Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Yearbook Inc. (A): The Start-up Years

Venkataraman, S., ...

Case

Yearbook Inc. (A): The Start-up Years

Venkataraman, S.; Maiden, Stephen E.

S-0369 | Published March 22, 2022 | 10 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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This field-based case follows the start-up dreams of Melanie Perkins, a young Australian woman who came up with a big idea: What if she could create a simple, collaborative, online tool that anyone could use to design like a pro, even without experience? Existing design products were either too expensive and complicated to learn or produced basic things that looked bad. But how could Perkins and her boyfriend and business partner, Cliff Obrecht, capitalize on the opportunity she saw when neither of them could program, and when taking on behemoths like Adobe, Microsoft, and Apple seemed ludicrous? This initial case in a series of four explores Perkins's entrepreneurial first steps with her yearbook-production start-up, Fusion Books (Fusion). Starting from her mother's living room, Perkins was able to grow Fusion into a business with $1 million in sales, taking her big idea all the way to the Innovator of the Year awards in Perth, Australia. At the awards presentation, Perkins met a venture capital investor, Bill Tai, who had the potential to take Perkins's vision to the next level by giving her the funding to create a one-stop-shop design tool that could take on the market and powerful competitors. But how could she position her story in such a way that Tai would want to invest? This case offers the chance for rich discussions around entrepreneurship, innovation, fundraising, disruption, and strategic thinking. Students can also role-play the founders and venture capitalists in capital-raising pitch exercises.

- Evaluate the business model and key performance indicators for Fusion and Canva - Examine the strategic choices and tradeoffs that an entrepreneur must make - Understand the capital-raising process and role-play making a pitch to a venture capitalist - Compare the value proposition of competing companies and technologies in a changing industry landscape