Teaching notes: It takes a village: how can a startup thrive in a Metaverse dominated by tech giants?

Evelyn Mora, CEO and founder of VLGE (pronounced “village”), reflected on the current state of the Metaverse to determine the best path forward for her virtual world creation platform startup. The Metaverse market was nascent, defined by uncertainty on whether customers will take up extended reality (XR) technology and if so, for what purposes. Moreover, it was dominated by two market leaders (Meta and Apple), with complex technological ecosystems and varying visions for the future. Should VLGE partner up with Meta, Apple or both? Or should it position itself more as an alternative by banding together with like-minded startups to...