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4 Entrepreneur Success Stories to Learn From

• 20 Jan 2022

Entrepreneurship is a risky but potentially rewarding endeavor. According to the online course Entrepreneurship Essentials , 50 percent of startups last five years, and just 25 percent survive 15.

“For every Amazon.com or Uber, there are scores of companies few can remember,” says Harvard Business School Professor William Sahlman in Entrepreneurship Essentials.

So, what separates successful ventures from those that fail?

“When a company succeeds, it’s because it has discovered and made the right moves along the way,” Sahlman says. “It has found out how to create and capture customer value.”

If you’re exploring entrepreneurship or in the early stages of launching a venture, it’s important to learn from others to avoid common pitfalls and discover which decisions impacted a company’s survival. Here are four stories of successful entrepreneurs to inspire your entrepreneurial journey.

Access your free e-book today.

4 Successful Entrepreneur Stories

1. adi dassler of adidas.

Some of today’s biggest brands started with humble beginnings, and no one embodies this better than Adidas founder Adolf “Adi” Dassler.

Dassler’s shoemaking career began in his mother’s washroom in a small town in Bavaria, Germany. It was there that Dassler began designing and cobbling shoes and decided he wanted to make the best possible sports shoe for athletes.

While there were plenty of shoemakers at the time, Dassler was committed to standing out in the market by gathering feedback from athletes about what they looked for in a shoe, what pain points could be improved on, and how they felt about his early models.

This feedback allowed Dassler to craft an athletic shoe that was highly valued by his customers and gave him legitimacy when he registered “Adi Dassler Adidas Sportschuhfabrik” in 1949 at 49 years old. It was that same year the first shoe with the soon-to-become-signature Adidas three stripes was registered.

Dassler’s vision to create the best shoe for athletes proved itself in 1954 when the German national football team won the World Cup final against the Hungarians—while wearing the new model of Adidas cleats.

“Their unbelievable victory would be heard around the world for decades to come,” Adidas states on its website , “and it made Adidas and its founder a household name on football pitches everywhere.”

Since then, Adidas has grown into an international brand known for high-quality athleticwear. Dassler’s story sheds light on the importance of listening to target customers about their dreams, needs, and pain points.

“Adi Dassler’s secret to success had an additional personal ingredient: He met with athletes, listened carefully to what they said, and constantly observed what can be improved or even invented to support their needs,” reads Adidas’s website . “The best of the best trusted Adidas and its founder from the beginning.”

Related: 5 Steps to Validate Your Business Idea

2. Whitney Wolfe Herd of Bumble

After leaving dating app company Tinder and an abusive relationship in 2014, Whitney Wolfe Herd was inspired to create an empowering dating experience for women.

“For all the advances women had been making in workplaces and corridors of power, the gender dynamics of dating and romance still seemed so outdated,” Wolfe Herd writes on Bumble’s website . “I thought, ‘What if I could flip that on its head? What if women made the first move and sent the first message?’”

Wolfe Herd, along with dating app Badoo co-founder Andrey Andreev and former Tinder employees Chris Gulzcynski and Sarah Mick, designed a dating app that requires women to make the first move in heterosexual matches.

The brand took off—largely on college campuses—and the app reached 100,000 downloads in its first month.

As its user base grows, Wolfe Herd remains a strong advocate for gender equality and sexual harassment prevention, building in-app features that block hate speech and blur inappropriate images. Wolfe Herd and her team also lobbied the state of Texas—where the company is headquartered—to pass a law prohibiting the sending of unsolicited lewd photos, which passed in 2019 .

“I’m more dedicated than ever to helping advance gender equality—and putting an end to the misogyny that still plagues society,” Wolfe Herd writes in a letter to Bumble users . She later adds, “I want nothing more than for your connections to be both meaningful and healthy.”

Wolfe Herd’s story serves as a reminder to use your own life for business inspiration and use a cause you care about to differentiate your product and brand in a saturated market.

Related: How to Identify an Underserved Need in the Market

3. Melanie Perkins of Canva

In 2007, Melanie Perkins was working a part-time job while studying in Perth, Australia, teaching students how to use desktop design software. The software was expensive, complex, and required a semester’s worth of instruction to learn how to use, prompting Perkins to ask, “Is there a way this could be simpler and less expensive?”

Perkins’s goal to create an affordable, simple, online design tool was originally turned down by over 100 investors—it wasn’t until three years into her pitching process that Canva received its first investment.

Perkins credits this investment to a shift in her pitching strategy: She began leading with the relatable problem Canva aims to solve.

