Brooke Boyarsky Pratt (HBS '13) enjoyed considerable success in her early career, quickly climbing the ranks to associate partner at McKinsey, and later becoming an executive vice president at Berkadia, a Berkshire Hathaway portfolio company. Throughout these years, she had also felt a strong desire to follow her passion and make a difference but had never been able to determine what that meant for her. However, as someone who had struggled with her weight since she was young, a routine visit to the doctor in 2020 where she experienced weight stigma yet again turned into a clarion call, and led Boyarsky Pratt to consider finding some way to address the problem of obesity care. After wrestling with the idea for nearly two years, Boyarsky Pratt quit her job at Berkadia to start knownwell, an integrated weight and primary care provider that had made business model and service design choices to specifically support people with obesity. In December 2022, knownwell raised a $4.5m seed round, and in the spring of 2023, opened its first weight-inclusive clinic in the Boston area to glowing and touching patient reviews. Looking to the future, Boyarsky Pratt had to make a fundamental decision on how she wanted to grow knownwell. Should she grow slowly and build a small footprint of clinics in the area over the next few years? Or should she scale fast to potentially help millions of people across the U.S. struggling with their weight feel better served by their doctor? This decision had both professional and personal implications. Which path should she take?
In the summer of 2023, Amperity management was facing a critical decision on its future direction. Given the dramatic changes occurring within the digital advertising ecosystem, as concerns over consumer privacy placed limits on the ability to engage in third-party tracking, Amperity had to decide whether to pivot and develop a dedicated solution for advertisers based on first-party data. Such a pivot would require shifting resources from improving the company's core product, the customer data platform (CDP), which helped firms unify all their data sources and properly identify customers; as well as take targeted marketing actions mainly on their existing customers (i.e., development and retention efforts). A shift to serve digital advertising players not only had far reaching product development implications, but also strategic and go-to-market consequences. In particular, Amperity was considered a leader in the CDP category and a pivot could risk that position. Furthermore, the move would likely require changing the company's communications approach-who its salesforce targeted and how-and could imply partnering with digital ad agencies as well as ad platforms, like Meta and Google Ads. The monetization structure going forward also required careful consideration. Specifically, to date Amperity's pricing was contracted upfront and largely based on the number of customer profiles its CDP was expected to identify and the amount of data to be ingested. However, in the paid advertising domain, players typically took a percentage cut of the overall campaign spend. Not lost on Amperity co-founder and CTO Derek Slager's mind was that many clients, existing and prospective, were looking for concrete ways to leverage generative AI tools to improve their customer relationship management efforts.
In 2023, Darktrace CEO Poppy Gustafsson was contemplating her growth strategy at a leading U.K.-based cybersecurity venture, launched in 2013 by a group of anti-terror cyber specialists, University of Cambridge mathematicians, and artificial intelligence (AI) experts. Darktrace was also one of the few technology companies built around AI from the start prior to Generative AI, and it offered AI-powered solutions to protect customers from a variety of complex online threats. Two years earlier, Darktrace had gone public on the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of $2.4 billion. In the wake of the IPO, in 2022, both the chief marketing officer and chief revenue officer had approached Gustafsson to tell her they wanted to step down from their roles. They were cofounders, and Gustafsson had worked with them from the start. Gustafsson and her team were weighing the decision of whether to bring on external hires or to promote from within for the CRO and CMO roles. The goal was to scale Darktrace from $500 million in revenues to $1 billion. The decision to recruit externally had significant investment implications, given fears of recession, high inflation, and layoffs faced by many companies in the second half of 2022. Recruiting talent from the outside would change the organization's hiring model, compensation structure, and incentives. But there were other concerns. Would newly recruited talent from the outside mesh with the culture and organization that Gustafsson and her cofounders had built at the company's U.K. headquarters? She knew she would have to manage sensitivities on both sides. What was the best way to ensure a smooth transition, and what qualities should she be looking for in the two new C-level executives? Was this a necessary step to realize her ambitions for growth?
