Case Study Summary

Description: In this Case Study, students assume the role of a consultant who helps two Elevator
Pitch contestants improve their businesses to receive an investment offer. Students will analyze
both businesses to determine their strengths and weaknesses and make recommendations.

Internet Usage: Yes

Spreadsheet Skills: None

Who Will Pitch It to Win It?

Susana Middlefield is a consultant who helps entrepreneurs develop and refine their business
plans. Before starting her day, she reviews the files for her next two clients who both recently
pitched their businesses on the TV show Entrepreneur: Elevator Pitch. First is Leroy, who has been
struggling to find investors for his business, Automotive Learning Center. Then Courtney, who
received some early funding for her company Milk, but is still looking for investors.

Client 1 - Leroy

Susana’s first client Leroy walks in. She says, “Hi Leroy! Thanks for coming to see me. I’m excited to
learn more about your business and see how I can help you grow. To get started, let’s watch your
clip on Elevator Pitch. Then, we’ll evaluate your strengths and areas for improvement so that next
year, you can win over those investors.” As they watch the clip, Susana takes notes on the
strengths and weaknesses of Leroy’s pitch.
1. Answer this: Complete the table below.

Strengths
 It is appropriate for use with students at both the
Elementary and Intermediate levels.
 It is structured such that it progresses from
broader to more specialized subjects that are
relevant to the students' backgrounds.
 In the context of asynchronous learning,
collaboration between students and teachers
Weaknesses
 A small number of students can only be taught
by a single teacher because of the difficulty in
scaling the programme.
 Professors and instructors in the humanities,
social sciences, education, and some fields of
business and health care may find it more
accommodating, whereas faculty and instructors
in science, computer science, and engineering
may find it less so. Some of the STEM fields
may be open to it if used in conjunction with
problem-based or inquiry approaches.

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Answer this:
2. What questions would you ask Leroy about his business?

 Before providing a subscription option, what aspects of the audience should be evaluated?

 What methods does your company use to determine what it is that its clients desire so that it can
provide appealing subscriptions?

 How can I make sure that the clients of my firm are reaping all of the advantages that come with
their subscriptions? (Linchpin, 2022)

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 3. What advice would you give Leroy to improve his chances of receiving funding from the
investors? Explain how these changes will make a positive impact.

When it comes to making money, automation is the best method. You can't control the stock market, but
you can manage your own activities to the best of your ability. Don't forget to put money aside on a
monthly basis. Your investing portfolio will expand more quickly if you save and invest regularly.

Investing necessitates placing a wager on the future. Assets in U.S. Government bonds (considered among
the safest investments) may nevertheless be dangerous, even if they are avoided. You may not be able
to outrun inflation and meet your financial objectives if you rely on government bonds, which are
typically regarded safe.

The amount of money investors pay in fees is important. Management fees and other expenditures may
have a significant impact on your investment results. This covers both the fees that you are aware of
and those that are buried deep inside the prospectus for your mutual fund. What gives this such sway?
As a result, every percentage point you spend in fees directly affects your investment returns Even the
tiniest amount may have a huge influence when it is added up over a long period (TSF, 2021).

Leroy is excited to implement these new changes. “Thank you so much, Susana. I didn’t realize
there were so many areas I could work on to improve my business. By next year, hopefully, the
investors won’t be able to resist joining me!”

Client 2 - Courtney

Susana’s second client, Courtney, arrives for her meeting with Susana, who starts by saying, “Hi
Courtney! Thanks for coming to see me. I’m excited to learn more about your business and see
how I can help you improve for next year.

As we watch your pitch, I’ll be taking notes on four criteria of a strong business, which you can see
in this chart [Exhibit 1]. Let’s watch the clip of your time on the show, and then we’ll discuss those
criteria together.

After watching the clip, Susana adds, “Well Courtney, you are obviously very passionate about
your business, which is fantastic! Your pitch was strong and I feel confident that you’ll be able to
find investors with a few strategic changes. Let’s start by assessing your business to identify
strengths and weaknesses.”