“A lot of people can relate to going into something like Photoshop and being completely overwhelmed," Perkins said in an interview for Inc . "It's important to tell the story, because if your audience doesn't understand the problem, they won't understand the solution."

Today, 60 million customers use Canva to create designs across 190 countries.

Perkins’s story reflects the importance of effectively communicating the value of a business idea , as well as the tenacity and resilience required for entrepreneurial success.

Related: How to Effectively Pitch a Business Idea

4. Neil Blumenthal, Dave Gilboa, Andy Hunt, and Jeff Raider of Warby Parker

One example mentioned in Entrepreneurship Essentials is that of innovative online eyewear company Warby Parker. In 2008, Wharton MBA student Blumenthal lost his prescription eyeglasses. He was reluctant to purchase a new pair because they were so expensive. He also didn’t want to visit an eyeglass store.

The idea came to him in the middle of the night, and he emailed three friends—Gilboa, Hunt, and Raider—immediately: Why not start an online company to sell prescription glasses at an affordable price?

They set to work, and Warby Parker was poised to launch just after the four founders graduated with their MBA degrees in the spring of 2010—that is, until GQ reached out to Blumenthal about writing an article to be published on February 15 of that year. The founders sped up their process and launched Warby Parker’s website the same day the article was printed .

The article called Warby Parker “the Netflix of eyewear,” driving interested customers to the new site in droves. The founders’ one mistake was forgetting to add a “sold out” functionality to the website. The waitlist for Warby Parker eyewear grew to 20,000 people, and the company hit its first-year sales target in three weeks.

"It was this moment of panic but also a great opportunity for us to provide awesome customer service and write personalized emails to apologize and explain," Blumenthal says in an interview for Inc . "That really set the tone for how we would run customer service."

A few things set Warby Parker apart from the eyewear market at the time:

• Its online model : A new way of delivering the product helped it break into a stagnant industry
• Its affordable prices : A pair of Warby Parker frames with prescription lenses cost $95—much less expensive than other brands at the time
• Its home try-on program : This enabled customers to try on five pairs of glasses and send back the pairs they didn’t want to purchase.
• Its commitment to giving back : For every pair of glasses purchased, Warby Parker donated a pair to someone in need

Warby Parker donated its millionth pair of glasses in 2019 and continues to be an example of innovation in an existing market.

Why Learn from Case Studies?

Reading about the trials, tribulations, decisions, and successes of other entrepreneurs is an effective way to gain insight into what your experience could be like. What common threads do you notice in the aforementioned examples? What characteristics do these successful entrepreneurs share ? Use their experiences as blueprints to inform your strategic approach and in-the-moment decision-making.

When building your entrepreneurial skills, seek out courses that incorporate case studies into their teaching method , such as Entrepreneurship Essentials. Not only can you imagine yourself in their situations, but you can take their wisdom with you on your entrepreneurial journey.

Are you interested in honing your entrepreneurial skills and innovation toolkit? Explore our four-week Entrepreneurship Essentials course and other online entrepreneurship and innovation courses to learn to speak the language of the startup world.

About the Author

• Program on Entrepreneurship
• Case Studies

Entrepreneurship Case Studies

Connecticut innovations 2022: managing a state venture capital agency’s investments.

Jean Rosenthal and Song Ma

Asset Management, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance

Matt McCooe had been navigating the similarities and differences between managing private and state-sponsored venture funds since he was appointed Connecticut Innovations’ CEO. Seven years in, McCooe and his investment team were considering whether yet another difference between private venture firms and Connecticut Innovations (CI) was an opportunity or a hazard for CI’s funds.

Khalil Tawil and Umi

Khalil Tawil and A. J. Wasserstein   

Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Leadership & Teamwork   

Khalil Tawil (Yale Law ‘19) started Umi began with a simple idea: Home Cooking, Delivered. But now Umi was experiencing turbulence and flagging. With funds running run out from his venture capital raise, Tawil had to confront the reality that Umi was possibly unviable, and that he might have to wind up operations. He had founded Umi in 2014 as a law student at Yale. After raising an impressive amount of capital, Tawil had launched Umi in Brooklyn in March of 2016.

European Wax Center in Manhattan

Joseph Golden and A.J. Wasserstein  

Competitor/Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork  

Karen and Twan Bentlage had opened two locations of the European Wax Center in Manhattan. When Karen and her husband Twan had secured exclusive rights to develop the Manhattan market for European Wax Center, they had recruited an operating partner to manage the Centers on their behalf. That worked for the first few months, until the Bentlages’ hand-picked partner suddenly walked away from the venture in the summer. Out of necessity, Karen had stepped in to fill the leadership void on a temporary basis. By December 2011, five months later, Karen was exhausted.

