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Using raw, uncut footage, this video case asks students to evaluate the effectiveness of the first contact that took place in November 2016 between representatives from two technology companies—iQmetrix and Straker Translations. The two firms are contemplating a business partnership in which Straker will provide iQmetrix with translation services. First contact calls generally precede every business partnership and are normally completed only after the respective business-development or sales representatives have prepared for the call by learning the basics about the other side’s organization—in particular, whether there is a good fit between what the buyer needs and what the supplier can provide in terms of quality, cost, and capabilities of service.

This micro-startup, originating within a rapidly growing young Singapore-based commercial information services firm, seeks to offer individual customers and small organisations access to valid data about relationships among persons and organisations, that are relevant to well-defined specific needs and drawn from the public domain. This information will be provided at an affordable price or in some cases, in part-exchange for new data curated by the customer. Although the development team was committed to launch their mobile business intelligence application Kaypo in early 2019, they still needed insights into several key issues, including branding, the user interface for their Android app, and the evolution of their business model.

In September 2016, Javier Polo, a senior executive from the Telco sector, was appointed CEO of PlayGiga, a technology start-up. The company had spent three years successfully developing a technology to enable users to play videogames from the cloud, without needing a gaming console (e.g. PlayStation, Xbox) or an expensive gaming PC. However, no significant sales had materialized. After three months in the position, the CEO needed to prove the market acceptance for the new service. Important decisions had to be taken about the value proposition, which customer segment to focus on and about the go-to-market strategy. In particular, if a direct-to-consumer commercialization would be better than selling the service through Telecom and Media companies. This is a 'customer discovery' and 'problem-solution fit' case. The broader issue addressed in this case is how to go from a 'promising idea' based on initial customer insights and a technological breakthrough (i.e. the founding team has developed a technology that solves important customer pains) to a compelling product-market fit proposition and then to a corresponding go-to-market strategy.

In 2017, Chinese clothing manufacturer Qingdao Kutesmart Co. Ltd. (Kutesmart) had been transformed into a customer-to-manufacturer platform company, where customers could order individualized products directly from the makers over the Internet. Since 2000, Kutesmart had been upgrading its information system as its business strategy evolved, and the company had become a widely known, successful case study of mass-customization-based manufacturing in China. However, as the company leaped forward into the age of digitization and globalization, its founder faced a number of questions: How could Kutesmart extract more value from its data resources and technology? The company was assessing and pursuing a platform strategy; could this strategy help Kutesmart take its business to the next level? What were the opportunities and challenges?

In January 2019, a second-year master of business administration student has come up with an idea for a new venture: sourcing products from her social contacts, using Instagram to direct traffic to her company website, and utilizing the postal service to deliver goods. Does a viable business opportunity really exist, or are there too many unknowns?

In 2013, three friends from college came together to found Zenatix, an Indian energy data analytics company. Based on Internet-of-things technology, the team built WattMan, a hardware-based product that could monitor the usage and performance of electrical assets such as air conditioners and refrigerators. It saved energy costs by suggesting corrective action. Zenatix faced challenges in identifying the right target market for WattMan and matching the product features to its clients’ needs. By 2016, it had made two shifts in target markets and Zenatix had to convince investors of the potential of its latest target market, especially after adding a new control feature in WattMan III. With funds running low, this was a make-or-break situation for Zenatix.

Crafting a Founders' Agreement is an important component of startup infrastructure as it documents a complex set of decisions that build a company's roots. Its four key elements are: roles and responsibilities, rights (decision rights, rewards, position on board), commitments (time invested, IP, capital contributions) and contingencies (vesting, stock restrictions etc.). The note indicates how to initiate a conversation with a co-founder, and provides a checklist of questions that can serve as a conversation guide to draft the Founders' Agreement together. An Agreement is a framework, not a rigid set of rules set in stone, and should be created with flexibility and conditionality. The process of creating and revising the Agreement can bring clarity and commitment to the founding team and enable them to anticipate conflicts before they hurt the business. A Sample Agreement is included.

June 20, 2016. It was the day Magic Pony Technology galloped to fame after Twitter announced its acquisition of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) start-up for a reported US$150 million. Co-founded by Rob Bishop and Zehan Wang in London in 2014, Magic Pony specialised in using machine learning, a branch of AI, to optimise image-processing technology that greatly enhanced the quality of video streaming over the Internet on mobile devices. Along with a team of highly-skilled computer and neuro-scientists, Magic Pony brought critical technology in video compression to Twitter which would strengthen the microblogging service's live streaming capabilities. To battle against stagnant subscriber growth, one of Twitter's best bets perhaps was to rely on high-quality live video streaming in an attempt to draw a larger user base from a broader cross-section of the society. On the other side of the deal, the successful exit of the 18-month-old start-up was engineered by its founders based on a mix of strategies which included securing investment from venture capitalists and resisting acquisition offers from smaller players while perfecting the technology until a sizeable offer (i.e., Twitter) came along. Looking back, was there a better time to sell? Why was Twitter successful in acquiring Magic Pony while others failed? What made Magic Pony a favourite acquisition target?

