DayTwo: Going to Market with Gut Microbiome

Ayelet  Israeli; David  Lane

Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2019

DayTwo: Going to Market with Gut Microbiome

Abstract

DayTwo is a young Israeli startup that applies research on the gut microbiome and machine learning algorithms to deliver personalized nutritional recommendations to its users in order to minimize blood sugar spikes after meals. After a first year of trial rollout in Israel, CEO Lihi Segal and her team are devising a global go-to-market plan for the firm. The team is considering several target markets, ranging from people with diabetes to professional athletes, and distribution strategies including selling direct to consumers or through partnerships with healthcare professionals or insurance companies. Their choices are important because they will affect DayTwo's costs, pricing, positioning, distribution channels, marketing efforts, and product development.

Keywords: Start-up growth; Startup; positioning; targeting; go to market strategy; B2B2C; B2B vs. B2C; health ＆ wellness; AI; Machine learning; female ceo; female protagonist; science-based; science and technology studies; ecommerce; Applications; DTC; direct to consumer marketing; US health care; ＂USA,＂; innovation; pricing; Business growth; Segmentation; Distribution Channels; Growth and Development Strategy; Business Startups; Science-Based Business; Health; Innovation and Invention; Marketing; Technology; Business Growth and Maturation; Health Industry; Technology Industry; Insurance Industry; Information Technology Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Israel; United States;

Language: English

Format: Print

21 pages

Educators Purchase

Citation:

Israeli, Ayelet, and David Lane. "DayTwo: Going to Market with Gut Microbiome." Harvard Business School Case 519-010, March 2019.

In December 2018, the blockchain startup Fluidity was about to participate in its first tokenization deal, which would create digital access to property rights in a 12-unit Manhattan condominium complex. The deal was proof-of-concept for Fluidity, which hoped to develop a business digitizing securities issuance for other real estate assets on the basis of its technical facility with blockchain technology, and in conjunction with its broker-dealer partner, Propellr. A successful transaction would only prompt larger and more urgent strategic questions, however. Among them was the appropriate revenue model for Fluidity—whether to grow by providing its technical services to broker-dealers, by going into tokenized securities issuance, or by harnessing its trading technology to facilitate a secondary market in tokenized securities.

This case provides a post-mortem of the advertising technology (adtech) company Sizmek. Sizmek grew via multiple acquisitions, with the vision of becoming an integrated adtech company that could leverage AI to buy digital media, while creating and serving display and video content. At its peak, one of its acquisitions had an IPO valuation of almost 1 billion dollars. However, Sizmek struggled with an integration that was taking longer than expected, but also with misalignment of agency incentives, stricter data privacy regulations, and the rise of the walled gardens – Google, Facebook, and Amazon – that made the adtech ecosystem very competitive, with dynamics of winners-take-all markets. By 2019 Sizmek had to file Chapter 11, and was sold in pieces. Is there anything Sizmek could have done differently in their go-to-market strategy, product road-map, or overall partnerships to avoid such rapid collapse?

Faculty & Research

DayTwo: Going to Market with Gut Microbiome

Abstract

Citation:

About the Author

More from the Author