Easy Expunctions

Evan Okun and Song Ma  

Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Law & Contracts, Social Enterprise, Sourcing/Managing Funds  

Investors poured in, eager for a slice of his Series A raise. Yousef Kassim’s company, Easy Expunctions, boasted nearly a $2 million run rate and the round’s price tag was cheap: $18 million pre-money. Yet amidst investor enthusiasm, Kassim wrestled with how his company would balance social impact and commercial viability.

Connecticut SNAP 2019

Gwen Kinkead and Teresa Chahine  

Employee/HR, Innovation & Design, Leadership & Teamwork, Social Enterprise, State & Society    From 2011 to 2019, the Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS), under the direction of Roderick Bremby, managed to transform its $570 million food stamp program from one of the worst in the nation to one of the best. Having achieved such a remarkable turnaround, observers wondered what else the DSS might do to further deliver on its mission of "providing person-centered programs and services to enhance the well-being of individuals, families and communities."

Bovard and Majid

Allison Mishkin and A.J. Wasserstein  

Entrepreneurship, Investor/Finance  

Lia Majid had spent nearly a year and a half searching for a business to acquire and thought she’d finally found a deal worth pursuing. She spent months negotiating with the firm’s sellers and believed she was on the verge of a purchase. However, at the last minute, her backers and mentors at the Search Fund Accelerator (SFA) wanted her to completely restructure the deal.

Majid was part of the first cohort of SFA. SFA was the brainchild of Timothy Bovard who founded the accelerator to help search fund entrepreneurs vet deals, review proposals, and provide emotional support during the search. Through SFA’s leads, Majid had identified a target company that was willing to sell one of its divisions, but she still needed Bovard’s input before drafting a Letter of Intent (LOI) for the seller. Bovard, however, was concerned about the proposed carve-out acquisition, a complex task for even a seasoned CEO, let alone a first time CEO.

Faced with Bovard’s concerns and SFA’s new deal structure, Majid had to decide whether to reengage the target firm with this new deal or to move on to investigate other prospects.

Jean Rosenthal, Kate Cooney, and Jaan Elias

Arts Management, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Social Enterprise

Titus Kaphar was a highly successful artist. One dominant theme of his work was creative reuse  of classical images to expose hidden relationships of race and subjugation. When he moved back to New Haven, Connecticut, he began a project that required creative reuse and reframing on a much grander scale. He co-founded an organization, NXTHVN, to take an old factory building in a rundown neighborhood and reconfigure the space into an art incubator, artists’ studios, and a community center.

I Said, You Said: He's the Entrepreneur

A.J. Wasserstein

Employee/HR, Entrepreneurship, Leadership & Teamwork

The case consists of written responses from Justin Schulte and his wife Samantha, who agreed to answer a set of identical questions on their views and perspectives about Justin’s choice of becoming an entrepreneur after graduating Yale SOM. These are the types of questions likely to come up for other entrepreneurs making a choice about their next steps, and how their decisions will play out with their own families. Some entrepreneurial couples have the foresight to explore these interesting, and potentially raw, conversations, and some do not. Aligning expectations and aspirations between partners in an entrepreneurial marriage can attenuate ambiguity and stress in an inherently nebulous and anxiety filled path. For Justin and Samantha, it is interesting to see where their thoughts align and where they veer apart, what concerns they have about Justin’s career decision, how it will impact various family members, and how they each perceive risk and uncertainty.

Smith Brothers Insurance: Managing Successions at a Growing Insurance Agency

Jason Pananos and A.J. Wasserstein

Employee/HR, Entrepreneurship, Investor/Finance, Leadership & TeamworkSourcing/Managing Funds

In October 2014, Joe Smith, the CEO of Smith Brothers Insurance, reflected on the fact his business was caught in the midst of three separate succession challenges. Smith Brothers was an insurance agency owned by Joe and his sister, Kim, in Connecticut that had achieved strong growth over the previous decade.

FARM: An Impact Investing Collaborative

Patrick Sissman and AJ Wasserstein

Asset Management, Entrepreneurship, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork, Social Enterprise, Sustainability

Tom Bird, founder of the early-stage impact investment nonprofit The FARM Fund, settled into his seat for a flight from Boston to Amsterdam in February 2016. The seven-hour transoceanic flight would give him plenty of time to mull over two dilemmas – one a long-term question of the future of FARM and the other an investment opportunity FARM had recently been presented.

