Case Study: Anki
The background information of your case or cases:
Anki was a company founded in 2010 by Boris Sofman, Mark Palatucci, and Hanns Tappeiner . With their headquarters in San Francisco, they designed and created robots and AI. Their products were mean for children. The main capability of the company was to make simple physical objects intelligent, which as human was able to learn and adjust themselves.
2. The business model, competing strategies, and the implementation of those strategies.
Anki was able to get enormous ressources in Series A ($50 million) and Series B venture funding from key partners like Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, and Two Sigma. In 2014 and 2016 the company obtained respectively $55 million and $52.5 million in Series C venture funding led by JP Morgan. The company was also attached to key partners as Online retailers (distributors) and tech providers. In a world overloaded by competition, Anki relayed on some of the big name of the tech industry like Apple, Amazon, Google to promote and advertise its products; for instance, one of the company’s first product (Anki Drive) was introduced at an Apple event in 2013. By getting pampered from the biggest tech companies Anki was able to get acmes to a a big number of customer in a relatively short period. Such a support allowed the company to set competitive price while introducing new experience beneficial to both parents and children “The first video game in the real world”.
3. The customers – customer base, their needs, loyalty, trust, etc.
Anki customer were primarily, children - parents as well; robot lovers, Technology seekers, and developers. They had a B2C approach; and to bring convenience and trust customer were allowed free standard shipping and returns among other perks. Anki’s robots were the very first to introduce interactive emotional behavior with their owners. Their robots had their own personality and emotion which made them highly attachable among the public. Mixing humans emotional attachment to their product was an efficient way to keep their customers’ loyalty.
4. The then environment – competition, suppliers, financial status, cost burden, etc.
Anki, a robot and AI company, was struggling between two world. The tech industry and the toy industry. Even with support from the biggest tech firms, Anki had to deal with competitors like Modular Robotics and Sifteo in the domain of interactive technologies but was also competing against firm in the toy industry(which had stronger fundaments).
On the financial side, Anki was heavily relying on its partners. Even after maintaining an active statut over a decade, the company was not able to raise itself sufficient a funds to keep functioning. Anki’s cost burden can been linked to the tremendous costs which follow innovation; also R&D expenses, the high cost of product development (design, hardware and software), manufacturing costs, customers care and Ads are among the biggest burdens Anki had to deal with.
If you think there were any adverse changes of the market that caused the businesses to fail, explain the changes. 5. Summarize the main reasons that caused the businesses to fail. If you are to start up a similar business, what lessons you have learned from these cases to help you become better off in nowadays’ competition?
Anki’s failures was not due to changes of market but to the incapacity to sustain itself and grow. The company started with innovative robots who served as toys for the youngest but Anki was not meant to be a toy company as it turned to be. It was design to bring innovation in a world that goes beyond the toy industry, at least that’s the reason which appealed it investors. However, after a decade the company was still struggling between the robotic and the toy industry; not able to lead competition in either of them. While keeping designing reasonably affordable robots for children at high manufacturing cost; the company was not able to innovates and create much over the years which made it loose it biggest source of funds, it partners.
If I was to start a similar business, I’d first stick to a single market and sector. Confronting a single market, helps to narrow competition and optimize funds for future innovations. Secondly, I’d pre-design a catalog of projects and have a clear idea of where my products will lead the company. Anki created robots (toys) at the beginning, however, the company was created to innovate in the robot industry in general; not only the toy industry. The company failed to innovate in the toy industry over time which made them incapable of succeeding in other types of innovation; having a “what next” plan could have helped keep up with competition.
EC Agent Case RippleMatch
The technology background of your chosen agents – the history, development, and basic principles:
RippleMatch is a startup cofounded by Andrew Myers and Eric Ho meant to be a recruitment platform run by AI to match job candidates to employers. The startup was first inspired to lessen discriminations existing between graduates from IVY schools and others graduates when it come to looking for jobs.
2. The applications of the chosen agents – from lab to real business if applicable:
The way RippleMatch work is simple: an AI takes information from a candidateb( carrer, ambitions, geographic interest, and resume) combines it with his/her academic achievement info and other data to finally match the candidate expectations with employers’-expectation. All is in place to cut the “middle man”, give credit to underrepresented jobs seekers and to bring skillful candidates to employers.
In an effort to bring new graduates from diverse backgrounds to have access to jobs, the startup got business partners like G20 Venturen( which invested a Series A of $6 million), Work-Bench, Accomplice,Bullpen Capital and Alleycorp. The company has implemented itself on college campuses as well as on some of the biggest job search platforms like linkedIn where it smartly draws its pool of candidates.
3. The current status of the chosen agents:
RippleMatch is a startup and just begun its first steps into the job-search business world with only 100000 candidates. However it must be noted that the AI powered platform is growing fast and has partnership with around 1200 diversity organisations over 100 colleges including Yale, Harvard and Stanford. To meet its candidate expectations, the platform as alliances with near 60 companies including IBM, CITADEL, trip advisor, flatiron, ROIVANT etc. RippleMatch was able to get more than 60% of its candidates selected for first round interviews.
4. The potential or future applications of the chosen agents:
RippleMatch diminish the stress and anxiety that comes with looking for a jobs, therefore it possesses a value that many people will want to use. The AI powered software also brings convenience to both job candidates and employers which gives him a promising future. The trend today (and in the near future ) is to give credits to minorities and people from underrepresented backgrounds; that’s exactly what RippleMatch is aiming for. Such an initiative inevitably brings tremendous fundings and possibilities which make the company expand it roots. Probability is that( in the near future) job hunting will not be a hassle anymore and people will be almost fairly valued for their skills no matter where they come from; which is an excellent project.
5. Your innovative thinking of future e-commerce agents – any new agents, new applications, and
possibly new business opportunities
My innovative thinking of future e-commerce agents will be agents that go beyonds frontiers and implement globalisation as a general rule(which is actually happening). Today the world is developing at a monstrous speed; people from different continents are able to interact as if they were next door. E-commerce inevitably will follow the trend of bringing people together and installing globalisation; and who knows, maybe one day humankind will see how insignifiant barriers around countries and continents are.