t

SMU801

os
ANU AT TECH-EDU (A)
It was supposed to be one of the most scenic train rides in the world, but Anu Kumar was lost in

rP
thought. She simply could not shake off what Victor Volk, her colleague, had just told her. The two
were traveling from Copenhagen, Denmark to meet potential clients in Stockholm, Sweden, and the
discussion on work had begun quite innocuously. Anu, Head of Marketing at Tech-edu, had asked
Victor why his name as the Project Head had not been included in the previous day’s press release
about the large sales deal Tech-edu had closed with Mara Inc, a Danish shipping firm. His response
had astounded her. He had told her that he found Tech-edu’s sales pitch to be over-selling its product
to the point of misrepresentation. He had decided not to support it, and so was removed from the

yo
final round of sales talks. He also shared that it was becoming very difficult for him to continue
working for the company.

Anu could not believe her ears. A newly graduated MBA with six years of prior work experience in
the marketing world, this was the ‘dream’ job she had landed just three months back, which had seen
her relocate across the globe from Singapore to Denmark in July 2019. She had been treated very
well since her arrival, and had enjoyed working at this small firm of seven people, which was
op
involved in developing a state-of-the-art online learning platform. The founder and CEO, Sofia
Vilkner, was an old and dear school friend from her boarding school days, who had gone out of her
way to help Anu settle in. The platform appeared promising, with seven investors having already put
in funds amounting to US$3 million.

However, whenever Anu interacted with some of these investors, many of whom were also on the
firm’s board of directors, she sensed an impatience in them to start seeing returns. When she
tC

represented the firm at conferences and sales exhibitions, she found that some prospective clients
tended to brush her off, saying that the firm did not deliver what it promised. Nonetheless, she
continued to have faith in the start-up, and the deal with Mara Inc for US$250,000 was an exciting
achievement. But now Victor, who was also Sofia’s right-hand man, had raised all kinds of doubts
in her mind. Were there red flags she was missing?
No

Anu Kumar

Anu was born in Singapore, and she spent most of her early childhood there. She then moved to the
US to complete high school in California, and thereafter her undergraduate degree in Economics
from Williams College, California, in 2009. After graduation, she returned to Singapore and worked
for six years in a marketing role across a range of industries from MNCs to start-ups. In mid-2016,
she decided to pursue a one-year MBA degree from a Singapore university. After graduating, Anu
Do

This case was written by Professor Roy Chua and Dr Havovi Joshi at the Singapore Management University. The case was
prepared solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective
handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect
confidentiality.

Copyright © 2020, Singapore Management University Version: 2020-05-10

This document is authorized for educator review use only by Mamta Hegde, SDM Institute for Management and Development (SDMIMD) until Oct 2023. Copying or posting is an infringement
of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
 SMU-20-0007 Anu’s call at Tech-edu (A)

t
spent six months in California, exploring its start-up culture. Excited by what she saw, she decided
to look for opportunities in this area.

os
Returning to Singapore in early 2018, Anu came across a LinkedIn post from Sofia, an old friend
from her boarding school days. The two of them had connected as both shared a common bond of
being among a handful of international students in a very American school; thereafter, they became
close friends who supported each other through difficult times. Sofia had advertised online for a job
vacancy for the position of marketing head at her start-up, Tech-edu, based out of Copenhagen. Anu

rP
explained,

Sofia was a good friend whom I had been in touch with all these years. A very charismatic person,
she cared a lot about social justice issues and had been pursuing a PhD on how social media
affects immigration issues. About five years back, in mid-2014, she had come up with the idea of
developing an online educational technology platform. Her boyfriend was a graphic designer,
and he helped her by building a WordPress platform for it and buying the domain name. I had

yo
been following her and observing the development of the company. When I spoke to her, it
appeared to have gained traction and she said there were more than 100,000 followers and users
on the platform. While I obviously couldn’t see the numbers, I could see that the firm was widely
advertising its services, and had also received significant investor funding. Sofia also mentioned
how they were “killing” their competitors in the market as they had better technology that was
capable of artificial intelligence, machine learning and gamification1. I was very impressed.