Mike Erwin: An Accidental Social Entrepreneur

A. J. Wasserstein

Employee/HR, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Leadership & Teamwork, Social Enterprise

Mike Erwin, a decorated army veteran from West Point, never envisioned himself as a social entrepreneur or activist. Yet in 2012, he found himself the CEO of an organization with 15,000 members and 34 chapters reaching from Syracuse, NY to Houston, TX. Though Erwin was proud of his organization’s growth and had excelled in leadership positions, he questioned whether he was the right person to scale Team Red, White and Blue. Would someone else with more experience be more appropriate? If he indeed moved on, how could he ensure the organization would continue to thrive amid a change in leadership and potential restructuring?

What is Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit

Entrepreneurship, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork

During his time at the Yale School of Management, Matt Dittrich (Yale SOM ‘18) became interested in how recent MBA students gathered search funds, structured small acquisitions, propelled themselves into being a CEO, and then participated in a liquidity event only a few years after acquisition and graduation.  He appreciated the case studies about entrepreneurs facing acquisition, strategy, and financing issues.  But what did entrepreneurs do after their exits?  At the urging of his teacher, A.J. Wasserstein, he interviewed former search fund entrepreneurs who had experienced an exit to learn what exactly they chose to do, and why. Overcome by curiosity, Dittrich was excited to begin his informational interviews (summaries included here). 

Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options

Employee/HR, Entrepreneurship

Before entering the Yale School of Management, James Guba (SOM’18) had thought about becoming an entrepreneur. He did not have a specific idea to build a business around, but he did aspire to take charge of an organization and grow it. At Yale, Guba discovered an entrepreneurial niche called “search funds” that would allow him to acquire and lead a company that he had not built from scratch. Inspired, Guba met with search fund entrepreneurs to learn about their different paths to building their funds.

Kalil Diaz: A DR-based search firm considers its first acquisition

Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship

After nearly two years of searching, Kalil Diaz (SOM '14) wondered if he had finally found the company for which he had been looking. The decision he was facing would have a big impact on his investors as well as his own life. He was somewhat confident he could access funds from his current investors to purchase the company despite several investors being slow in their response to commit. However, Diaz still wondered if making the investment was the right move. How would he transition from the search to being CEO and running a company? Would the acquisition provide suitable financial returns for his investors and himself?

Clorox, Inc

Elise Rindfleisch and Allison Mitkowski

Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability

In October 2007, Clorox announced that it would buy Burt’s Bees for $925 million – more than five times Burt’s Bees’ annual sales. Clorox’s move caught many in the industry by surprise - Burt’s Bees had a folksy image and natural appeal for customers. Could such a brand find a home within a company best known for a toxic cleanser? Would Clorox’s push into “green” cleaners satisfy Burt’s Bees’ faithful customers? Had Clorox paid too much for its acquisition? Or, were there potential synergies that justified the purchase? What was the future of this market?

Project Samaan

Rodrigo Canales, Jean Rosenthal, Jaan Elias, Ashley Pandya and Samuel Sturm

Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Innovation & Design, Social Enterprise, State & Society, Sustainability

In a unique partnership, governments, designers, architects, academics, and NGOs had come together to create new sanitation solutions for India's urban slums. Specifically, the group set about tackling one of the developing world's leading problems – open defecation in crowded urban settings. But by fall 2013, not a single community toilet had been approved. What had gone wrong? And what could this experience teach others about an overall solution to the problem?

Project Masiluleke: Texting and Testing to Fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa

Rodrigo Canales, Jean Rosenthal, Jaan Elias, and William Drenttel

Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Innovation & Design, Social Enterprise

The traditional Zulu greeting, "Sawubona," literally translates as "I see you." The major challenge faced by Project Masiluleke could be captured in this local greeting – could Project M see the lives of the individuals they hoped to help? Could they find ways to understand each other and the individuals threatened by HIV/AIDS well enough to design effective solutions to a major health crisis? PopTech, frog design, and the Praekelt Foundation joined with iTeach, an HIV/AIDS and TB prevention and treatment program, to look for new approaches to address South Africa's health issues. Access to this case has been made freely available to the public.

