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During a challenging fundraising environment, the DexAI founders received two term sheets with nearly identical economic terms but very different legal ones. The entrepreneurs had to navigate: representations and warranties (their personal guarantees that the company's intellectual property was free and clear and that its financial statements were accurate), investor control terms (protective provisions, Board of Directors composition, and matters that required investor approval), and how their founders' stock was treated (a buyback right that effectively vested their stock and how that might change upon a company sale/merger/IPO, the termination of a founder, or a founder's resignation for "good reason"). The case also explores a possible intellectual property violation with one founder's prior employer.

Sarah Reynolds, a Partner at the global Kensington Partners strategy consulting firm, has headed the firm's Telecommunications Group for a few years. Thanks to her stellar track record with clients, she has brought the group, and herself, a range of accolades and recognition. Amid this success, she faces a handful of challenges: a new hybrid work paradigm within client services, mentoring the Vice Presidents and Associates within her group, integrating and utilizing new technical staffs into her existing practice, and more, all while maintaining the same level of results that brought her such responsibilities in the first place. With seemingly not enough hours in the day to tackle everything, Reynolds faces difficult tradeoffs for what to prioritize moving forward.

Peter Schneider, the President of T.G.S. Transportation, Inc., faced a choice. His company operated drayage trucks that moved containerized cargo between the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland to customers across the State of California, with a focus on the Central Valley. California's new Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation (ACF) issued by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in 2023, had specific requirements for drayage trucks that moved cargo from the state's intermodal seaports and railyards. Internal combustion engine (ICE) trucks placed in service by yearend 2023 would be allowed to continue to serve the ports and terminals, but beginning January 1, 2024, newly purchased trucks would have to be zero-emission. That meant that drayage operators like TGS could make a last-time buy of ICE trucks in 2023, but they had to decide what to switch to starting in 2024. The only viable choices were battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell.

This case illustrated the business ecosystem of WeChat from two perspectives. From an external perspective, the WeChat ecosystem was part of Tencent's overall ecosystem. Using this perspective, the case examined the external relationships between the WeChat ecosystem and the external environment. Looking closely, the various parties collaborating on the WeChat platform formed an ecosystem. From an internal perspective, the case examined the internal relationships within the WeChat ecosystem. The platform was not a closed, impenetrable ecosystem. Expertise, resources, and value could flow in and out, enabling sharing and exchanges. However, it was not entirely open. Certain boundaries protected the independence and distinctiveness of the WeChat ecosystem. As a result, participants better suited to the nature of the WeChat ecosystem would thrive. Externally, WeChat was born with the mission of delivering Tencent's new strategy to encourage openness and sharing, representing Tencent's determination to change after its former core product, QQ, was accused of monopolistic behavior. Apart from serving the more extensive "Tencent ecosystem," WeChat was also developing its own ecosystem. The two systems supported and empowered each other. Internally, WeChat helped various types of participants find their most appropriate roles within WeChat. Through product and function design, capacity empowerment, resource channeling, and rulemaking, WeChat ensured there was room for key enterprises, users, distributors, suppliers, and even competitors. All parties would find their proper places. In this newly established value network, WeChat would help capital, information, and traffic flow in an orderly manner. Different parties could seek monetization and exchange value to sustain their survival, co-exist with others, and contribute to a symbiotic environment.

Pear Therapeutics seemed off to a promising start as a young digital therapeutics (DTx) company, taking a focused approach to demonstrate the efficacy of new software therapies, generate value for prescribers and patients, and secure reimbursement from insurance companies. Investors were also excited about the potential for evidence-based, software-driven therapeutic interventions - instead of going to a pharmacy for a bottle of pills, patients would get a prescription to download a software app designed to help treat their disease. And new DTx companies like Pear Therapeutics saw great promise in packing the power of a pharmaceutical products into a software products. The case study provides background on the rapid growth and challenges in the new DTx field, and details of Pear's early successes with digital therapies designed to treat insomnia and substance use disorders. But for Pear, continuing investment in the development of a robust produce portfolio proved difficult, in light of the difficulties navigating the insurance reimbursement minefield, while managing investor expectations. Were Pear's troubles - and eventual failure - an ominous cloud over the future of the DTx sector?

Big Tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have an AI advantage thanks to the vast amounts of data that they collect through their respective platforms. Using federated machine learning (FedML) technology, companies with access to relatively small data sets can join forces in collaborative artificial intelligence projects while keeping proprietary data private. FedML could be a game changer in bridging the digital divide between organizations with and without big data.