Enthused, Anu decided to apply for the job. She was looking forward to working in Europe, and
op
Denmark seemed to be a very exciting destination. With Sofia there, she was not worried about any
challenges in terms of settling in to a new job or a new country. The product appeared exciting, and
the list of existing investors in the company included some well-known chief executives of top
Danish companies. The company was expected to soon make a public offering, and she hoped to be
part of that journey.
tC

There were several rounds of telephone and Skype interviews, from which Sofia recused herself as
she was a personal friend. Anu was delighted when she was officially hired in April 2018. She found
the package she was being offered to be very generous - way more than she had expected. As soon
as the paperwork was completed, she relocated to Denmark within three months. Tech-edu paid for
her relocation expenses, and she spent the first three weeks staying at Sofia’s home until she found
her own apartment.
No

Tech-edu

Tech-edu was set up as an online learning platform company. Customers would provide the content,
and Tech-edu’s platform would use gamification and machine learning to make it more attractive,
particularly to younger generation employees. Anu commented,
Do

1 Gamification referred to the process of integrating game mechanics into a website (or any non-gaming activity) in order to motivate
user participation, engagement and loyalty.

2/7

This document is authorized for educator review use only by Mamta Hegde, SDM Institute for Management and Development (SDMIMD) until Oct 2023. Copying or posting is an infringement
of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
 SMU-20-0007 Anu’s call at Tech-edu (A)

t
It soon became clear to me that because Tech-edu was smaller, cheaper, supposedly hungrier
than its competitors, and willing to work with customers on a one on one basis, investors had

os
gotten interested in it.

In July 2019, there were seven full-time staff employed by the firm (refer to Exhibit 1 for further
details), and other than Anu, all were local Danes. Anu’s direct manager was the newly-appointed
Chief Operating Officer (COO), Eric Lars. Eric was in his mid-50s, and while he was brought in to
head operations, his prior experience was in sales and marketing at a consulting firm and newspaper

rP
company. Sofia was the CEO, and her boyfriend, Claus Martin, was the Chief Technology Officer
(CTO).

Tech-edu had also established a board comprising eight directors, of which all but one were investors
in the company.

yo
On-boarding and early days

On Anu’s first day of work at the Copenhagen office, she was on-boarded onto Tech-edu’s platform.
However, the experience left her quite disappointed. She explained,

I was looking forward to exploring the platform because when I had first gone on it while
evaluating the job, I had found it to be quite efficient but without the sexy stuff like machine
learning and gamification that had been spoken about. But when I had asked the people I was
op
interviewing with at Tech-edu about it, they said, “Oh, don’t worry, there is a lot of more exciting
stuff, but that is for our clients. We have a fantastic tech team, and have hired people in Slovenia
and other parts of Eastern Europe where labour is a little cheaper. When you come on board and
you see what we’re doing with the clients, you will agree.” I thought that made sense and so was
really looking forward to the on-boarding and testing out all these games. However, it was
underwhelming. Even so, I thought to myself that it’s summer in Denmark, and maybe they are
just rushing to get me on-board before they go on holiday, so I’m not going to fuss too much.
tC

Anu decided to focus on delivering on her job, which entailed both traditional offline marketing as
well as online social media marketing. She was expected to create marketing content for the firm,
and build the media material used to promote its products. In addition, she was supposed to spend 30
percent of her time on sales.

Meetings with key stakeholders

No

Within the first month, Anu suggested to Sofia that it would be a good idea to work with the firm’s
investors and directors to showcase who they were, and why they were investing their time or money
in Tech-edu. She believed this would deepen the firm’s relationship with them, and also perhaps
enable tapping on their networks to get new clients. Sofia appeared to love the idea, and gave the go-
ahead immediately.

