Scaling up MentorKart: balancing rapid growth with social impact

Learning outcomes After completion of the case study, the students will be able to appreciate the influence of platform education business over the traditional offline education business. This objective maps to the analysis in Q1. It helps them to feel the platform business environment from the viewpoint of a start-up entrepreneur who needs to find a way through gaps in demand-supply; understand how mentoring services generate employable and skilled human resources. This objective maps to the analysis in Q3. The students will be placed in a decision-making process of striking a balance between scaling up and maintaining quality; identify the factors behind demand-supply mismatch and bottlenecks to scale up, learning from feedback of the target recruiters of the above human resources and also the existing clients. This objective maps to the analyses in Q2 and Q4. The students will be able to diagnose the economic elements of entry barriers and develop an economic solution in terms of getting inroads like vertical integration through barriers; and recommend a strategy to strike a demand-supply match and scale up with quality. The objective maps to the analysis in Q5. The student will be able to draw a path of the business entity from being a mentorship platform to becoming a comprehensive solution. Case overview/synopsis This case study explores MentorKart’s evolution, its decision-making challenges and the complexities of scaling without compromising its core vision. Complexity academic level This case study is suitable for the Master of Business Administration. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS11: Strategy.