Haiti Mangoes

Andrea Nagy Smith and Douglas Rae

Entrepreneurship, Operations, Social Enterprise, State & Society

JMB S.A. had been in the mango processing business since 1998, and CEO Jean-Maurice Buteau had built up a profitable business that exported around 2,000 tons of mangoes per year.  The January 2010 earthquake devastated Haiti, but JMB appeared to survive intact, and the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF) was eager to move forward. In spring 2010 SEDF proceeded with a $1.3 million loan and a $1 million equity investment in JMB. But by spring 2012, after pouring $2.55 million into JMB, SEDF realized that it had to make a decision: invest another $2 million and reorganize the company under new management; sell the company, or shut down JMB S.A. altogether.

Allison Mitkowski, Alexandra Barton-Sweeney, Tony Sheldon, Arthur Janik, and Jaan Elias

Customer/Marketing, Innovation & Design, Social Enterprise, State & Society, Sustainability

In 2009, SELCO was considering its plans for how the company might expand. The company decided to institutionalize its design process by building an innovation center. SELCO also added products that provided energy solutions beyond solar. Some within the company were hoping the company would go “deeper” and look at designing solutions for even poorer members of the Indian population. Others were hoping that the company would go “wider” and expand beyond its current geographical areas in Karnataka and Gujarat. Whatever its direction, the strategic choices the company made at this point in its evolution would be crucial to determining its continued success.

360 State Street: Real Options

Andrea Nagy Smith and Mathew Spiegel

Asset Management, Investor/Finance, Metrics & Data, Sourcing/Managing Funds

In 2010 developer Bruce Becker completed 360 State Street, a major new construction project in downtown New Haven. The building was a 32-story high-rise with 500 apartments, a parking garage, and a grocery store on the street level. In the summer of 2013, Becker had a number of alternatives to consider in regards to the open lot adjacent to his recent construction. He also had no obligation to build. He could bide his time. But Becker also worried about losing out on rents should he wait too long. Under what set of circumstances and at what time would it be most advantageous to proceed?

Achievement First

Fawzia Ahmed, Jaan Elias, and Sharon Oster

Social Enterprise, State & Society

On the edges of a warehouse district in New Haven, Connecticut, an intrepid group of educational pioneers were turning conventional theory on its head. Amistad Academy, a charter school founded by two Yale Law School graduates, was not only getting students on par with their grade levels in reading and math, but was pushing them to perform as well as the best suburban school districts too.  Five years after opening Amistad, McCurry and Toll opened an additional school in New Haven and four schools in Brooklyn, New York – all of which showed the same promise as Amistad. They dubbed their network of schools Achievement First (AF), and garnered national attention and funding from “venture philanthropists” interested in educational reform. However, in the summer of 2006, AF was facing critical questions about its future direction.

Carry Trade ETF

K. Geert Rouwenhorst, Jean W. Rosenthal, and Jaan Elias

Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Macroeconomics, Sourcing/Managing Funds

In 2006 Deutsche Bank (DB) brought a new product to market – an exchange traded fund (ETF) based on the carry trade, a strategy of buying and selling currency futures. The offering received the William F. Sharpe Indexing Achievement Award for “Most Innovative Index Fund or ETF” at the 2006 Sharpe Awards. These awards are presented annually by IndexUniverse.com and Information Management Network for innovative advances in the indexing industry. The carry trade ETF shared the award with another DB/PowerShares offering, a Commodity Index Tracking Fund. Jim Wiandt, publisher of IndexUniverse.com, said, "These innovators are shaping the course of the index industry, creating new tools and providing new insights for the benefit of all investors." What was it that made this financial innovation successful?

Governors Island

Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Social Enterprise, State & Society

The political players had changed since President Clinton and Senator Moynihan’s helicopter ride. Clinton was no longer President, his wife had taken Moynihan’s seat in the Senate and Michael Bloomberg had replaced Rudolph Giuliani as New York’s Mayor. What remained the same was that the city, state, and federal government had yet to reach a deal. The question of what to do with Governors Island and who should do it remained very much open. Indeed, there were those within the new Bush administration and the Congress who believed in scrapping Clinton and Moynihan’s deal and selling the island to the highest bidder be that the local government or a private developer.

Ant Financial: Flourishing Farmer Loans at MYbank

Jingyue Xu, Jean Rosenthal, K. Sudhir, Hua Song, Xia Zhang, Yuanfang Song, Xiaoxi Liu, and Jaan Elias

Competitor/Strategy, Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork, Operations, State & Society

In 2015, Ant Financial’s MYbank (an offshoot of Jack Ma’s Alibaba company) was looking to extend services to rural areas in China through its Flourishing Farmer Loan program. MYbank relied on the internet to communicate with loan applicants and judge their credit worthiness. Initial tests of the program had proved promising, but could MYbank operate the program at scale? Would its big data and technical analysis provide an accurate measure of credit risk for loans to small customers? Could MYbank rely on its new credit-scoring system to reduce operating costs to make the program sustainable?