The first person that Anu met was Anna Jenson, a consultant with Deloitte. Anna was also the only
Do

non-investor director on the board of Tech-edu. Anu had already spoken to her earlier, as her final
job interview had been a video call with Anna. The two of them had hit it off, and shortly after Anu
relocated, she received an invite from Anna to join a party at her house. It was a pleasant evening,

3/7

This document is authorized for educator review use only by Mamta Hegde, SDM Institute for Management and Development (SDMIMD) until Oct 2023. Copying or posting is an infringement
of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
 SMU-20-0007 Anu’s call at Tech-edu (A)

t
during the course of which Anna requested her to meet one-on-one when she had the time. Anu
immediately agreed, and also took the opportunity to mention her idea to engage with the directors

os
and investors.

However, when she went back to office and mentioned the proposed meeting to her boss Eric, he did
not seem to like it at all. Anu added,

Eric said, “Anna is a very outspoken and vocal kind of person – not the kind of person I want you

rP
to meet. I had never liked this idea you had pitched about the investor/directors relation, but went
along with it as Sofia had overruled me.” I now found that he was beginning to monitor me very
closely.

I started to call and meet with the investors’ one on one. The first was a phone call, which was
tape recorded in the office, with a lady named Lydia, who was also a director with the company
and had over two decades of experience in the education industry. She was very angry and
frustrated at the company. She said, “I don't know what's going on. Why are we not getting

yo
updates? What are you all doing? I was very impressed when I first came down and saw the
numbers. But I now am beginning to think you've overvalued yourself. Don’t get me wrong – I
still trust Sofia and her plans, and think she’s one of the most charismatic go-getters I have met,
but why is it that if I ask to come down, nobody’s available to meet me?” So, I said, “You know
what, maybe no one has had the time. Let me take this feedback to Sofia and Eric, and we will
work on this.”

Another investor-director, Edgar, said, “I have worked in the education-technology industry for
op
eight years and when I heard about Tech-edu, I thought to myself that this is a company that I
must invest in. Even when I saw the company documents prior to investment, and it seemed like
Sofia may have overvalued the company, I still thought it would be worth it seeing the names of
some of the other investors. I also thought that given my expertise, I can help the company grow.
But, after my investment, I have not heard anything from the company except the quarterly reports
that the lawyer sends. Why is the company not making any sales? What is going on?” I tried to
assuage his fears by saying we were working very hard to boost sales, and moved on to the next
tC

question.

Going about business as usual

During her first month at Tech-edu, Anu attended conferences and exhibitions to showcase Tech-
edu’s platform. She found that many prospective clients would come up to the booth and talk to her,
and become interested in the product. However, two of them told her – “We've heard of you. We
No

heard you don't actually deliver what you sell.” Anu responded, “Look, we are a start-up. Every time
we get money, our goal is to develop, and that's what we should be doing. As we work with you, we
may be able to learn and develop more.”

She decided to apply for some industry awards that Tech-edu was eligible for, as this would boost
the company’s profile and legitimacy. In the process of collating the information required for these
award applications, Anu was confused about the number of users to be reported in the application
forms. According to her colleague Nina Mayer in the tech team, there were 1500 users on the platform.
Do

However, according to Victor, who was also Sofia’s right-hand man, there were around 100,000,
which he explained was the expectation as people came on board. This was also the number shared
with the investors, and apparently quite the norm in the start-up tech world.

4/7

This document is authorized for educator review use only by Mamta Hegde, SDM Institute for Management and Development (SDMIMD) until Oct 2023. Copying or posting is an infringement
of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
 SMU-20-0007 Anu’s call at Tech-edu (A)

t
Anu additionally reached out to some of her old contacts in Singapore to see if they would be

os
interested in the product. One of her former MBA classmates had started his own sales training
company, and on her request, spent a few days on the platform to give it a try. He declined to sign-
up and when Anu pushed him for feedback, he replied,

You don’t really have machine learning. There is also not much gamification on this platform. At
this point, what is there is quite basic. I am not sure that will really appeal to my client base, who

rP
are young, tech-savvy, middle-level managers.