As the leading e-commerce platform in Hong Kong, Hong Kong TV Shopping Network Company Limited (HKTVmall) faced an important challenge in early 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic had severely disrupted the global supply chain for personal protective equipment (PPE), and prices for masks and other products on its website had skyrocketed. While management had little knowledge or experience in sourcing or producing such products, they wondered whether they had a responsibility to act on this matter. Despite its meteoric growth, the company had yet to turn a profit, so the executives were unsure as to whether they should let the invisible hand of the market restore the equilibrium between supply and demand or take an extra step to guarantee a stable supply of PPE. If the platform intervened, was contracting with new local suppliers the right way to go, or should HKTVmall itself start producing PPE?

This case reviews the market risks resulting from issuing and managing autocallable equity-linked instruments by a bank in the Asian markets. A number of weaknesses in the risk management framework of the issuing organization ultimately led to significant losses that could have been avoided. The purpose of the case is to identify these potential weaknesses and suggest what could have been done to improve the risk management framework of the organization. The case illustrates the two possible generic explanations for the losses at the issuer. On the one hand, some people involved first blamed the deficiency of the risk model and the quantitative framework; others put more blame on the structural shortcomings in the risk management framework.

Lending firms like Partners for Growth (PFG) supplied growth capital to nascent companies, using debt instruments that did not dilute shareholders-contrary to traditional equity funding models. The customized approach allowed entrepreneurs to bring in additional capital without taking dilution in ownership. While instruments such as venture debt was becoming increasingly popular within the U.S. innovation ecosystem, venture debt and tech lending had yet to become widely available to entrepreneurial companies in the Middle East. PFG saw this as an opportunity to expand into the MENA region ahead of other organizations that were not as comfortable with the debt lending business model for start-up companies. The company's leaders had just finalized two term sheets and were discussing how PFG might support two different companies in the Middle East: Tabby, a fintech leader looking to expand "Buy Now Pay Later" financing; and Bayzat, a SaaS company that provided human resources solutions to small and medium-sized companies in the region.

One of the most consequential governance questions for platform operators is deciding who sets prices and what discretion other parties in the transaction have to alter them. Putting the locus of control primarily in the hands of the platform provider presents drawbacks but so does allowing other stakeholders to set prices, if prices set too high or too low limit participation on the platform. The authors advocate for a hybrid approach that shares some control.

The success or failure of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals (Dicerna) as an emerging pharmaceutical company would likely hinge on its lead drug candidate Nedosiran and the company's ability to see it successfully through clinical development. Ralf Rosskamp, Chief Medical Officer, had an ambitious clinical development plan that leveraged novel technology and a dynamic regulatory strategy to rapidly accelerate Nedosiran's development as a treatment for a rare disease. The case elaborates on Rosskamp's plan to design, operationalize and execute the clinical development plan, with a limited staff and an aggressive time line.

The case opens in March 2023, as Sten van der Ham and Jaap Maljers, CEO and co-founder of eBee, an electric bike (e-bike) company in Africa, are contemplating the different avenues for growth and path to profitability for the young and ambitious company. In 2023, the company had been gaining traction in Kenya under three business models and was also getting ready to raise a financing round of €8-10 million. eBee had the first mover advantage of having introduced e-bikes and van der Ham and Maljers needed to decide which levers to pull for to best grow eBee going forward. The case chronicles the founding of eBee, provides details on its bike designed for the terrain in Africa, and its unit economics. The case then lays the ground transportation Africa complete with challenges, opportunities, and the competitive outlook. The case then goes into detail about the three go-to-market channels that eBee picked to penetrate into the Kenyan market. The case goes into detail about the three different business models-vehicle as a service, fulfillment, and direct sales-that eBee is piloting in 2023 as well as providing an understanding of what each operate, their financial prospects, and growth outlooks, as eBee tries to grow its sales. While each business model presented its challenges and were yet to prove profitable at scale, van der Ham and Maljers firmly believed the in the immense opportunity to grow e-bikes in Africa and in eBee's first mover advantage. The duo was excited about geographical expansion. Others on the team and advisory board held that, obtaining proof of concept in Kenya first would be more helpful, while some suggested to eliminate some of the business models and focus more on others.

