Yale MBA Grads in Legal Dispute over Golf Technology Idea: MBA News

By QS Contributor Updated Aug 27, 2019

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Introduction
Case hinges on supposed agreement made at Yale School of Management

Yale MBA Grads in Legal Dispute over Golf Technology Idea: MBA News main image

Two Yale MBA graduates are engaged in a legal dispute over a golf technology business idea. It has been reported that the two men developed the idea whilst studying at Yale School of Management as part of its class of 2012.

‘Dolphin Golf’ was based around an electronic golf caddy which would be able to locate stray balls and compile statistics aimed at helping users to improve their game. This idea is said to have been formed and developed during their Yale MBA as well as with the support of the American business school’s Entrepreneurial Institute.

However, Clinton Grusd is now suing his fellow Yale MBA graduate, Salman Syed, claiming that Syed has reneged on an agreed 50-50 partnership.

Case hinges on supposed agreement made at Yale School of Management

Grusd’s case states that the partnership for Dolphin Golf was agreed at Yale School of Management. However, immediately after graduation Grusd decided he needed to seek salaried employment before he could consider going it alone with a startup.

He says he then learnt that, earlier this year, Syed had gone ahead without consulting him with a new partner (a second defendant, Ammad Faisal), US$4m worth of financing and a different business name – ‘Golfkick’ – but, according to Grusd, using the exact same golf technology innovation as Dolphin Golf.

As for Syed’s side of the story, at present the only indication of his reaction stems from a letter cited in the lawsuit in which Syed asserts that the two Yale MBAs were ‘not really partners’ and disputes the suggestion that Grusd was responsible for the idea of using statistics in this way.

He also writes that the type of golf technology being used in his current project with Faisal is not the same as with ‘Dolphin Golf’ in any case – as Golfkick sees the innovative technology attached to the golf club and not the golf ball as was the case with Dolphin Golf.

Grusd, a former attorney who worked in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, is asking for his 50% share of the Golfkick plus damages. Syed is yet to make a formal statement in his defense.

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