case library / market entry and sizing
Hearth & Bean
A medium market entry and sizing case, interviewer-led, built for live practice with an AI interviewer that grades like a coach.
- Growth entry
- interviewer-led
- medium
- ~30 min
- 2 exhibits
Our client is Hearth & Bean, a publicly traded café-bakery chain, about 1,200 sit-down locations across the US, full table service, three dayparts. Revenue has declined 4% in each of the last two fiscal years, worse than peers, though the sit-down segment is stagnant overall. On the latest earnings call the CEO announced a five-year vision of returning to 3% annual revenue growth, and management is keen on the drive-thru coffee segment: smaller-format stores, counter/drive-thru ordering, no table service, most consumption off-premises. We've been engaged to evaluate the attractiveness of entering that market. How would you structure a work plan?
What happens when you run it live
Your interviewer holds answers to 3 clarifying questions candidates usually ask, so opening the case correctly gets rewarded. The case unfolds over 6 phases, with 2 exhibits handed to you at the right moments. You structure, do the math out loud, and close with a recommendation. Then you get a graded report across structure, quant, insight, synthesis, and communication, with the specific moments that cost you points. The exhibits, numbers, and answer key stay inside the live session, the way a real interviewer keeps the case packet on their side of the table.
How to approach a market entry and sizing case
Market entry cases ask whether a client should enter a new market, geography, or segment, and usually make you size the opportunity before you judge it. Expect a sizing funnel: population or install base, filtered by addressable share, adoption, price, and frequency.
The classic traps are units and time frame. State the unit of every number you produce, and say whether it is annual or one-time. After the math, the case turns to entry economics and risk: how to enter, what it costs to compete, and how incumbents respond. A number without a so-what is a wasted calculation.
Run Hearth & Bean live, free. About 30 minutes, graded in the same sitting.
Start practicing freefree · no card · graded in minutes