Anu gave this feedback to Sofia and others at the tech team, and also raised it at management
meetings. However, they did not seem to take it seriously, and continued to converse about contracts
they were working on, such as a big one with Mara Inc, where the clients had seen the website and
were happy with what they were being promised.

yo
Over the course of summer, Anu found the stress beginning to build at the Tech-edu office. She
explained,

It was a small tech start-up, where people tend to be close to each other, talk and share stuff. But
the office started becoming a toxic work environment. If, for example, I would ask somebody
working in the external engagement department, “Hey, what are you doing?”, and if it had
nothing to do with my day-to-day work, I would get called into the CEO’s office and ticked-off
for not minding my business. It was the same case with the CTO and the e-designer, who were
op
beginning to have a lot of closed-door meetings among themselves. I found it strange that others
were excluded. After all, it’s a small company and when anybody asks what’s going on and the
reply is that it’s not your business – this is weird because, as a small start-up, you should be
sharing ideas.
tC

A sale happens…

In early-September, there was great excitement at the office, as Tech-edu signed its first sales deal
with Mara Inc for US$250,000. Press releases were drafted, and appeared in the Business Times.
While Anu had not been actively involved in the deal, she was still rather surprised to see that the
only names mentioned in the press release were that of Sofia and Eric, the CEO and COO – and not
Victor, who she knew was the one who had initiated the conversation with the team at Mara Inc and
also headed the entire project. Moreover, in the past, all press releases that Tech-edu sent out would
No

always highlight Victor’s name and contribution very prominently.

A week later, there was a large tech exhibition to be held at Stockholm, and Sofia agreed that it would
be useful for Tech-edu to take a booth there. Victor was to accompany Anu to handle any technical
queries that would arise. It was Anu’s first visit to Sweden, and she was looking forward to visiting
a new country. As the train started, she recollected her surprise at the press release not mentioning
Victor’s name, and questioned him about it. Victor replied,
Do

You are new here, but I have been around since when the firm was set up five years back - and
the top management is unhappy with me because I have been saying openly that the firm is
misrepresenting some aspects of the product. They say that our product is able to do gamification,

5/7

This document is authorized for educator review use only by Mamta Hegde, SDM Institute for Management and Development (SDMIMD) until Oct 2023. Copying or posting is an infringement
of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
 SMU-20-0007 Anu’s call at Tech-edu (A)

t
machine learning, AI, and all these advanced-tech stuff, but we can’t do much of those in any
serious form. We have some elements of these technologies but the current versions are still quite

os
rudimentary. So because I would not support how they were selling the product, I was removed
from the final round of sales talks. In the end, only the CEO made the sale, although I was
supposed to lead the sales team for this client. There is really a lot you do not know about what
is happening, and let me tell you, it is becoming very difficult for me to continue to work here.

Anu was nonplussed. It had only been three months since she had arrived at Denmark, leaving her

rP
home and family in pursuit of the dream job. She couldn’t stop thinking about what she should do
next. At stake was not only a well-paying job in an exciting industry, but also her deep affection and
loyalty to Sofia. Should she dig more? Blow the whistle? But each time she spoke to Sofia, she came
away convinced that all was well. Sofia had always been a charismatic person, but in the case of this
company, her ‘baby’, she was even more persuasive and her optimism and enthusiasm about its future
appeared genuine and pronounced. Anu was in a quandary; should she continue to trust and believe
in her old-time friend, Sofia, and put these issues down to the teething challenges of a fledgling start-

yo
up and her lack of awareness of the Danish culture?
op
tC
No
Do

6/7

This document is authorized for educator review use only by Mamta Hegde, SDM Institute for Management and Development (SDMIMD) until Oct 2023. Copying or posting is an infringement
of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860
 SMU-20-0007 Anu’s call at Tech-edu (A)

EXHIBIT 1: KEY PEOPLE AT TECH-EDU

t
os
a. Sofia Vilkner – Chief Executive Officer
b. Claus Martin – Chief Technology Officer
c. Eric Lars – Chief Operating Officer
d. Noah Jensen - Senior Consultant – External Engagements
e. Anu Kumar – Head of Marketing
f. Victor Volk - Project Head

rP
g. Nina Mayer - E-learning Designer

Source: Author

yo
op
tC
No
Do

7/7

This document is authorized for educator review use only by Mamta Hegde, SDM Institute for Management and Development (SDMIMD) until Oct 2023. Copying or posting is an infringement
of copyright. Permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu or 617.783.7860