The case opens in 2017 with two of the five co-founders of MISHA telling the company’s CEO Michal Portz that they believe it is time for the global venture to shut down its operations and cease investments. Portz and another co-founder believe MISHA can still work. The case describes the origins of the ready-to-use capsule solution for shisha smokers and the evolution of MISHA from idea to product design, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution. Consequent mishaps slow down the performance of MISHA, and after five years of the product being in the market and four financing rounds, numbers are far behind what they were in the business plan. The case explores the pivots the company goes through. The central dilemma is this: should the cofounders pull the plug on the company or invest more time and money to try to turn it around? When and according to which criteria should Portz make such a decision?
In the last decade, Noble Energy and the Delek Group have discovered almost 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, offshore of Israel. For Israel, this has been an extraordinary turnaround, from energy dependence on Arab producers to energy independence and exporter. For Prime Minister Netanyahu, this abundance poses a huge foreign-policy opportunity to lock in national relationships. For Noble, it poses significance operational challenges, funding issues, and long-term political risk.
Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology, startup Tailor Brands set out to democratize branding by allowing small businesses to create their brand identities by automatically generating logos in just minutes at minimal cost with no branding or design skills required. As it sets out to raise its Series B, the founders make some critical changes to their business model, moving to a subscription model and adding additional products and services to automate other parts of the branding and marketing process. Can algorithms, machine learning, and artificial intelligence help Tailor Brands outperform graphic designers and branding agencies in developing brand identities? And, can Tailor Brands differentiate itself from the many other logo generators popping up in the market?
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