Analysis Of Savage Beast Start Up

Harvard Business School (HBS) Business Case occurred in 2003. Company: SAVAGE BEAST Student: JC – Erasmus Student at Universitat Wien
Protagonist: Tim Westergren Profession: Musician and Composer, B.A Political Science, Stanford University Current Position: CMO, then CEO – Co-Founder of Savage Beast, a start-up developing a recommendation tool helping music fans to discover new music they like.Tim is the “Idea Guy” in the team Previous Position: Babysitter, Musician in a band, Composer for films Co-Founders: Jon Kraft, the business guy, joint Savage Beast as Co-founder CEO. Jon is a seasoned entrepreneur, previous CEO of successful technology start-up in Silicon Valley. Will Glaser, the engineering guy, is a top-level engineer joining Savage Beast as Co-founder CTO, with previousexperience as start-up co-founder with mediocre results Issues to be faced by CEO: Give continuity to the venture by,  Reviewing business model and adapting company’s strategy (offline & online market) to post dot com bubble burst and CEO departure  Raising Venture Capital at the best terms for seed investors (not to be diluted), cofounders (not to be diluted) and employees (payback deferred salariesand keep stock options);  Facing Law suits of previous employees  Motivating the remaining team for continuing working for the company; To be or not to be: address thes issues or failing doing so will (is) put Tim Westergren in the difficult decision of quitting the ventre or continuing it

I.

FIRST QUESTION: Does Tim Westergren have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? As Tim friend, atthe beginning, would you encourage him to continue or recommend him to forget about its idea to launch the company?

We have regrouped a list of qualities we found in Tim Westergren that an entrepreneur should have: Flexibility: from very early age Tim W. was moving across the world because of this father job. This is a key requirement for today`s entrepreneurs that should move from one countryto another seeking for new products, suppliers, costumers, etc. Sales Man: even if some of his colleagues had higher music diplomas and tittles than Tim, they never managed to sell their products. While he was already making compositions for several film directors his peers weren`t able to get a client.

Wrestle with Structure: the college examples regarding his problems for dealing with fixedstructures (quitting Chemistry major or arguing with colleagues that he found to formatted while appreciating music) shows the innovative character of Tim W. Leader: despite his own willingness he found himself as a leader in several and diverse occasions such as at college dormitory where he became president, his band or at Savage Beast taking the role of CEO Follow its own path – Be authentic:inspiring him from a college course where he learnt that the important thing in life is to do things because they are beautiful, he decided to do what he wanted to do with his life, by-passing social pressure and others desires on what they want he becomes. Conflict-management Skills: from College dormitory through difficult times with his music band, Tim W. has shown spontaneous mediation skillsand conflict management qualities. Federator: since early age Tim has shown strong qualities as federator, gathering people and keeping it together in the same boat. Either with his music band, musicians working with him for film music, and Savage Beast, he got the qualities of someone with the potential of gather people and makes it working together for a greater purpose. Adaptable: Tim W. hasadapted himself to different business environments and jobs ranging from babysitter, college bureaucrat, musician, composer, entrepreneur, always with a big dose of sales-man on his blood. At ease with Technology: when Tim got the possibility to use technological application for music as mixing boards and editing software, he realized how much helpful it was the use of technology for music and how...