After a successful career as Chairman and CEO of Paris-based luxury food company, Fauchon, Laurent Adamowicz, sought to reduce obesity and improve health outcomes. Adamowicz created a mobile application to provide consumers with more accessible and interpretable knowledge about the food they were eating so they could make better decisions. Despite Adamowicz's focus on promoting healthful and informed eating habits, many choices still lay ahead of him in deciding how to develop a platform and database, the type of business model that would best support his goals, and the types of collaboration and marketing techniques that would get his idea off the ground. Since 2010, Laurent Adamowicz evolved his concept for a mechanism that acted as a "nutritionist in your pocket" into Bon'App, a fully formed nutrition database and nutritional educational platform. After multiple iterations of the app design and revenue model, Bon'App began to see encouraging results with an increased user base and usage. Adamowicz's venture was accepted into a prominent Boston-based accelerator, attracted outside capital, added team members and attracted its first paying corporate client. Despite the progress made Adamowicz knew that his start-up remained in a fragile state. He wondered if he would be able to maintain the flexibility needed to capitalize on new opportunities while staying true to his mission to create a new standard for nutritional information.

In July 2012, retired United States Army Major General Gale Pollock created Elevivo, a venture that worked on developing a comprehensive disease management software system to support the growing number of visually impaired individuals by providing them with tailored information for how to create and sustain a high quality of life despite vision loss. As a first time entrepreneur, Pollock was continuously frustrated with the slow pace of process. She also faced a number of challenges, including personal setbacks, financing concerns, large institutional deficiencies within the existing medical infrastructure, and a need to shift her business model. Pollock had an unwavering commitment to the development and adoption of the system.

David Weinstein, a lawyer and former Chief Administrative Officer of mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments, launched Write the World, a proprietary online platform that included a writing curriculum, essay prompts in distinct subject matter, and access to expert reviewers. By July 2013, Weinstein had completed his first writing competition in partnership with a school, where students submitted essays through Write the World. While Weinstein was eager to host future competitions, he also considered a number of other models to expand the program.

In 2011, Junko Yoda with Pam McCambridge launched CLinked, a venture aimed to reduce human trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation. Since incorporation, they launched several different pilot programs in partnership with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Lampung, Indonesia where they also encountered a number of challenges ranging from a lack of trust within the local community to diminishing financial resources. Yoda struggled with the best approach to the large and complex issue, but started to gravitate towards developing replicable programs using art that positively impacted a small number of victims in high-risk communities. In 2013, Yoda wondered how she would grow CLinked and ensure its future.