JOSEPH CHAN

PAULINE YEUNG

MAKING LEARNING TRENDY, BITE-SIZED,

AND FIT FOR INSTAGRAM: PREFACE
AS A DISRUPTOR IN TECH EDUCATION
For many startups, December 2022 was the worst of times as they navigated a macro
environment characterized by rising interest rates, volatile market conditions, and an ongoing
crypto winter. Yet for Tommie Lo, founder and CEO of education platform Preface, it was time
to take stock of his company’s exponential growth and plans for business expansion.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Preface provided up-to-date training in coding and tech skills,
specializing in concepts like blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the metaverse in the
fast-developing field of Web3, as well as AI-related topics such as machine learning and
ChatGPT. Preface’s innovative educational model matched students with teachers in a
“classroom” that could be online or offline, anytime and anywhere.

While students in the business-to-consumer (B2C) segment were mainly schoolchildren from
well-resourced families or senior executives who paid a premium for flexible and convenient
courses, clients in the business-to-business (B2B) segment included leading brands in financial
services, technology, and luxury goods.

Preface was unique in offering courses by top engineers at leading tech companies who taught
at Preface as their second career. Preface also differentiated itself through physical food and
beverage outlets that built brand trust and fostered a sense of community among its clients. By
offering events exclusively for its individual and corporate customers, Preface Coffee & Wine
became a regular part of client lifestyles and contributed to a cultural shift toward lifelong
learning.

After 2020, Preface saw revenue growth of over 300% on a year-on-year basis. It was on track
to achieve over USD200mn in annual revenue by 2025, when the company targeted an initial
public offering (IPO). At the end of 2022, Preface had over 100 full-time employees across
Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, and London and planned to enter new markets.

Pauline Yeung prepared this case under the supervision of Professor Joseph Chan for class discussion. The authors would like to
thank Boris Hong Pak Lo for his research assistance. This case is not intended to show effective or ineffective handling of decision
or business processes. The authors might have disguised certain information to protect confidentiality. Cases are written in the
past tense, this is not meant to imply that all practices, organizations, people, places or fact mentioned in the case no longer occur,
exist or apply.

© 2023 by The Asia Case Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong. No part of this publication may be digitized, photocopied
or otherwise reproduced, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means without the permission of The University of Hong
Kong.
Ref. 23/775C
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Last edited: 6 November 2023
23/775C Making Learning Trendy, Bite-sized, and Fit for Instagram: Preface as a Disruptor in Tech Education

For Lo, the question at this juncture was about how Preface could scale up further. Given the
rapidly changing nature of the tech industry, how should Lo further develop Preface’s B2C and
B2B segments to solve the pain points in the consumer and corporate segments, respectively?
What kinds of strategies should Lo adopt as it faced competitors that were purely online
learning platforms or traditional training institutions?

Tommie Lo and His Entrepreneurial Journey

From Hong Kong to the United States and the United Kingdom
Lo came from a modest background and grew up as part of a local fishing family in the village
of Sai Kung in his home city of Hong Kong. After graduating from the University of California,
Los Angeles, with a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics, he was offered a job at
J.P. Morgan in private banking but felt that it was too much of a “comfort zone” project in
which he did not see a future for himself.

In late 2007 and early 2008, Lo joined Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in the United
States where he worked on computer prediction for the first time. He then realized that
computer prediction, which later came to be called machine learning, was not very difficult, as
it was simply a combination of statistics, mathematics, and computer science.

Lo then moved to the United Kingdom where he began a PhD in economics at the London
School of Economics and Political Science, with a dream of becoming a professor. Yet when
he was working as a private tutor in London while pursuing his PhD, he was inspired to forgo
his studies to start his first venture, Prologue, a platform to scale private tutoring.

Founding and Closing of Lo’s First Startup, Prologue

From 2012 to 2016, Lo was the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Prologue, a Hong
Kong–based startup that sought to redesign traditional education by leveraging big data and
machine learning to create the most relevant learning experiences for students. Prologue
recruited about 30,000 students in 18 months, when even long-established local competitors
such as Modern Education had only around 50,000 students.