View All Yale School of Management Entreprenuership Case Studies

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Entrepreneurship Case Studies

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Entrepreneurship: case studies.

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What are Case Studies?

Entrepreneurship cases, journals of case studies.

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Case studies are usually short articles describing real-world business examples that illustrate a particular problem or principle in detail. There are many cases available online for free or for a fee, and you can also search the library catalogue and selected databases below.

Looking for something specific?

Search C  LIO for entrepreneurship case studies, enter Entrepreneurship--Case studies in the search field and select "Subject" from the dropdown menu.

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Case Studies and Successful Entrepreneurial Ventures

Introduction to case studies in entrepreneurship.

Studying case studies of successful entrepreneurial ventures can provide valuable insights into the strategies, challenges, and lessons learned by real-world entrepreneurs. By examining these examples, aspiring entrepreneurs can gain a better understanding of what it takes to launch and grow a successful business.

Key Elements of Entrepreneurial Success

Identifying Market Opportunities : Successful entrepreneurs are skilled at identifying unmet needs or problems in the market and developing innovative solutions to address them.

Developing a Strong Business Model : A well-designed business model that clearly articulates the value proposition, target customers, revenue streams, and cost structure is essential for entrepreneurial success.

Building a Talented Team : Entrepreneurs who surround themselves with skilled, passionate, and complementary team members are better equipped to navigate the challenges of starting and growing a business.

Adapting to Change : Successful entrepreneurs are agile and able to pivot their strategies in response to changing market conditions, customer needs, or competitive landscapes.

Perseverance and Resilience : Entrepreneurship is often characterized by setbacks and failures. Successful entrepreneurs demonstrate perseverance and resilience in the face of adversity, learning from their mistakes and continuing to pursue their vision.

Case Study 1: Airbnb

Airbnb, founded by Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk in 2008, revolutionized the travel and hospitality industry by creating a platform that connects travelers with local hosts offering unique accommodations.

Key Lessons :

• Identifying a market need: Airbnb recognized the demand for affordable, unique travel experiences and created a platform to address this need.
• Leveraging technology: By developing a user-friendly platform that simplifies the booking process and facilitates trust between hosts and guests, Airbnb was able to scale rapidly.
• Building a strong brand: Airbnb's emphasis on authentic, local experiences and its "Belong Anywhere" motto helped create a strong brand identity and loyal customer base.

Case Study 2: Warby Parker

Warby Parker, founded by Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, David Gilboa, and Jeffrey Raider in 2010, disrupted the eyewear industry by offering stylish, affordable glasses online and through a home try-on program.

• Challenging industry norms: Warby Parker identified an opportunity to disrupt the traditional eyewear industry by offering a more convenient, affordable, and socially conscious alternative.
• Focusing on customer experience: By providing a seamless online shopping experience, home try-on program, and exceptional customer service, Warby Parker built a loyal customer base.
• Incorporating social responsibility: Warby Parker's "Buy a Pair, Give a Pair" program, which donates a pair of glasses for every pair sold, helped differentiate the brand and appeal to socially conscious consumers.

Case Study 3: Slack

Slack, founded by Stewart Butterfield, Eric Costello, Cal Henderson, and Serguei Mourachov in 2013, transformed workplace communication with its innovative messaging platform designed for teams and organizations.

• Solving a real problem: Slack addressed the challenges of effective team communication and collaboration, providing a more efficient alternative to email and traditional messaging tools.
• Focusing on user experience: Slack's intuitive interface, customizable features, and integrations with popular tools and services helped drive adoption and user satisfaction.
• Leveraging word-of-mouth marketing: By offering a free version of its platform and encouraging users to invite their colleagues, Slack was able to grow rapidly through viral word-of-mouth marketing.

Common Questions and Answers

What can entrepreneurs learn from studying case studies of successful ventures?

Studying case studies of successful entrepreneurial ventures can provide valuable insights into the strategies, challenges, and lessons learned by real-world entrepreneurs. By examining these examples, aspiring entrepreneurs can gain a better understanding of what it takes to identify market opportunities, develop strong business models, build talented teams, adapt to change, and persevere in the face of adversity.

How can entrepreneurs apply the lessons learned from case studies to their own ventures?

Entrepreneurs can apply the lessons learned from case studies by critically analyzing the strategies and tactics employed by successful ventures and adapting them to their own unique contexts. This may involve identifying similar market opportunities, developing innovative solutions to customer problems, focusing on user experience and customer satisfaction, leveraging technology to scale their businesses, and incorporating social responsibility into their business models.

