After sourdough bread, countertop chive gardens, and vaccine selfies came a pandemic-era trend that everyone seemed to be in on: one daily chance to guess a five-letter word and crow about your success on social media via little green and yellow squares. From a personal game between a developer and his girlfriend to a global phenomenon in just a few months, Wordle seems poised to outlast its pandemic peers when The New York Times makes an unexpected bid to acquire it. Dissect the journey of one programmer and his viral product as he debates a 7-figure exit before earning his first dollar of revenue.

Pittsburgh, PA, was once the crown jewel of American heavy industry. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city was an undisputed leader in steel production, boasting some of the largest companies and wealthiest individuals in the world. Its abundance of manufacturing jobs also attracted diverse migrants seeking a better life. But when the US steel industry collapsed in the 1980s, major companies fled Pittsburgh, along with wealthier residents and much of the middle class. The city and surrounding towns plunged into poverty, and "Steel City" lost a crucial piece of its identity. By 2022, Pittsburgh appeared to be thriving again. Major research institutions like Carnegie Mellon University drove the city's transition to an "eds and meds" economy. With its profusion of technical talent, Pittsburgh also developed industry clusters around advanced technologies like robotics and lured technology giants like Google and Amazon. Yet this newfound wealth did not extend to all corners of the city. Infrastructure was crumbling, poverty rates remained high, and Black residents had worse outcomes than both white residents and their counterparts in many other cities. Moreover, fiscal challenges and fragmented governance made it difficult for local leadership to implement solutions to these complex problems. Ed Gainey, Pittsburgh's newly elected and first Black mayor, considered objectives for his four-year term. How could he ensure both growth and shared prosperity? Which problems should he tackle first, and who should be at the table? How would he measure progress?

Black entrepreneurs encounter many unique obstacles when raising capital to start and grow a business. During their second year at Harvard Business School (HBS), MBA students Kimberly Foster and Tyler Simpson decided to do something to make a difference for early-stage Black technology entrepreneurs seeking funding. In just four months, they created the inaugural Black New Venture Competition (BNVC), which attracted 300 applicants and became the largest student-led business plan competition for Black entrepreneurs in the U.S. Over the course of the competition, Foster and Simpson were able to begin to identify some of the biases and frictions in the evaluation and funding of early-stage Black ventures. Was there bias in the selection rubric? What would happen when these Black founders faced traditional white VC investors in their next funding round? Now Foster and Simpson needed to decide what to keep and what to change for future iterations of the BNVC. Were they, and their successors, even thinking big enough for BNVC 2.0?