But Lo realized that the product at Prologue was not scalable because it was based on exams
specific to a certain jurisdiction. Prologue targeted students sitting for exams such as the Hong
Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) that were limited to the Hong Kong market. This
meant that Prologue needed to create a new set of materials and train teachers for new course
offerings if it wanted to expand overseas, incurring a huge cost even for expansion in nearby
jurisdictions like mainland China and Taiwan.

Although Lo received a seemingly attractive M&A offer of HKD30mn for Prologue, he did not
sign the contract because it would have tied him to Prologue for another three to five years after
selling it. As much as his cofounders were not happy about turning down the offer, Lo did not
want to waste his golden years on a project that he did not believe in. Business at Prologue
dropped when Modern Education and other market leaders banned tutors who worked for them
from joining the venture.

Spotting a Market Opportunity for Lo’s Second Startup, Preface

Lo’s ambition in education was to work on a product that was as globally scalable as the
teaching of English. While he observed that the largest education companies in the world like
Pearson and McGraw were all in the business of providing products for learning English, Lo
felt that programming could become a language that was even more universal than English.
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Given that new technologies emerged every month, or at least every quarter, Lo spotted the
market opportunity for educational products in coding and tech skills. In May 2015, Lo founded
Preface to “teach 21st-century tech skills to people of all ages, backgrounds, and experience
levels.” Lo named his company Preface because there was normally a Preface at the beginning
of any book, just like Prologue.

For companies like Casetify, they earn the most when new phones are released
because they can launch a new case. To me, new technology in the market is
like new iPhones, and I produce the iPhone case.
- Mr. Tommie Lo, founder and CEO of Preface

Lo compared Preface to global tech accessories brand Casetify, which designed, manufactured,
and sold iPhone cases.1 For Lo, Preface as a business produced course offerings for each new
technology in the market in the same way that Casetify sold iPhone cases every time a new
phone was released.

A Business Model That Departs from the Traditional Classroom

As Lo launched his second startup, he felt that the real problem in education was how it was
still based on the Prussian 1919 model, which was invented in the state of Prussia prior to the
unification of Germany. While the Prussian model was very successful at the time, its goal was
to develop factory workers and the teacher-to-student ratio was “one to many,” as was the case
with Prologue, where a single teacher taught large online classes.

Lo wanted to create a business model of “many to many,” where programmers and engineers
at tech companies who normally would not work in educational institutions took on teaching at
Preface as a second career. These “many” teachers included tech experts at leading companies
like Amazon, Google, and Accenture who were passionate about engineering, mathematics,
and computer science but were unlikely to work at schools, at traditional corporations, or small
and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Given the innovative model that matched students with teachers for one-on-one sessions, boot
camps and group training, and self-paced learning, Lo described himself as “a pioneer in re-
engineering knowledge transfer and in redesigning the notion of what a classroom is,” where a
classroom could be online, offline, anytime, anywhere. In Lo’s view, the traditional classroom
slowed down innovation in education, whereas decentralization provided each client with
customized content. As much as schools were still important for peer-to-peer learning and for
moral education, what Preface did was provide an alternative for lifelong learning when the
classroom setting was unsuitable for busy people.

Preface bridged the disparity between the widespread discussions on popular and cutting-edge
tech topics such as blockchain, NFTs, AI, and machine learning, and the limited number of
individuals who possessed a true understanding or a degree in these subjects. For corporations,
there was also a reskilling need that Preface addressed, especially when it was difficult to hire
good engineers. According to Lo, most of Preface’s individual and corporate clients had two
things in common: a phobia of technology, and the fear of missing out since technology had
become so important.

1 Pedro Gonzalez, “Casetify: A Global Tech Accessories Brand,” SnowLizard, 2 October 2022,
https://www.snowlizardproducts.com/casetify-a-global-tech-accessories-brand, accessed September 2023.
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Targeting the B2C and B2B Market Segments

The B2C Market for 21st-Century Tech Skills

Preface achieved limited success at its initial launch. Lo recalled that there were not a lot of
people who paid attention to code learning or tech skills at the early stages of Preface. For
example, in early 2017, it was not easy to develop the B2C market because most people still
thought that technology should be left to programmers and engineers.