4. Answer this: Watch the clip and complete the chart below.

Exhibit 1: Four Criteria of a Strong Business

Criteria Evaluation of Courtney’s Business

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Current performance  Courtney’s Company has 40K active users.
● How many customers does the  Current revenue of her company is 5$ million.
business currently have?  As of now the investor rejected the pitch because of
● Is the company currently earning lack of active users.
revenue?
● Can the client use data to prove that the
company has performed well
financially?

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Growth and competition If you're like most busy professionals nowadays, it might
● How big is the market for this business? be hard to peel yourself away from your phone screen.
Who does it include? Is it growing? With applications, email, and social media all at the tip of
● How does the client plan to grow their our fingertips, we're constantly distracted by the mobile
business? world. It may seem paradoxical to use an app to
● How is this client’s business different disconnect, but in an era when we use our smartphones
from others that are in the for practically everything, it makes sense to fight fire
marketplace? with fire.
● Who are some of the biggest This programme lets users disconnect by disabling
competitors? distracting applications like Facebook and gaming and
filtering messages. It provides statistics on how often you
really use your smartphone. Choose from a variety of
specialised modes like Work, Family, or Me Time to
focus just on what's important to you and block out
anything else. Analyzing your phone and app use may
serve as a helpful wake-up call and encourage you to
make healthier lifestyle choices.
Using Milk, you can set daily restrictions for how much time
you spend on your smartphone and the app will alert you if
you go over that limit. You may even employ a setting that
"forces" you off your phone by bombarding your screen with
irritating warnings when you attempt to prolong your screen
time. Moment may also be utilised for families, with the
opportunity to monitor your family's device usage from your
own phone.
Profitability Milk contains the use monitoring capabilities seen in
● How does the business earn money? many comparable applications, but it differs in that it
● Who would be willing to pay for this breaks down the information into an easy-to-understand
product or service? Why? "addiction score." It also displays you how frequently
● Can the client explain to investors how you unlock your phone screen, and completely tracks
investors will make their money back your use throughout the day. This method makes it an
and by when? excellent option for folks who want to set goals and push
themselves. In an odd twist, it may almost be addicting to
attempt to see how low you can get your addiction score.

If you find that you need a more active approach to

disconnecting, Milk is the app for you. Milk enables you to
lock your phone for a certain length of time, and once you do,
there's no going back. Even if you restart your phone, the
software will remain active, making cheating impossible. Milk
may even be used to remotely "switch off" one user from
another user's device, which is beneficial for teams that want to
keep one another on target (GF, 2021).
Management and team  Yes, the client was the client confident, passionate, and
 Is the client confident, passionate, and knowledgeable.
knowledgeable?  A co-founder, a senior developer and Gaming
 Who is on the team and what is their Economist.
experience?

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Answer this:
5. Based on your evaluation, advise Courtney on what she can do in the next year to
improve her chances of receiving funding from the investors and explain how these
changes will make a positive difference. Write your comments below.

Susana:
Courtney may arrive next time with a greater number of active users on her application and It’s the last
nail in the coffin that makes a habit hard to stop. Dopamine and serotonin are always the reward. These
are the joyful chemicals that your brain produces to reward itself for performing a good job. It offers us
a sensation of pleasure and fulfilment and your restlessness is gone but briefly.

After reviewing Susana’s recommendations, Courtney is eager to get started and says, “Thanks so
much, Susana! I really appreciate your time. I think with these changes, I’ll be able to show the
investors that I mean business and they’ll be fighting to give me the best offer!”

Courtney- One Year Later

One year later, Courtney returns to show off the changes she’s made to her business before her
next big pitch. She walks in and eagerly says, “Hi Susana! I’m so excited about some of the
changes I’ve made to my business since I last saw you! I feel much more confident about going

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 back on Elevator Pitch.

I’ve had a lot of success expanding my user base and building partnerships. We decided to
target growth amongst college students since they’re trendsetters who use their phones
frequently. Plus, colleges want students off of their phones in classes and the library. We’ve
partnered with 23 colleges across the southern U.S. to have Milk on their campuses. Although the
colleges aren’t paying us yet, we found 10 movie theaters in those college towns that have paid
for advertising. We’ve also expanded our user base through an unpaid partnership with one
major theater in Atlanta. They already have patrons put their phones in magnetic cases during
shows and concerts, so our app is a great fit.

