhibits

• Please watch this video from time 18:45 - 20:25 to get a vision of what the XYZ Robotics robots, and others like it (in this example, competitor Boston Dynamics), look like in a warehouse setting.

• Please watch this video from Boston Dynamics showing off the Stretch mobile manipulation robot that the company released in 2022.

Optional Readings:

• The Economist | Robots are suddenly getting cleverer. What's changed? 

• The Economist | The quest to build robots that look and behave like humans

• Video | Chinese Humanoid Robots

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. And obviously, use an AI tool to accelerate your analysis (e.g., Claude in Excel). 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?

MODULE 4: THE STARTUP ORGANIZATION

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, prototypes, and increase your leverage beyond this class.

Materials

Readings:

• Build Workshop Instructions [Response Due by 7:00am on 3/24] - Submit your assignment here.

• Jeffrey Bussgang | The 10x Founder

Optional Readings:

• Chapters 2 and 7 of The Experimentation Machine

• Lenny's Podcast | How Meta PM Ships Products Without Ever Writing Code 

assignment & submission 

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.

Team assignments located here. Submit your assignment here.

NOTE: Please bring your laptop to class 

build workshop - part 2

introduction 

In today’s class, we will review the results of the "AI building" teamwork.

Materials

Readings:

• Build Workshop Instructions

10x joiner workshop

Introduction

We have discussed in class the emergence of the "10x Joiner" in startupland many times. The first killer app for AI has been AI coding, which we have explored with the BlitzyAI case and will continue to explore with the upcoming hands-on build exercises as well as the Base44 case.

Today's session will be focused on nontechnical use cases of AI, with a particular focus on go-to-market (GTM). How are the most innovative companies using AI to enhance their GTM workflows? We will be joined by three HBS LTV alums from 2025 who are at ClayAI, a leading GTM AI software vendor: Jay Bhandari, Zoe Bhargava, and Francesca Polycarpe. As always, today's session is not an endorsement of any particular tool, but rather an exploration into the art of the possible with the current AI toolset.

Materials

Readings:

• Harj Taggar | How to Hire Your First Engineer

• Paul Blumenfeld | Do job specs matter?

• First Round | The Playbook for Hiring the Right Marketer at the Right Time for Your Startup

• Notorious: 2025 is the Year of the Agentic Workforce

Optional Readings:

• Harj Taggar | Convincing Engineers to Join Your Team

• Jeff Bussgang | Valuing Those Pesky Stock Options

• Carta | 2024 H1 Startup Compensation Report

business model exercise 

Introduction

In this exercise, teams of four students will analyze one classmate's proposed business model for a new venture with the goal of refining the model and specifying MVP tests for key hypotheses, utilizing the course frameworks. If you're a founder and want to be a part of the exercise as a "protagonist", sign up here. If you're not a founder, simply read the BME instructions below. The two additional readings provide some supplemental material on business model quality to round out our fourth module. 

Materials

Readings:

• BME Instructions   <<---- important!

• Jens-Fabian Goetzmann | You Can’t A/B Test Your Way to Greatness

Assignment Questions

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 5: ECOSYSTEM AND ETHICS

khatabook

Introduction

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:

• HBS Case 821-006 | Khatabook

• Jeff Bussgang | Entering StartUpLand-Chapter 5: The Growth Manager

• Tom Byers | Finding Our Values: A New Era of Entrepreneurship Education 

Optional Readings:

• Nicholas Epley and Amit Kumar | How to Design an Ethical Organization

• Catherine Clifford | Home Depot co-founder reveals why the company stocked shelves with empty boxes in its early days

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?

founder field day

Introduction

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. But then, as you'll see from the assigned articles in the readings, the wheels come off. 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 partner Brandon Farwell. Note that at the time the HBS case was written, the focus was on Fran Hauser’s decision. Skim or skip that portion of the case (i.e., pages 9-11). Instead, focus more on the elements consistent with the assignment questions below (i.e., pages 1-8) and then the articles regarding the accusations of fraud.

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case 815-101 | Founder Field Day

• Sarah Buhr & Connie Loizos | The Rise and Fall of a Virtual Gatsby

• Sarah Buhr | The SEC Has Charged Mike Rothenberg For Fraud

• Erin Griffith | The Ugly, Unethical Underside of Silicon Valley

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?

everlywell

Introduction

Everlywell is an at-home lab test 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. Our class guest is founder and CEO Julia Cheek.

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case 821-001 | Everlywell

• Claudine Gartenberg and George Serafeim | 181 Top CEOs Have Realized Companies Need a Purpose Beyond Profit

• Natasha Singer | Lawmakers Question Start-Ups on At-home Kits for Coronavirus Testing

• Milton Friedman | A Friedman doctrine‐- The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits

Optional Readings:

• Atlantic | US Coronavirus Testing Could Fail Again

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?

kalshi

Introduction

Materials

Readings:

Optional Readings:

assignment questions 

workshop with anthropic 

Introduction

The LTV value prop is to expose you to the most consequential companies and the most compelling founders & joiners in the startup ecosystem who are harnessing the power of AI to be 10x Founders and Joiners. In the 10x Joiner Workshop, we did a deep dive on GTM. Today, with the help of the Anthropic team, we will do a deep dive on Claude Cowork and Claude Code and see how Anthropic employees themselves are using the tools. We will also hear from an AI PM at a "legacy SaaS" growth stage company about how she is leading internal change management. Both perspectives will also help us to examine a critical question at this moment: what is the role of the product manager in the age of AI? 