As there was an explosion of interest in emerging technologies, Preface found its niche by
providing a user-centric, immersive learning experience for tech skills that also had a human
touch. In contrast to traditional classrooms or purely online learning platforms, Preface clients
enjoyed a variety of options in terms of individual or group classes and in-person or online
learning. They also had access to events at Preface’s Coffee & Wine outlets.

Preface’s clients in its B2C business included both kids and adults, where the company mainly
focused on the schoolchildren of well-off families that appreciated the benefits of learning
coding, as well as C-suite executives who were willing to pay a premium for flexible learning
from qualified instructors. Through a portal system, students could book lessons, access online
notes, and give feedback to their teachers.

Lo compared the kids’ program to one-on-one piano lessons, where the target market was the
upper middle class, which was less price sensitive. On the other hand, senior executives turned
to Preface for tech education that was timely, trendy, and convenient. For example, while some
companies had a presence in the decentralized gaming virtual world Sandbox, few members on
the executive committees of these companies knew what this meant.2 To better serve its C-suite
clients, Preface also launched a TechBite platform that released videos on updated tech news
more than once a week, catering to busy lifestyles.

Expanding into the B2B Market

Preface also expanded beyond the B2C market into the B2B market. After the COVID-19
pandemic, more and more companies realized they needed to embrace digital transformation
but found it difficult to hire good engineers. This led Lo to spot a market opportunity in the
B2B segment, where Lo’s clients ranged from SMEs to multinationals.

In his initial pitch, Lo argued to potential clients that there were not enough good engineers in
the market, and that it was also not possible to keep good engineers even if these companies
hired them. This was because leading Web3 companies like Binance, Google, or Animoca
Brands were happy to poach good engineers with 30% to 40% increments in compensation.

Given that both SMEs and multinationals needed reskilling and upskilling of their staff, Preface
offered courses that trained operational managers to become product managers. In these
situations, what was needed was the acquisition of an engineering skill set and mindset rather
than an entire career change to become an engineer. Preface had the advantage of having C-
suite executives as clients for its B2C business, where the trust built with the top management
translated into opportunities in the B2B segment.

2 The Sandbox was a decentralized gaming virtual world built on the Ethereum blockchain that aimed to create a community-
driven gaming ecosystem where users had full ownership and control over their virtual assets, encouraging collaboration and
social interaction within the virtual world. Virtual assets were represented as NFTs, and users could buy, sell, and trade them on
the platform's marketplace. The platform also allowed users to design and customize their virtual lands using a voxel-based
editor.
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As it experienced rapid growth, Preface managed to build a roster of blue-chip clients, ranging
from financial institutions such as HSBC, Standard Chartered, JP Morgan, DBS, and
BlackRock; tech companies like Alibaba, Amazon, Meta, Google, Cisco, and Samsung; and
luxury brands like Richemont, IWC Schaffhausen, and L’Oréal. As it came to have over 100
multinational clients, Preface launched a product for SMEs at a lower price, competing with
the likes of Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning.

Preface’s Value Proposition as a Provider of Web3 Education

The accelerated demand for Preface’s products could be attributed to the evolution of the
internet in the direction of Web3. When the first website was created in 1991, the internet was
said to be in the Web 1.0 phase, otherwise known as “the static web.”3 In this phase, internet
users relied on desktop browsers to navigate the web, which lacked interactive features. From
the 2010s to 2020s, the internet was said to be in the Web 2.0 phase, also known as “the dynamic
web.”4 In this phase, internet users became accustomed to mobile touch-screen devices, user-
generated content, and the emergence of social media.