Over the next year, we’ll be attending more conferences in the entertainment industry to
hopefully find a large nationwide sponsor, like a theater company or ticket sales company. I think
the investors will be impressed with the growth we’ve made!”

Courtney whips out a small chart she had created and shows Susana the numbers for her
business:

Exhibit 2:
of active users per of downloads of sponsors Revenue
month

Last Year 14,000 30,000 0 $0

This Year 40,000 65,000 10 $30,000

Answer This:
6. What improvements has Courtney made in the past year to her business?
After a year Courtney has made more profits and also she has increased the number of active users on her applications and
also she had made below improvements over the course of past year:
 Attracting new clients in new markets or with new goods and services. She may protect her firm from being too
reliant on a single customer by having a big and varied customer base to fall back on.
 Creating economies of scale. One of the advantages of developing her firm is spreading the risk of conducting
business and lowering the negative effect of one product or one bad choice on her organization. Operating in
several markets or product categories also helps her to spread the cost of doing business over more markets or
customers and decreases the cost of doing business on a per-customer basis (Becca, 2017).

7. Is there anything else that Courtney could have done to further improve her business? Isthere
anything that you think she should have done differently? Explain.
 Expansion too rapidly is a common blunder. A negative cycle may be triggered if your company's expansion puts
too much pressure on all aspects of the firm, from suppliers to employees to the all-important cash flow.
Insufficient planning is another problem to be cautious of and may also affect your operations. An example of
this would be if your company accepts online purchases via your website, but you have not developed a secure
client database or a permissions form for customers to receive third-party email messages. As a result, you run
the danger of being accused of data tampering and subject to severe penalties under GDPR (Pot, 2021).

Leroy - One Year Later

After talking to Courtney, Susana becomes curious about how Leroy is doing. She calls him to

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follow up since his next round on Elevator Pitch is coming up soon. Leroy picks up and says, “Oh
wow Susana, you called at the perfect time! Since I last saw you, I’ve really been focusing on
expanding our business and building revenue streams.

In the past year, we’ve expanded to offer our training in 140 auto repair shops. We’ve also moved
to a subscription model with a long free trial period while we build out more training modules. In
the last 6 months, we’ve earned over $12,000 in revenue from $15 monthly subscriptions to our
online training materials. We reinvested that money in contracting an animator and creating
more content. Last year, we had 10 training modules; now, we have over 40 different modules!

I know the investors were worried about our profitability and wanted us to find advertising
sponsors. We’re working on building partnerships with technical colleges, which will hopefully
bring in more users and revenue. I hope our new revenue from subscriptions will impress them!”

Answer this:
8. What improvements has Leroy made over the last year?
Lourey has made various changes in his company like Car repair businesses and the individuals who work for
them benefit significantly from creating a personal relationship with their clients. You may have a significant
impact on the lives of others if you establish strong ties within your neighborhood. A simple way to achieve this
is to provide some training for basic repair like headlight replacement or checking your oil. When you give
back to your community and provide it for free, you’ll establish decades of trust with residents. People will
bring their children, in-laws, relatives, and other family members to the event. Buying from the incorrect
distributor might eat into your revenues if your auto repair company is experiencing high invoices from your
parts wholesalers. When choosing components, make sure that the quality is front of mind. Quality parts
wholesalers won't charge you an arm and a leg to make sure your clients are pleased, but there are plenty. Do
your consumers need to have OEM parts? There are numerous of firms who create high-quality components
that aren’t warrantied by the automobile manufacturers but operate just as well or better. Learn about all of the
firms that make components for the vehicles you work on (Lee, 2015).

Susana is impressed with ALC’s growth but she remembers how nervous he had been for his first
pitch. She says, “Wow! It sounds like ALC has taken big steps over the last year that could show
the investors your profitability. Now let’s revise your original elevator pitch to showcase those
improvements and impress the investors.

Exhibit 3: Leroy’s Pitch

Hello, my name is Leroy Franke. I’m the author of A Technician’s Guide to Accelerating the Auto
Repair Industry and the founder of Automotive Learning Center. It’s said that timing is one of
the most important factors in determining a start-up’s success. As an industry expert, I promise
you that the time to pioneer change is now.

