Submit a Case Study

The Institute is built around Case Studies submitted by attendees and presented live, on stage. Cases are real problems or challenges that you would like our panelists to address. Panelists will ask presenters clarifying questions and then provide feedback. As time allows, audience members are invited to contribute as well.

Case Study Topics for Boulder 2024:

• Financing Your Business – Case Study presenters might ask about seeking equity, debt, or other kinds of investment; structuring financing; crafting the appropriate financing strategy and finding backers.  Presenters might ask a basic question about whether the case even makes sense and how to improve a pitch.
• Positioning Your Brand Story – These Case Studies will cover anything related to your product or service including design, packaging, pricing, marketing, communicating, and otherwise building the case for a brand or business as well as advertising, social media, and  PR questions.
• Experiences with E-commerce – These Case Studies will focus on how to reach consumers, whether directly or through e-commerce partners, and how to optimize an e-commerce strategy.

If you are unsure of where a Case fits, submit it and we will figure that out for you!

Case Study Format:

Here is how the case study sessions work:

The facilitator introduces the case study session and reviews the ground rules. The presenting entrepreneur then takes up to 5 minutes to introduce the enterprise and the challenge. The panel then asks clarifying questions at which point the presenting entrepreneur switches over to “listening mode” as the respondents give feedback and give constructive suggestions followed by concise suggestions from the audience. At the conclusion, the presenter is given a chance to make some brief closing comments. Each case is featured for about 45 minutes.

Case Study Guidelines:

Case study sessions are most effective when these guidelines are observed:

• Confidentiality – Everything shared during the case study is 100% confidential. We ask all audience members to observe a code of confidentiality.
• Honesty – We encourage the presenting entrepreneur and respondents to be as honest and direct as possible.
• Brevity – In order to keep the session as interactive as possible, we encourage presenters and audience members to keep their comments brief.

To Submit a Case Study for Consideration –

All attendees are welcome to submit one or more cases for any of the topic areas.  A committee comprised of the Panelists and lead Sponsors will select the final cases to be presented based on:

• Impact of the problem – How big a challenge does this problem pose to the enterprise?
• The clarity of the problem and presenter – Does the presenter seem to have a good grasp and understanding of the problem and do they communicate clearly?
• The potential relevance of this challenge for all attendees – Will this case have the potential to be interesting, instructive or relevant to all attendees?
• Will the audience find the case interesting?

Application deadline: April 4, 2024.