Sarah Jones and Jack Peterson are working on a business plan for their proposed venture. Their plan calls for them to locate and operate 10 kiosks in malls and other high-traffic areas to sell accessories for Apple iPhones, iWatches, and iPads. To complement their accessory sales, they created a series of short videos to help users learn how to make better use of their iPhones, iWatches, and iPads. The videos will appear on a YouTube channel they created recently. If they secure at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, they can apply to YouTube’s Partner Program and start earning money from the channel. Sarah and Jack are very personable and spent quite a bit of time creating videos that show iPhone, iWatch, and iPad hacks that they think viewers will find useful and entertaining. They will continue to produce videos to keep their content fresh and encourage people to continue watching. iUser Accessories is the tentative name for the business. Sarah and Jack like to use the word tentative because they still have some reservations about it, largely because they know that choosing a company’s name is an important decision. The Internet domain name www.iuseraccessories.com was available, so they registered it on www.godaddy.com. They will use part of their startup funding to hire a trademark attorney to do a formal trademark search before they use the name or do any advertising. Sarah and Jack met in an introduction to entrepreneurship course at their local university. They hit it off while working on the initial business plan for iUser Accessories, which they completed as an assignment for the class. In their senior year, they refined the plan by working on it during a business planning class. They took first place in a university-wide business plan competition just before graduation. The win netted them \($10,000\) in cash and \($10,000\) in “in-kind” services for the business. They plan to use the money to establish a relationship with an accountant affiliated with the university....

Discussion Questions:

1.Complete Sarah and Jack’s list for them, including the issues you think they will place on the list along with their recommendations. Which of the issues do you think will stimulate the most discussion with the attorney and which issues do you think will stimulate the least?
2.What are some of the actions Sarah and Jack took prior to meeting with the attorney that are appropriate for them to take?
3.Is it too early for Sarah and Jack to begin laying an ethical foundation for their proposed venture? If not, what steps could they take now as a foundation for an ethical culture within their firm?
4.What advantages do Sarah and Jack have starting i-User Accessories together rather than one of them starting it as a sole entrepreneur?
4.Based on information in this case, what challenges do you think Sarah and Jack will have keeping their partnership active?