After the 2020s, the internet was said to be in the Web 3.0 phase, or “the semantic web,” a
concept introduced by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee to describe how machines could
easily understand, share, and analyze data and information on the Web.5 After Web 3.0, there
was the emergence of Web3, a decentralized solution that empowered users to take back control
of the internet, and where the building blocks were blockchain, smart contracts, and digital
assets and tokens like cryptocurrencies and NFTs.6

Web3 was a revolutionary leap forward, and Preface’s value proposition was that it provided
up-to-date education on related concepts. In particular, the speed with which new technologies
emerged was such that there was a constant need for content generation for learning and
education, in contrast to subjects like mathematics and geography, where there were only few
changes to the syllabi over the years.

As an example, one feature in Web3 was NFTs, which enabled multimillion-dollar sales of
digital art in 2021, until the market crashed in 2022 as crypto winter set in.7 As unique digital
assets with their own traceable history on the blockchain, NFTs could be bought and sold like
any other piece of property in the absence of a tangible form. As Lo pointed out, it was possible
for Preface to sell more than 5,000 courses on NFTs regardless of whether he believed in NFTs.

Another concept often associated with Web3 was the metaverse, which was defined as a “more
immersive, social, and persistent version of the Internet” that enabled interactions in more
natural ways in the digital domain.8 When this was a hot topic, Preface offered courses on the
subject. While everyday examples included giving voice instructions to machines and using
virtual hands to manipulate objects, industry examples included the use of digital twins to make

3 Dan Ashmore, “A Brief History of Web 3.0,” Forbes, 24 April 2023,

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/cryptocurrency/what-is-web-3-0/, accessed 23 July 2023.
4 Dan Ashmore, “A Brief History of Web 3.0.”
5 Zheng, Jincheng and Lee, David Kuo Chuen, Understanding the Evolution of the Internet: Web1.0 to Web3.0, Web3 and Web

3 plus (April 28, 2023). Handbook of Digital Currency: Bitcoin, Innovation, Financial Instruments, and Big Data, second
edition (2023), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4431284 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4431284, accessed
September 2023.
6 Anutosh Banerjee, Robert Byrne, Ian De Bode, and Matt Higginson, “Web3 beyond the hype,” McKinsey & Co, 26 September

2022, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/web3-beyond-the-hype, accessed September 2023.

7 Dan Ashmore, “A Brief History of Web 3.0.”
8 Bernard Marr, “What is Web3 All About? An Easy Explanation with Examples,” Forbes, 24 January 2022,

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/01/24/what-is-web3-all-about-an-easy-explanation-with-
examples/?sh=1d8bd6b42255, accessed 23 July 2023.
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engines, as it was in the case of Boeing, or to simulate production lines and reduce waste, as it
was in the case with Unilever.9 Indeed, Preface capitalized on the interest in Web3 in its courses
while retaining its core offerings in coding and programming and branching out into AI-related
topics such as machine learning and ChatGPT.

Innovative Features as an Education Company

Providing Fundamental Knowledge Alongside “TechBites”

Preface was innovative in its teaching approach as an education company that was neither a
university nor a traditional educational institute. The content that Preface offered its clients was
divided into two parts in which each had its own niche market. The first part was on
fundamental concepts in blockchain, AI, and data science, where the content was more than a
workshop, but less than a degree. The second part comprised “TechBites,” which were more
than news but less than a course, translating into content that was useful for someone who
wanted to engage in meaningful discussion with friends or colleagues.

For “TechBites,” Preface worked with the South China Morning Post and Cable TV in Hong
Kong to produce 45-minute to 1-hour training courses on topics such as “Why FTX failed but
not Binance.” This aimed at allowing readers to access extended learning from Preface after
scanning a QR code in the news. As Preface expanded its business in the United Kingdom, it
also conducted talks with the BBC for similar services.

Leveraging Social Listening and AI for Content Generation

Since Preface needed to create courses that were trendy and up to date, it also adopted a novel
way of generating content that was very different from other market players. To begin with,
Preface leveraged “social listening” to determine what kind of content it should develop new
course offerings in. Social listening referred to the practice of monitoring and analyzing online
conversations and discussions across various social media platforms, websites, blogs, forums,
and other online channels. More specifically, it involved tracking what people were saying
about a specific brand, product, industry, or topic of interest on the internet. These data were
then used to create insights or identify important trends.

