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Main case

Raising capital for Financial Butler (A)

By Bryan Stroube, Michael Bikard, Ken Mark

2017

This case focuses on Nick Hungerford’s attempt to raise capital for his FinTech start-up, Financial Butler, (later renamed Nutmeg). The concept is a digital platform offering a revolutionary, transparent and fair service to an “untapped” market segment currently not served by wealth managers, “democratising” access to quality financial advice for individuals. The case describes how the protagonist evaluates the opportunity, creates a strategy to raise funding for the business and reacts to obstacles in his path to creating a FinTech firm. It is split into three parts. The “A” case provides the background to the venture, data on the industry and market and examples of Hungerford’s first pitch. The “B” case reveals that Hungerford’s many pitches have ended in failure, obliging him to refine his approach; the “C” case reveals how he finally achieved success on his 48th pitch to a venture capital firm.

Learning objectives

  1. Understand what makes for a good pitch, what elements are needed and why.
  2. Learn how to evaluate a proposed venture to get a better idea of whether the venture is likely to succeed (using John Mullins’ Seven Domains Model, published in his 2003 book The New Business Road Test.)
  3. Understand the lessons that can be learned from failure and being resilient.

Details

Publication Date: March 2017
LBS Case Code: CS-17-007
Topic:
Subjects: , ,
Industry:
Geography:
Pages: 15
Format: pdf