What are some common challenges faced by successful entrepreneurs, as highlighted in case studies?

Case studies of successful entrepreneurial ventures often highlight common challenges such as navigating competitive landscapes, securing funding and resources, attracting and retaining talented team members, adapting to changing market conditions, and overcoming setbacks and failures. By studying how successful entrepreneurs have addressed these challenges, aspiring entrepreneurs can develop strategies and resilience to overcome similar obstacles in their own ventures.

Studying case studies of successful entrepreneurial ventures is a valuable way for aspiring entrepreneurs to learn from real-world examples and gain insights into the strategies, challenges, and lessons learned by successful entrepreneurs. By examining cases like Airbnb, Warby Parker, and Slack, entrepreneurs can identify key elements of entrepreneurial success, such as identifying market opportunities, developing strong business models, building talented teams, adapting to change, and persevering in the face of adversity. By applying these lessons to their own ventures, entrepreneurs can increase their chances of success and make a meaningful impact in their industries and communities.

Entrepreneurial Failure and Lessons Learned

Social entrepreneurship and impact investing, family businesses and succession planning, entrepreneurship and innovation, entrepreneurial ecosystem and support networks, pitching and presenting the business plan.

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Berkeley Haas Case Series

The Berkeley Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies created by UC Berkeley faculty

Entrepreneurship

Connect-in-Place: Startup Disrupts Socializing and Learning During COVID-19

Two UC Berkeley students forced into online classes during COVID-19 realized - due to their volunteer experiences championing educational equality - that younger students (K-12) could suffer social isolation and reduced learning opportunities. So, the undergrads brainstormed how to tackle new educational and emotional challenges pre-college students faced due to pandemic restrictions.

Medinas Health: Building a Medical Equipment Marketplace

This case centers on the startup Medinas Health, a technology company based in Berkeley, California that aimed to increase the efficiency of the medical equipment market in the U.S. Chloe Alpert, Medinas Health’s CEO, envisioned a more sustainable healthcare industry and aimed to reduce waste and improve the financial bottom-line of hospitals.

Niantic Labs and the Professional Entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley: Google, Pokémon Go, and Beyond

This case series focuses on the entrepreneurial career of John Hanke, a 1996 MBA graduate of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and a professional entrepreneur.

International Data Spaces: A Collaborative Organizational Moonshot

Led by ThyssenKrupp CTO Reinhold Achatz, IDSA is an organization that seeks to set, diffuse, and implement a dominant global B2B data standard.

Maire Tecnimont: The Creation of NextChem

Maire Tecnimont is an international leader in the engineering and construction of industrial plants.

Goodbaby: How a Chinese Underdog Became a World Leader Through Open Innovation

Goodbaby is an industry-leading manufacturer of juvenile products. Under a variety of brand names, nearly a third of the strollers in the world are designed and manufactured by Goodbaby.

Barça Innovation Hub: Getting the Ball Rolling on Innovation

This case study follows the Spanish football club, FC Barcelona, as it starts to innovate and create an organizational structure for open innovation.

Enel X: Driving Digital Transformation in the Energy Sector

Enel is one of the world’s largest electric utilities, based in Italy but operating in dozens of countries around the world. This case discusses the process of establishing a new subsidiary company inside Enel to lead the company towards digital transformation in eMobility.

Bosch: Scaling Large Company Innovation for Strategic Advantage

This case focuses on the Innovation Performance Management (IPM) methodology as a new approach whereby established and global companies, like Bosch, can use innovation to support strategic goals.

Amyris, Inc: Make good. No compromise.

Amyris has grown from a Silicon Valley startup to a global publicly-traded company who genetically programs yeast into chemicals used by more than 250 million consumers in over 2,000 brands. The company's path has included entering markets with new production solutions, learning how to lower risk through business partnerships, and expanding from B2B to B2C.

Innovation, Co-Creation, and Design Thinking: How Salesforce's Ignite Team Accelerates Enterprise Digital Transformation

From its inception, Salesforce, the cloud computing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) company, took a radically different approach to selling enterprise software than competitors such as Oracle and SAP.

Sproutel: How Design Roadmapping Helped Improve Children's Health & Guide a Growing Company

This case aims to introduce students to the 'design roadmapping' process that connects customer and user experience design with product and technology roadmapping to create an integrated plan for future growth and development.