Based in Boston's Chinatown, the Asian Community Development Corporation's mission was to build affordable homes, empower families, and strengthen communities. The case examines whether ACDC should continue pursuing all three goals or focus on affordable housing.
Kickstarter was a virtual crowdfunding platform and community that allowed creators of all kinds to raise funding for creative projects. The executive team was wrestling with a tension in its business model: the organization earned the majority of its revenue from projects that were not closely aligned with its mission. The executives saw the mission as raising funds for art projects, however such projects only accounted for 3% of total funds raised. They were also concerned that societal interest in arts was declining. Kickstarter was a Public Benefit Corporation and therefore it measured its success by how well it achieved its mission, not by the size of its profits.
Unicorn human relationships startup Beamery evaluates it growth versus depth strategy as its strategic partners and customers could become future competitors in a quickly changing AI based human resources and talent management industry.
Fama Technologies is an online screening company that uses AI to analyze job applicants' publicly available online content for signs of risk and culture fit. The case opens with Ben Mones, founder and CEO, looking to secure funding from venture firms. He is running into resistance: public opinion of the product, and social media screening in general, is mixed, and HR technology in general is a considered a tough sell to VCs. Could he prove the value of the tool on his next pitch?
Fama Technologies is an online screening company that uses AI to analyze job applicants' publicly available online content for signs of risk and culture fit. The case opens with Ben Mones, founder and CEO, looking to secure funding from venture firms. He is running into resistance: public opinion of the product, and social media screening in general, is mixed, and HR technology in general is considered a tough sell to VCs. Could he prove the value of the tool on his next pitch?
Frank Brown, CIS of Atlanta's new Black CEO, was keen to extend CIS's well-honed case management in schools program to youth in college. Founded 50 years ago by Bill Milliken, CIS, a network of 110 affiliates, had built a strong program of assisting and supporting youth in poverty schools to complete their high school education. CIS Atlanta's thrust which would be a new stretch for the network had the strong backing of the network's new national CEO, Rey Saldana, a CIS alum himself. Under Saldana, the organization had won two major grants of $133.5 million and $165 million recently, which could be put to use. The case wrestles with the question of what should the network do? What should the Atlanta affiliate do?
Provides a history of the LPGA and examines the gender pay gap in professional sports. Discusses the opportunities and challenges the LPGA currently faces.
This case follows the evolution of pricing strategy at Echosec Systems, a Canadian open source intelligence firm. The case provides information on pricing as the company grows and diversifies its product offerings.
The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) has organized the presidential and vice-presidential debates in the United States since 1988. In the spring of 2022, the Republican National Committee threatened to bar their nominees from participating in any CPD-sponsored debates in the upcoming election. The CPD must decide how to handle this challenge.
Kovi, a car rental startup located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, provides affordable access to rental cars for rideshare drivers. The case examines the origins of the company, provides background on the auto and rideshare industries in Brazil, and follows the CEO, Adhemar Milani Neto, as he evaluates options for growing the company.
Examines the extent of and challenges facing female entrepreneurs in developing countries. There are higher rates of female entrepreneurship in developing countries than developed countries, but necessity is often the main driver in lower income countries. Explores the challenges facing women arising from societal inequality, including lack of educational provision, and difficulties in securing funding.
Considers the opportunities and challenges facing Indian film producers in accessing the global film market. Provides a historical context by describing the history of the cinema and the rise of Hollywood to global dominance by the 1920s. Although film industries continued elsewhere, including Great Britain and France, their products had limited international appeal. Discusses the rise of the Indian film industry and the industry structure. Bollywood films, produced in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), are the most well-known genre. They are typically long, melodramatic, and musical. There are also regional language films produced in Chennai, independent films, and "crossover" films, typically incorporating the experience of the Diaspora in Western countries. Bollywood films in particular have sold well in Southeast Asia and among the Indian Diaspora. Raises the issue whether Indian content films can compete with Hollywood in global markets and to what extent a change in content is necessary for this strategy to work.