At Preface, there was a team responsible for social listening that worked directly with a Google
analytics team that had substantial expertise in this area. After this team gathered data and
observed responses to content such as Medium articles and YouTube videos, a committee that
functioned like an investment committee decided whether Preface should invest heavily in a
topic, how many hours of materials Preface should develop, and how quickly Preface should
push the content to the market.

After receiving a green light, Preface’s Head of Quality and Compliance led a rigorous content
review process to ensure the accuracy and relevance of the learning materials. While the team
at Preface actively sought out the latest tech news to produce timely educational materials, it
also collaborated with part-time consultants known as “Nomads.” As working professionals
from companies like Google, Accenture, and Cathay Pacific, the Nomads contributed to the
team by validating the reliability of the content.

Meanwhile, Preface also leveraged AI to recommend the right set of materials for each learner.
In contrast to universities or traditional educational institutions that adopted a top-down
approach in disseminating knowledge from the professor or instructor, Preface gained
9 “The Industrial Metaverse will Disrupt Global Manufacturing,” Market Prospects, 24 May 2022, https://www.market-
prospects.com/articles/industrial-metaverse-will-disrupt-global-manufacturing, accessed 23 July 2023.
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behavioral data for every meet-up session for its clients, splitting ideas into knowledge points,
and gathering information on how its customers liked or disliked each knowledge point. With
these user metrics, Preface’s AI system picked up and recommended the right set of materials
for clients.

Audience Development Through Preface Coffee & Wine

Starting a Cultural Movement in Digital Transformation

A distinctive feature of Preface’s business model was its success in audience development
through physical coffee and wine shops. Believing that digital transformation should be a
cultural movement, Lo launched Preface Coffee & Wine, which played an important role in
community and culture building and directly contributed to customer retention and acquisition.

I thought I would try to make knowledge like music, make it fun and digestible,
more like a midnight show.
- Mr. Tommie Lo, founder and CEO of Preface

Lo credited the idea for Preface Coffee & Wine to his time in Los Angeles as a new graduate.
He noticed that most people in Los Angeles did not want to go home after finishing work at 6
p.m. Instead, they wanted to go to somewhere like La La Land or to a wine bar for whiskey and
jazz. Lo hoped to create a cultural shift in Hong Kong where people would go to a coffee and
wine bar after work to share knowledge.

Preface’s first coffee shop was a small venue in Tin Hau, a residential area rather than a
commercial area. As the company grew, it opened Preface Coffee & Wine outlets in Causeway
Bay and Central, which were both prime locations in Hong Kong. In September 2020, Preface
rolled out the first “AI coffee” in Hong Kong as part of its “Code Brew Project.”10 In this AI-
intelligent system, the ratio of caffeine was gradually reduced from morning to afternoon,
catering to those who relied on coffee to get through the day while making sure that coffee
drunk at later hours did not interfere with sleep.11 In addition, on a hot day, the coffee was
slightly cooler than usual.12 Finally, Preface’s product considered a “happiness index” based on
the analysis of worldwide news headlines; on days when the index was low, the coffee was
slightly sweeter or fruitier.13

A Unique Approach to Customer Retention

Preface experienced a significant boost to its business after introducing Preface Coffee & Wine.
For Lo, the physical outlets enhanced the company’s core competence of making technology
learning trendy, bite-sized, and fit for TikTok and Instagram. It built a community of learners
at Preface and became a differentiating factor for the company when compared to other coding
schools where going to class was just a hobby. For example, when Preface collaborated with
Meta to launch courses on the metaverse, Preface received Oculus VR headsets available only
for clients at Preface Coffee & Wine. As a testament to the success of Preface Coffee & Wine,

10 Yan Law【科技 X 咖啡】首杯 A.I. Coffee 登場！用實時氣溫、快樂指數，沖泡好風味！ etnet 經濟通, 2020 年 9 月 11

日,
https://www.etnet.com.hk/www/tc/lifestyle/digitalnewage/digitalchance/67918?utm_source=website&utm_medium=copied-
text 於 2023 年 9 月登錄 [Yan Law,【Technology X Coffee】First cup of A.I. Coffee is here! Use real-time temperature and
happiness index to brew good flavor!, etnet, 11 September 2020,
https://www.etnet.com.hk/www/tc/lifestyle/digitalnewage/digitalchance/67918?utm_source=website&utm_medium=copied-
text, accessed September 2023.]
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
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anecdotal evidence suggested that even Generation Z girls who never took classes in the
computer science department went to take photos and enjoy the atmosphere.