We have a problem where automotive technology is rapidly evolving but our workforce is not.
When Toyota or Ford puts out new technology -all-electric vehicles, for example - they train their
technicians on the theory, diagnosis, and repair for those issues. But how is John from John’s
auto going to keep up? A lot of times he can’t.

ALC not only offers courses focused on keeping techs like John relevant but our eLearning
instructor-led VR integrated curriculum is designed to build a foundation for new technicians to
start their career.

I’m offering 10% for onlywww.ngpf.org

$100,000. Thank you. Last updated: 3/25/21
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Answer this:
9. Revise Leroy’s pitch to showcase ALC’s growth over the last year. Write the new pitch
below.

Leroy’s new pitch:

Hello, my name is Leroy Franke. I’m the author of A Technician’s Guide to

Accelerating the Auto Repair Industry and the creator of Automotive Learning Center.
In order for a start-up to be a success, many believe that time is a crucial aspect. As
an industry expert, I assure you that the moment to pioneer change is now.

We have a dilemma where automotive technology is quickly developing but our staff
is not. When Toyota or Ford comes out new technology -all-electric automobiles, for
example - they teach their technicians on the theory, diagnosis, and repair for such
concerns. But how is John from John’s vehicle going to keep up? A lot of times he
can’t.
In the last year, we’ve grown to provide our training in 140 car repair businesses.
We’ve also shifted to a subscription model with an extended free trial period as we
build out additional training courses. In the previous 6 months, we’ve made over
$12,000 in income through $15 monthly subscriptions to our online training
materials. We used the money to hire an animator and produce additional material.
We reinvested it. Last year, we had ten different training modules; this year, we have
nearly forty different modules!
I know the investors were anxious about our profitability and wanted us to find
advertising sponsors. Working with technical institutions is something we're trying to
do in the hopes of attracting more customers and money. Subscriptions, I'm hoping,
will bring in more money for us!

ALC not only provides courses focused on keeping techs like John relevant but its
eLearning instructor-led VR integrated curriculum is meant to establish a platform for
young technicians to start their career.

I’m providing 10 percent for merely $100,000. Thank you.

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 Wrap Up

Answer this:
10. If you were an investor, would you have invested in Courtney or Leroy’s business? Justify
your response.

I would’ve invested in Lourey’s business the typical profit margin for vehicle repair components is 20-
28%, while the average profit margin for labour is 50-65 percent. Either we need to raise revenue or cut
expenses in order to optimise my profit margins. Because doing so might have unintended
consequences, we can't just raise our pricing or reduce the quality of the products your store utilises.
The ability to reduce expenses without sacrificing the high quality of the goods and services we provide
may be a challenge. But what we can control is how successfully we advertise those items or services
during a visit. A effective method for improving our average repair order is cross-promotion and up-
selling suggested services (FM, 2021).

References
Becca. (2017, November 16). How To Pitch For Investment: 25 expert tips for success. Retrieved
from twine: https://www.twine.net/blog/investment-pitch/
FM. (2021, December 1). How to Pitch Investors: 14 Tips to Get Your Startup Funded. Retrieved
from finmark: https://finmark.com/how-to-pitch-investors/
GF. (2021, March 21). 9 Apps To Curb Smartphone Addiction And Boost Productivity. Retrieved
from geckoandfly: https://www.geckoandfly.com/23509/smartphone-addiction-boost-
productivity/
Lee. (2015, July 28). LOOKING AT THE FUTURE OF AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR. Retrieved from 2021:
https://www.aamcoleessummit.com/Blog/Article/Looking-at-the-Future-of-Automotive-
Repair
Linchpin. (2022, March 28). Auto Repair Marketing & Industry Trends Shaping 2022. Retrieved
from linchpinseo: https://linchpinseo.com/trends-auto-repair-industry/
Pot, J. (2021, October 18). The 7 best apps to help you focus and block distractions in 2022.
Retrieved from zapier: https://zapier.com/blog/stay-focused-avoid-distractions/
TSF. (2021, June 21). Auto Repair Industry Trends. Retrieved from TSF:
https://www.tradeschoolgrants.com/future-automotive-repair-industry/

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