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Peer Review

Entrepreneurship Cases: AirStrip Technologies

Reviewed:

Jul 19, 2022 by Business
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 4.2 stars
Content Quality: 4.2 stars
Effectiveness: 3.8 stars
Ease of Use: 4.5 stars
Overview:

In 2004, Dr. Cameron Powell, an obstetrician in San Antonio Texas, quit his practice to found AirStrip Technologies along with computer programmer Trey Moore. The company had its genesis from an encounter between the pair at Community Bible Church in San Antonio when Moore, who had been toying with the idea of starting a health-care software company, first saw Powell in his Sunday School class and afterwards ran into him in the parking lot outside the church looking at his personal digital assistant. Moore approached Powell and asked him, as a physician, if he could do anything on a mobile device what would it be? Powell thought for a moment and then said it would be real-time tracking of pre-born babies’ heart monitors. The challenges for this development were real and complex. Developing a working platform that could take data from one source and transfer it to a mobile application was difficult. There were multiple platforms and a severe lack of interoperability. The development of a platform was the key ingredient to the eventual success of the first product: Airstrip OB. This case chronicles the development of the company from founding to eventual seed rounds of financing from Sequoia Capital. The case allows for students to discuss the impact of venture capital funding on the direction and future of a small technology startup.

Type of Material:

Case Study (video)

Recommended Uses:

  • Can be viewed in class
  • Can be used for homework, by individuals or by teams
  • Can be part of lecture material to demonstrate how innovation and entrepreneurship provide critical medical technology.
Technical Requirements:

Google Chrome Version 96.0.4664.110

Adobe Reader

Mozilla Firefox 95.0.1

Identify Major Learning Goals:

  • Understanding how needs arise
  • Learn how to translate need into action
  • Learn how to turn action into accomplishment
  • Understand the impact of venture capital funding on the direction and future of a small technology startup
Target Student Population:

  • Upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in Management classes
  • Professional development to introduce concepts of innovation
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Users must know how to use a browser and how to view a video online

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

  • This is a short video (under five minutes) that explains how innovation and medical technology integrated to provide a critical resource to monitor infant heart rates.
  • The explanations are easy to follow and easy to understand.
  • An abstract is available, teaching notes are available on the website through an email contact.
  • The approach is appropriate and well-focused.
Concerns:

  • Contents need to  be contextualized for nascent or startup entrepreneurs.
  • The instructor may need to develop questions and parameters if this is used as the case study.
  • Teaching notes are available but that requires an email to an external contact.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

  • The concept provides an opportunity to look at medical innovation
  • Demonstrates how innovation is tied to entrepreneurship to address the needs of patients and doctors.Teaching-learning goals are easy to identify
  • Potential student learning through case-based approach.
Concerns:

  • Using this in a course would require contacting the email on the site for teaching notes, or developing concepts around innovation and entrepreneurship to place this in context more effectively.
  • To include role play activity in order to enhance learning.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

  • This would be beneficial in an entrepreneurship/innovation course to demonstrate concepts behind developments of application, especially those in the medical field.
  • Clear and accurate acess instructions coupled with a user-friendly tool and  layout.
Concerns:

  • Little to no information is provided about how the challenges for this development were addressed.
  • Non plug-in users/learners will have to make necessary adjustments.
Other Issues and Comments:

Material needs to facilitate on-the-job and off-the-job learning for nascent entrepreneurs.

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