Our guests will be Danny Delaney (HBS 2025), Swanee Golden (HBS 2025), and Julia Dallos (HKS 2014) from Anthropic as well as Mikaela Gilbert (HBS 2023), senior PM from Vanta. 

Materials

Readings:

• The AI Daily Brief: Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis Podcast | How to Use Claude's Massive New Upgrades

• All-in Podcast | Anthropic's Generational Run, OpenAI Panics, AI Moats, Meta Loses Major Lawsuits [Watch/listen from 02:30 - 25:00]

Optional Readings:

So much has been written about Claude Cowork and Code and there are so many videos and blog posts available that it can all be quite overwhelming. Pick one or two that you think might be helpful and dig in. Here are two recommendations for those who want to go deeper:

• How I AI: How to turn Claude Code into your personal operating system

• This Claude Cowork training module from Anthropic will take you roughly an hour and require you to download the tool.

assignment questions 

1) What is your favorite use case for Claude Code or Cowork today? DM three of your classmates who you admire most in the class on this dimension and ask them their favorite use case.

2) What are some skills that you have loaded up for Claude? How have you used it?

3) What is an example of context about yourself or your work that you have asked Claude to create a markdown file for? How have you used it?

4) If you were Mikaela -- a senior PM at a leading SaaS company with a $5B valuation and over 1500 employees -- how would you approach personal transformation and organization-wide transformation to become more of an AI-native leader in an AI-native company? Further:

• How would you adjust your hiring process?

• How would you adjust your review process?

• How would you adjust your software development process? How much code should you be writing? Is there still a role for a PM?

MODULE 6: FINANCING AND EXITS

remo

Introduction

ReMo is a climate tech startup with a vision for transforming renewable project development. The company's model is capital intensive, with little technical innovation but significant business model innovation. The founders have a clear vision for their business model, but are struggling with what their first experiment -- an ammonia production plant -- should look like in terms of scale. And, most importantly, they are struggling with the financing path to realize it. Our class guest will be co-founder and Breakthrough Energy Ventures former partner Bhargavi Chevva (HBS 2016). 

We will also be joined by Vulcan Elements founder John Maslin (HBS 2023). Inspired by the ReMo case a few years ago, John launched Vulcan in his EC year at HBS and recently raised $1 billion from equity investors and the US Government. He will be in the room to share his story in a live case format.

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case | ReMo

• The Engine | A Blueprint for Tough Tech Entrepreneurs 

Optional Readings:

• Fortune | Why this Venture Capitalist is Tackling Tough Tech

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?

4. What is your assessment of John Maslin/Vulcan's decision to work with the US Government?

chief

Introduction

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? Our class guest will be co-founder Carolyn Childers. 

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case 920-021 | Scaling at Chief

• Tim Sullivan | Blitzscaling

• Manas J. Saloi | Premature Scaling Will Kill Your Startup 

Optional Readings:

• Ben Horowitz | The Case for the Fat startup

• Fred Wilson | Being Fat is Not Healthy

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 aggressively should they approach it, and how much money should they attempt to raise? 

4. The case notes on page 5 state 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 affect the founders’ thinking on who it should raise money from in the next round, if at all?

boldvoice

Introduction

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case | BoldVoice 

• Eric Paley | Venture Capital is a Hell of a Drug

• Ryan Smith | Why Every Startup Should Bootstrap

Optional Readings:

• Sramana Mitra | Bootstrapping to Exit

Assignment Questions

windsurf

Introduction

By June 2025, AI coding startup Windsurf had emerged as one of the most valuable companies in its category. When a potential $3 billion acquisition by OpenAI falls apart, the company pivots to negotiate a deal with Google. In a surprising turn, the founders choose not to sell the company outright. Instead, they join Google directly—bringing the entire product and engineering team with them.

Left behind is the commercial organization, led by Head of Business Jeff Wang. Elevated to CEO of the remaining entity, Wang now faces a stark question: what is the future of a company stripped of its core product team—and how can he rebuild it into something of value?

Our class guest will be Windsurf’s Jessica Kwok (HBS 2025).

Materials

Readings:

• HBS Case: Windsurf 

• US senators call out Big Tech’s new approach to poaching talent, products from smaller AI startups

Optional Readings:

• US Is Scrutinizing Big Tech Talent Acquisitions, FTC Chief Says

Assignment Questions

1. Take the founders of Windsurf's interests into account. At the time of the OpenAI deal falling apart, why did they pursue the Google deal, and was it a shrewd move? Do you have an ethical problem with their actions?

2. Put yourself in Jeff Wang's shoes at the all-staff meeting on July 11, 2025. What would you say to the remaining 200 employees, and what strategic plan would you outline for the next 90 days? What are your priorities? What is your order of operations to pursue these priorities?

3. Should Wang try to rebuild Windsurf as an independent company, pursue a sale to another acquirer, or wind the company down and distribute the cash to the employees? Build a quantitative and qualitative case for your recommendation, using the financial data in the case.