Business research
Chanel James
Assignmentdetail.pdf
Evan DeSantola, Founder-CEO of Agot.AI
Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/desantola/
(Links to an external site.)
Company website:
(Links to an external site.)
https://www.agot.ai/
PROMPT: Agot.AI is a computer vision startup founded by two recent college graduates that is pioneering a cashierless checkout model for restaurants. It has recently acquired its first customer, a large restaurant empire with tens of thousands of locations around the world. The customer has invited Agot.AI to do a regional pilot run in several restaurants which, if successful, could lead to a broader launch across locations globally and would put the company on track to garner millions in profits annually.
As the founders of Agot.AI look to the future, they are faced with challenging decisions about the extent to which they should keep a narrow focus on this single large customer vs. actively pursue other clients. On the one hand, as a startup, they have finite engineering resources and focusing on a single customer will protect against spreading their team too thin and allow the founders to attend to product development instead of sales. By focusing their energy and attention exclusively on solving the needs of this particular customer, the founders anticipate being able to deliver more value to the customer and gain entrenchment within the brand. This increases the potential that the customer will be willing to launch Agot.AI's cashierless checkout product to a greater number of stores. It also reduces complexity for Agot.AI: For example, they will not need to retrain and reconfigure their product to cope with new customers' varied menus.
On the other hand, focusing on a single customer carries the risk of putting all of their eggs in one basket and renders the company vulnerable to the whims of a single client. It would leave the rest of the market wide open to competitors who may come to be the go-to product for other brands if Agot.AI leaves a competitive vacuum. Although developing a product that is ascribable across multiple brands is technologically more complex-- and would require a longer lead time to launch-- it also could create a more profitable stand-alone product in the long run.
For the live case, answer the following question: Should Agot.AI actively pursue other customers? Think about the potential pros/cons of doing so beyond those sketched here. Please feel free to use outside research and be creative!
Grading Rubric (out of 5 points)
0: Not submitted
1: Summarized the case without offering courses of actions
2: Summarized the case with a bit of market research but without offering courses of actions
3: Summarized the case with a bit of market research + offered courses of actions that are not so relevant to the problem identified in the case
3.5: Offered courses of actions that are relevant but failed to explain why
4: Offered courses of actions that are relevant and explained why to some degree
4.5: Offered courses of actions that are relevant and explained why well
5: Offered courses of actions that are relevant and explained why well + went extra miles in terms of data collection and/or creativity