The case follows the evolution of EnerGaia, a technology firm pioneering rooftop production of spirulina (blue-green algae) in developing markets. The narrative and discussion questions focus on the strategic choices of CEO Saumil Shah. Core questions regard Saumil's options for positioning his company within the value chain and the trade-offs he faces in pursuing a mid-end market in Europe for dry spirulina powder versus lower cost spirulina in the developing markets of Asia. The case describes how Saumil leverages reputation to obtain resources. EnerGaia wins various awards from development organisations (Blue Ocean, USAID) that love its mission to help the poor with a new farming system. A social mission also helps attract quality interns and biologists. A challenge of these financial and reputational influxes is that they enable the firm to continue without necessarily becoming profitable and that they may risk pushing the firm in a specific direction that may not be sustainable in the long-run. Now the firm may appear to be "going corporate", deviating from its roots and "springboarding" on the reputational advantages of a socially-oriented start-up model to become a profit-seeking biotech firm. In identifying and realising an emergent strategy, Saumil and his staff must wrestle with sustaining a consistent identity, allocating scarce resources, and building scalable processes. The case concludes by asking which direction its CEO should take for 2018: should he continue working towards developing markets in multiple countries while chasing development grant money as a social enterprise, or should he focus on commercial partnerships? Also, while working with his scientists, should the CEO continue his pursuit of an Eternal Ocean breakthrough to empower scaling of the EnerGaia solution across rural landscapes, or should he focus on pioneering farm-scale organics to supply high-priced spirulina (and the tech to produce it) to a rapidly growing European market?

Yuser Inc. (Yuser) was a new social networking start-up based in London, Ontario. Well-established social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube had begun to restrict social media influencers’ monetization of their user base, and this had opened an opportunity for a new social media network to make three-way interactions among users, social media influencers (SMIs), and corporate sponsors completely stable and transparent. Yuser granted SMIs freedom in terms of the content they posted, allowing companies to identify influencers who helped their marketing efforts and to financially reward them using Yuser’s cryptocurrency. Rather than facilitating two-way relationships, as most platforms did, Yuser would help build triangular relationships among companies, target markets, and SMIs. However, Yuser’s business concept was complex, making it difficult for the company’s chief operations officer to pitch Yuser’s value proposition to external investors. In June 2018, she needed to find a delicate balance that would allow her to inform investors of the venture’s potential without overwhelming them in a sea of confusing details.

A group of Canadian parents wanted the Canadian government to create a redress system related to Canada’s no-fly list, which affected some of their young children whenever they flew. The parents formed an advocacy group called the No Fly List Kids group in 2016, and the group undertook various campaigns—including innovative guerrilla marketing campaigns and uses of both digital and traditional marketing—to highlight the issue of Canadian children being identified as potential security risks before they boarded flights within Canada. Over a three-year period, the group worked to raise awareness of the issue and to pressure the Canadian government to create a redress system similar to that in the United States. Its efforts eventually resulted in the allocation in 2018 of CA$81.4 million dollars for a redress system. In November 2018, the group was scheduled to meet members of the Senate, and it had to decide what short-term and long-term activities to undertake to achieve its stated goal of having a functioning redress system that would help all those affected by the no-fly list—not only children of group members, but all people, young and old, from various backgrounds.

AWARD-WINNING CASE - African Business Cases Category, 2019 European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Case Writing Competition. In 2014, an entrepreneur in Cape Town, South Africa, started SweepSouth with her husband. Their mission was to enable dignified home cleaning work for the most vulnerable blue-collar workers, and they offered several services to empower them. When the company struggled to meet the demand for domestic services over the December holiday period, the founders realized the extent of the market’s need to connect domestic workers with potential clients. Given the entrepreneur’s business acumen and her husband’s skills and experience in software development, they created a digital platform that was often labelled the Uber of domestic services. SweepSouth employed 40 staff members and had 8,000 contractors (referred to as “SweepStars”) on the company’s platform. In 2018, the two founders wanted to scale up the business for greater social impact and had to choose among expanding the business to other African countries, expanding the service offering to office spaces, or remaining focused on serving the home and adding new services such as gardening and plumbing.

