1. Kevin Semcken identified some possible alternative solutions to his financing problem. Did he come up with all possible alternatives, or can you think of more?

2. Do you agree with board member Rob Cascella, who told Kevin to concentrate on producing headphones and put off the Sound Fit for later . or do you agree with Kevin, who sees Sound Fit as the future of Able Planet? Defend your choice.

3. As a small business consultant, what would you advise Kevin Semcken do to guide Able Planet through its financial storm?

Kevin Semcken was wandering the aisles and browsing the booths at a technology conference in Denver in 2004. At the time, he was the head of HealthTek Ventures, a venture capital firm in Evergreen, Colorado. Semcken came across a two-person start-up company named Able Planet with a promising idea—headphones embedded with a magnetic coil to enhance sound quality—but a lousy business. Since Semcken only has partial hearing in his left ear, he was intrigued. He was hardly ever able to hear high-frequency sounds like those produced by cymbals. The guys at the Able Planet booth gave him two headsets—one with the coil and one without—while he listened to Dean Martin’s “You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You.” “When I switched to the Able Planet headphones, I could hear the cymbals,” says Semcken. “I was instantly a fan.”