Marina Larroudé stared glumly at all the crossings out on the proposed boots order for the autumn collection. Her husband Ricardo wanted to cut her suggestions by nearly half - in models, colours and quantities. Their fledgling shoe business had begun to a promising buzz a few months ago, but last month's sales had dwindled to a trickle. Ricardo feared that Marina's bold order would leave them stranded with unsold inventory. She sipped her coffee and wondered if he was right to be cautious. Had their initial reception been a fad? Was this opportunity as attractive as they had assumed a few short months ago? Should she push back or accept her husband's cuts?

This case follows the entrepreneurial journey of SmartHR founder Shoji Miyata as he led his company to become the leading cloud player in the human resources space and one of only a handful of tech unicorns in Japan. By automating, digitalizing, and streamlining traditional HR functions such as onboarding new employees and managing social insurance, SmartHR was at the forefront of reducing manual HR-related paperwork in the country. Among the 1.87 million business entities in Japan, most of which still relied on manual paperwork in their HR processes, SmartHR's product offerings quickly gained traction and the company experienced exponential growth. SmartHR grew to a 45.8% market share in the labor management cloud space overall and a 71.7% market share in the enterprise segment. Although Miyata felt it was an honor to have led SmartHR, he saw the merits of voluntarily relinquishing the CEO role and passing the baton to a successor as the company became larger and might seek an IPO in the future. He felt that he could not adapt to the changes in the macro environment, ultimately deciding to let go and focus on a new venture in a rare move in business succession.

For the past ten years, dacadoo, a healthtech and insurtech start-up based in Switzerland, has been developing and operating its digital health engagement solution, including mobile applications, exploring ways to monetize the patented and AI-based health score it developed. Dacadoo has a dual objective: It aims to help users achieve and maintain healthy lifestyles with its proprietary "health score" and a digital health engagement solution, while at the same time it seeks to drive digital transformation of the insurance industry, with a focus on life and health insurers. As dacadoo has moved from being a start-up into a high-growth phase, this case series explores which business model(s) will help the company grow to its full potential. In 2010, Peter Ohnemus, a serial entrepreneur who had already built sixteen companies, took some well-deserved time off after the sale of his last successful venture. During this "between ventures" break in Verbier, he noticed his health had improved after two weeks of ski touring, but he could not quantify exactly how much he had progressed. That is when a new idea came to him: How to score human health holistically, encompassing physical health, mental wellbeing and lifestyle. Peter came down from the mountains and started a new company, which led to dacadoo.

For the past ten years, dacadoo, a healthtech and insurtech start-up based in Switzerland, has been developing and operating its digital health engagement solution, including mobile applications, exploring ways to monetize the patented and AI-based health score it developed. Dacadoo has a dual objective: It aims to help users achieve and maintain healthy lifestyles with its proprietary "health score" and a digital health engagement solution, while at the same time it seeks to drive digital transformation of the insurance industry, with a focus on life and health insurers. As dacadoo has moved from being a start-up into a high-growth phase, this case series explores which business model(s) will help the company grow to its full potential. In 2010, Peter Ohnemus, a serial entrepreneur who had already built sixteen companies, took some well-deserved time off after the sale of his last successful venture. During this "between ventures" break in Verbier, he noticed his health had improved after two weeks of ski touring, but he could not quantify exactly how much he had progressed. That is when a new idea came to him: How to score human health holistically, encompassing physical health, mental wellbeing and lifestyle. Peter came down from the mountains and started a new company, which led to dacadoo.

For the past ten years, dacadoo, a healthtech and insurtech start-up based in Switzerland, has been developing and operating its digital health engagement solution, including mobile applications, exploring ways to monetize the patented and AI-based health score it developed. Dacadoo has a dual objective: It aims to help users achieve and maintain healthy lifestyles with its proprietary "health score" and a digital health engagement solution, while at the same time it seeks to drive digital transformation of the insurance industry, with a focus on life and health insurers. As dacadoo has moved from being a start-up into a high-growth phase, this case series explores which business model(s) will help the company grow to its full potential. In 2010, Peter Ohnemus, a serial entrepreneur who had already built sixteen companies, took some well-deserved time off after the sale of his last successful venture. During this "between ventures" break in Verbier, he noticed his health had improved after two weeks of ski touring, but he could not quantify exactly how much he had progressed. That is when a new idea came to him: How to score human health holistically, encompassing physical health, mental wellbeing and lifestyle. Peter came down from the mountains and started a new company, which led to dacadoo.