On September 30, 2017, the general manager (GM) of Uber Technologies Inc. (Uber) for sub-Saharan Africa, arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, and paid for his Uber service with cash. This functionality of the Uber app represented a new business model for Uber. The GM had to convince global management of the business case for offering cash payment options in Africa; he did so by conducting experiments and showing data that indicated rider numbers had tripled with adoption of the cash payment option. Uber’s driver-partners were concerned about safety when they transported passengers who paid by cash, both because credit card payments offered Uber rider identification and because the driver-partners were concerned about driving around with large amounts of cash. In spite of their concerns, the rationale for introducing a cash payment option was relevant, and it had to be considered carefully in the context of African locations with high crime rates. The GM considered various initiatives for utilizing data from their technology platform to safeguard their riders and drivers. They needed to address local needs in Africa while adhering to global Uber standards.

BotGo was started in 2007 by Ravi Panchal, an engineer, after he lost motivation to continue at a managerial role at his job. A hands-on technical person, Panchal was inspired to create an underwater tank-cleaning robot. He started BotGo by bootstrapping it with his savings and roped in his friends for key positions in the company. He also started workshops for robotics education in colleges in order to sustain the company; he called this initiative BotLearn. In 2009, BotGo was incubated and Panchal started franchises for BotLearn as part of his growth plans. This led to a crisis within the company, escalating to a point where Panchal was forced to consider options. This case highlights the importance of a product-to-market fit and examines the decision to franchise in view of the case facts. The case also points towards the mistakes in crisis management, with particular emphasis on channel management. Towards the end of the case, Panchal is faced with a dilemma on whether to continue with the franchises or close them down. The dilemma is further accentuated since Panchal's decision would ultimately affect the growth of BotGo as well as directly challenge his intention to franchise.

Argus Farm Stop is a year-round farmers market store in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The owners launched the business with a mission to improve support for local farmers and offer the community better access to locally-produced food. The Argus model is a consignment arrangement so that farmers and other local producers can sell more directly to customers and retain more of the profit. However, though growing in revenue and having opened a second store location, Argus is not profitable. How can this business be scaled while still adhering to its mission?

Vedavoo is a new venture created by Scott Hunter, a driven entrepreneur, avid outdoorsman, and environmentalist who is passionate about fly fishing and the great outdoors. The case follows the challenges Scott faces in building new products for what appears at first to be a declining market opportunity. With severely limited resources, Scott sets about designing and making a signature product, the Sling Pack, that has the unique characteristic of staying fixed on the back as the sportsperson engages in the energetic action of fly casting in sport fishing. When Scott introduces the product line at an outdoor sports trade show, interest in the product line grows rapidly. Determined to grow his product line organically over time, the founder faces challenges in design, quality manufacturing, and meeting customer demand while staying true to his values. The case follows Scott as he develops his opportunity, resources, and team to build a potentially scalable enterprise in a competitive field of outdoor adventure sports accessories (backpacks and customized bags for climbing, fly fishing, and a variety of outdoor experiences). After several frustrating attempts to find manufacturers that could make the intricately designed Vedavoo sling pack product, Scott heeds Yvon Chouinard's (founder and CEO of Patagonia) advice to learn all aspects of the business by learning how to do everything himself, including the making of the product, in order to learn all of the ins and outs of each business process of the product and venture. Ultimately, Scott undergoes many of the tests facing an entrepreneur attempting to build a new venture: building a line of products with unique characteristics that customers value, building a team and strong culture to operate effectively, and finding resources to define and grow the venture throughout the startup and early growth process.

The case can be used in a session on entrepreneurship, disruptive technology innovation, or focus as an aspect of strategy. The case profiles Mettl Inc., an Indian online assessment startup, as it lays the groundwork for becoming one of India's first software as a service (SAAS) companies to breach the USD 100 million threshold. Solving for flexibility, system resilience, dispersed geographical spread of candidates and test integrity, Mettl was looking to develop a viable alternative to traditional assessment methods. The case provides an outline of the assessment industry and the factors that influence Mettl's market strategy. Using the personal journeys of Mettl's founders Ketan Kapoor and Tonmoy Shingal as a narrative hook to play itself out, the case traces the conception of their initial vision and examines the market forces that led them to pivot and build a technology platform that delivered assessments. It goes on to chronicle Mettl's journey from the garage to a dedicated office in the Indian National Capital Region (NCR). Successes, setbacks and the factors on which they are predicated are discussed in detail. The case also chronicles various rounds of funding and provides critical insights into the thinking of India's pre-eminent early stage venture capitalists. It then ventures to put this initial success in perspective and asks the hard question about the future of the enterprise: How would Kapoor and Shingal traverse the road to 100 million?

Case A describes a leadership crisis affecting the managing director of the German construction company SÄBU Holzbau GmbH. In 2013, severe organizational problems, such as deficiencies in internal communication, indecisiveness, and a lack of clarity in the distribution of tasks and responsibilities, led to frustrations for both customers and employees. The crisis culminated with three key employees leaving the company because they were no longer willing to cope with what they described as “chaos.”

Case B describes how management at SÄBU Holzbau GmbH was able to overcome the crisis with the help of a team of consultants who supported the company through a change process that significantly altered the its culture.