Lo also paid attention to the food quality of the outlets and hired the director of the food and
beverage team from Momofuku New York, a restaurant known for its innovative approach to
cuisine. With the director’s experience, which included working with the private clubs SoHo
House and the Hong Kong Golf & Tennis Academy, Preface Coffee & Wine launched a
program that allowed B2C and B2B clients exclusive access to a five-course menu developed
from the recipes of famous restaurants around the world.

The community at Preface Coffee & Wine reflected Lo’s emphasis on providing regular and
recurring services and his focus on customer retention rather than customer acquisition. Instead
of spending money on advertisements or delivering a onetime product commonly associated
with an agency model, Lo preferred to maximize customer lifetime value. In line with this
thinking, Preface launched a credit system for its B2C and B2B clients who used their credits
to choose from one-to-one learning, boot camp group training, and video and podcast learning.
This was in addition to tech training through executive breakfasts, lunch-and-learn events, and
upskilling dinners. In Lo’s view, the same client could take Preface’s courses again in the next
six months or in the next year.

The Role of Preface Coffee & Wine in Customer Acquisition

Preface Coffee & Wine also played an important role in customer acquisition, especially for
the B2B business. According to Lo, the first meeting between Preface and a new B2B client
could take place at the coffee shop where the client saw the brand that Preface had established.
A second or third meeting could occur at an evening workshop on topics such as “AI 101” or
“Robotics 101.” If Preface managed to engage the client for a fourth or fifth encounter, the
chances of closing a deal rose from 5% to 50%.

The engagement through Preface’s own coffee shop, instead of the client’s office or Starbucks,
for example, was meant to demonstrate the brand and build trust in Preface. While having
physical coffee and wine outlets at prime locations was extremely costly for an early-stage
company like Preface, Lo recognized how these venues could contribute to a positive and
premium brand image that gave the company a competitive advantage over other education
companies.

Lo also noted that Preface organized events at other locations in lieu of the Preface Coffee &
Wine outlets. For example, Preface offered dinner-and-learn events at restaurants in the Central
Business District in Hong Kong, going to the client’s preferred location and offering door-to-
door service in these cases.

Organization and Culture of Preface as a Company

Preface’s DNA as a Humble Yet Bold Startup

Because Preface was a startup, the role of the founder was very important, and Lo evaluated
himself every day. After receiving Series A funding in September 2021, Lo proactively
appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) as the auditor for Preface because he was convinced
of the merits of maintaining discipline as a startup founder. He believed that this fostered a
sense of accountability and ensured responsible entrepreneurship. For instance, to acquire a
new computer, he willingly completed a formal request form. With the financial and internal
controls provided by PWC, Lo was able to concentrate on content creation, fundraising, and
business development.
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In terms of culture, Lo described Preface as a humble company that was also bold and rebellious.
Preface needed to be humble enough to do things from scratch; it was very difficult to be in the
education field if one was not humble. When recruiting for “head” or “senior management”
roles, Lo met with potential candidates at Preface Coffee & Wine because he wanted to see
how they treated frontline staff. He thought it was important that the company employed people
who were kind.

At the same time, there was a need to be bold and rebellious when making important decisions
or driving new developments. Because attitude came first and performance came second, at
Preface it was fine if one tried something and failed if the person was diligent and hardworking.
For Lo, people in a startup needed to be experimental, and there would be no bold or rebellious
projects if failures were punished. Preface needed to be humble in the short run and bold in the
long run. Meanwhile, Lo also highlighted the culture of innovation and on-the-job learning at
Preface, as reflected in how Preface Coffee & Wine had been designed by a woman with no
technical training who joined the company in the HR department.

