With suited condi:ons for the a-amina:on of 1a at hand, we next inves:gated the a-amina:on of a handful of alterna:ve pronucleophiles. As outlined in Scheme 2, the standard condi:ons (entry 20, Table ) served well to access different cyclic b-ketoesters 2 and oxindoles 3. Furthermore, we also succeeded in accessing the acyclic esters 4 and 5. Interes:ngly, while compound 4 was s:ll accessible under the standard condi:ons, target 5 required the use of an addi:onal stronger base (tBuOK). This can be ra:onalized by the lower acidity of the star:ng material and the fact that addi:onal strong bases are well tolerated represents an important feature for future inves:ga:ons with an expanded applica:on scope.