From Mug to Mike: The Scale-Up Puzzle

<p align="justify">Sunil Koshy considered himself a “passionpreneur;” after quitting a well-paid job as a software engineer, he chased his passion for singing and founded From Mug to Mike (FMTM), a start-up that helped amateur singers polish their singing skills. Stemming from Koshy’s passion, FMTM had evolved into a business venture with viable products, services, and a scalable business model. To scale up FMTM, Koshy needed to decide whether the business should take a geography- or a product-led route.

<p align="justify">The case traces the journey of an information technology professional turned musician and his music venture. Instructors can use this case to augment the classroom discussion on courses focusing on entrepreneurship. The first broad learning objective of this case is to discuss and understand the difficulties in transitioning from being an employee to an entrepreneur without a specific business idea. Those who follow their passion sometimes end up on an entrepreneurial route found inadvertently after meandering through rough roads with twists and turns. Even though this is not the focus of the case, the case nevertheless lends itself to an open classroom discussion on this aspect of accidental entrepreneurship.<br><br>The second broad learning objective of this case is to examine how the scaling up of enterprises is a tough ask for all entrepreneurs. These challenges are greater for people with little business or management training. This case also has immense scope for classroom discussions leading to the discovery of potential scaling-up options for entrepreneurs. Topics such as scaling using franchising, licensing, acquisition, and external borrowings as debt or equity can be incorporated into the classroom discussions. This case specifically asks the participants to look at two distinct routes of scaling up—a geography-led route and a product-led route. Through the case discussion, students will obtain a holistic overview of various aspects and challenges involved in starting, stabilizing, and scaling enterprises.

• Scaling-Up
• 6S of Scaling-Up
• Business Model Canvas
• Entrepreneurship