Lo’s Management Style in Running Preface as a Sports Team

In Lo’s words, he ran Preface “like a sports team,” as he believed that it was the collective
efforts of people with different skills and beliefs that enabled them to build a successful
company together. As a people-centric company, the first department that Lo built at Preface
was the HR department, which was called the People team. He placed a lot of emphasis on
people because he felt that the real cause of any failure at a startup was due to people rather
than money.

Employees at Preface included many younger people whose salaries matched market standards.
As a company that was committed to its employees and paid close attention to employee
retention, Preface also had a flexible pay system, where employees could decide on the split
between their base pay and stock options or equity. Employees who believed in Preface had the
opportunity to align their interests with the company’s long-term growth.

Lo also felt that it was important that Preface provide different paths for independent
contributors and managers. Everyone had different talents, and there were startups that faced
problems when they placed high-performing talent in managerial roles. A steep learning curve
and high growth opportunities made for an exciting work environment at startups, but those
who took on managerial roles at an early stage of their careers might not have the skills and
maturity that came with experience and exposure.

While Lo recruited Preface’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) from Uber, Lo was also proud
that 5 out of 10 people in the management team were from the founding team. People were
willing to stay at Preface from day one even though people in Hong Kong commonly changed
jobs every two years. Lo needed people to stay around long enough to win and lose together
during the entrepreneurial journey.

International Recognition, Expansion, and Competition

In August 2019, Preface became the first Asian company to host coding workshops at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Lo also joined the Global Panel of the MIT
Technology Review and the Advisory Council of Harvard Business Review.

As the business experienced rapid growth, Preface pushed ahead with its geographical
expansion to Tokyo, Singapore, and London, and started considering its approach to potential

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markets like New York, Sydney, and Melbourne, where there were many international students
with proven purchasing power.

The company’s presence in Japan, Singapore, and the United Kingdom allowed it to engage
corporations and governments in addition to targeting customers. For example, in Japan,
Preface partnered with traditional companies like Itoju, one of the largest conglomerates in
Japan, and new-economy firms like Animoca Brands Japan. Preface worked as an education
consultancy for Web3 and digital transformation projects and took on new business through
referrals. As for Singapore, Preface conducted training for premium clients like the Richemont
Group and considered opening a café in Raffles Place, which was in a prime area opposite the
Fullerton Hotel.

In terms of the competitive landscape, while Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning were
betting on pure online education, private education and training institutions like Accenture and
Cornerstone were relying on the traditional face-to-face or Zoom format. For the former,
retention was low and the completion rate for paying customers was less than 4%, as listed on
their IPO prospectuses. To Lo, this was not a human-centric approach, as it took exceptionally
disciplined and committed learners to stay in front of the computer for several hours of learning.
The latter model, on the other hand, was less agile as it relied on classroom learning.

Looking Forward
It was an exciting time for Preface as it sought to build on its branding as an innovative
education company and the recognition it had earned as a training platform for leading
companies in financial services, technology, and luxury goods. Under Lo’s leadership, Preface
positioned itself as a company that provided a user-centric, immersive learning experience and
took pride in the speed with which it generated content on new technology trends. Preface’s
business model was also aligned with two key features of Web3; the company took a
decentralized approach to teaching and learning and strongly emphasized community building.
While he saw no definite winner in the education market for tech skills yet, Lo expressed
confidence in Preface’s learning platform, which was linked to online and offline businesses.

Looking forward, how could Lo leverage Preface’s unique business model for continued growth?
What were the challenges in the B2C and B2B markets and how could Lo lead Preface to fully
grasp the business opportunities in the consumer and corporate segments, respectively? What
strategies should Lo adopt to take on the competition from other training institutions that were
also operating in the educational space for coding and tech skills? As much as Preface had come
a long way since its beginnings, there was much more to anticipate from a startup that had
established itself as a disruptor in tech education.

This case is for use at HSBC Bangladesh Business Case Competition 2024 only.

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