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In 2014, with Uber disrupting the taxi industry worldwide and Montreal's industry, hampered by obsolete rules and regulations, in dire need of a revolution, the founders of Teo Taxi hoped to offer a fresh alternative. They proposed a unique business model based on an electric-only taxicab fleet, decent wages for drivers, and profits reinvested in the local economy. Reinventing an industry and fighting strong adversaries such as Uber would however come at a huge cost. The case recounts the story of a young company striving to reach breakeven without compromising the social and environmental values at its core. Despite its best efforts, in January 2019, Teo Taxi filed for bankruptcy, leaving 450 drivers jobless. The case invites students to identify the factors that led to Teo Taxi's bankruptcy and propose strategies that could have helped to achieve breakeven, stabilize the business model, and ensure sustainability.

This case study focuses on the Montreal Community Loan Fund (ACEM), which fights poverty and exclusion through the administration of community credit. More specifically, ACEM provides training and offers loans to marginalized and vulnerable people for pre-start-up, start-up, and consolidation of businesses. The case describes ACEM's recent history and how the organization long chose to increase the scale of community credit services through collaborations and partnerships, avoiding for decades the need to grow its own organization. In 2012, ACEM broke with tradition and launched its own scaling process to double its size. The case thus describes an organization trying to stay focused on its social mission and core values while ensuring its own financial stability and protecting the interests of the network of independent community credit organizations that it co-founded. It thus provides an opportunity to discuss the variants of scaling and the challenges faced by a growing not-for-profit organization. The case ends by describing a dilemma regarding ACEM's financial instability. Students will be asked to make a decision regarding the current scaling process and propose a sustainable model that will make ACEM less dependent on government grants while respecting its core values.