Innovating Innovation @tk

This case shows how ThyssenKrupp (tk) has altered its innovation process in recent years. CEO Heinrich Hiesinger has brought in a former colleague from Siemens, Reinhold Achatz, to lead a transformation of the R&D function at the company.

Disruption in Detroit: Ford, Silicon Valley, and Beyond

This case focuses on the Ford Motor Company in Spring 2016 and how its then-CEO, Mark Fields, and his senior management team should best respond to several emerging disruptive technologies that will ultimately force the automaker to modify its current business model.

The Berkeley-Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies written by Haas faculty. Our culture and vision at the Haas School of Business naturally offer distinctive qualities to the Series, filling a gap in existing case offerings by drawing upon lessons from UC Berkeley's rich history and prime location in the San Francisco Bay Area. We seek to publish cases that challenge conventional assumptions about business, science, culture, and politics.

Siemens Healthineers: A Digital Journey

Maersk: Driving Culture Change at a Century-Old Company to Achieve Measurable Results

Flourish Fi: Empowering Positive Money Habits

Just Climate: A New Investment Model?

Roche Pakistan

A new collection of business case studies from Berkeley Haas

The aim of the Berkeley Haas Case Series is to incite business innovation by clarifying disruptive trends and questioning the status quo.

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Case studies are usually short articles describing real-world business examples that illustrate a particular problem or principle in detail. There are many cases available online for free or for a fee, and you can also search the library catalogue and selected databases below.

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To use UTL Library Search to find books of entrepreneurship case studies, enter "Entrepreneurship case studies" in the search field and select "Subject" from the "Any field" dropdown menu.

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Entrepreneurship Cases

• Arthur Andersen Case Studies in Business Ethics Ninety case studies from1987-94 produced by the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business in cooperation with 525 institutions including University of Toronto. Free.
• The Asian Business Case Centre - Nanyang Technical University A collection of cases in Chinese and English focusing on Asian management and business experience. Searchable by topic or company. Free.
• BCIC Business Case Library (archived link) Cases focused on IT, energy, and tech companies in British Columbia. Produced by BC Innovation Council. Free.
• Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute Cases on 13 Canadian companies including Ferrero, Lassonde, Maple Leaf Foods and PepsiCo Canada, produced by the CAPI and sponsored by Export Development Canada. Free.
• Case Centre - Free Cases A distributor of over 50,000 cases on a variety of business topics including entrepreneurship produced by various institutions. Some electronic and paper cases are free and others are sold for a fee, with free teaching materials.
• CasePlace - Aspen Institute (archived link) Over 800 entrepreneurship cases focusing on "social, environmental and ethical issues in business." Archived link.
• Harvard Business School Cases - Entrepreneurship Cases on e.g. Google Glass and Andreessen Horowitz from Harvard Business Publishing. Educators can register for free access to cases and teaching materials; others are charged a fee. Note: Some older Harvard cases are available via Business Source Premier.
• Ivey Publishing - Entrepreneurship Cases Over 2,800 entrepreneurship cases out of the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario. Teaching notes also available. Paywall.
• MIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship Via the Case Center. Legatum Center case studies illuminate the thought processes of entrepreneurs, the challenges they face, and the solutions they devise as they develop their businesses. These cases are available without charge to help teachers, students, and aspiring entrepreneurs.
• MIT Sloan School of Management Entrepreneurship cases available for free, includes teaching notes. Educators are asked to register.
• National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science Science cases written by science faculty primarily from the U.S. and Canada, produced by the University at Buffalo. Free.
• Rotman Gender and the Economy Case studies The Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE) at the Rotman School of Management promotes an understanding of gender inequalities and how they can be remedied – by people of all genders – in the world of business and, more broadly, in the economy. Case studies can be filtered using tags including for entrepreneurship, and include high-profile Canadian founder cases.
• Stanford Graduate School of Business - Case Studies Select "Entrepreneurship" under "Narrow your results>Additional topics."
• The Times 100 Case Studies UK cases produced by the Times, searchable by topic, company, industry, or edition. Free.

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How the best entrepreneurs succeed: a case study.

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While it is obvious that no one approach GUARANTEES entrepreneurial success, it is clear from everything we have learned so far, that there is a PROVEN path that increases your odds.

As we have seen, it breaks down into the following steps. You:

• Determine what it is you really want to do.
• Take a small step toward that goal.
• Pause to see what you learned from taking that step and
• Build off that learning.
• Take another small step.
• Pause to see what you learned from step two.
• Build off that learning….

This Act. Learn. Build. Repeat approach is one that the most successful entrepreneurs use in creating their company.

Shawn Gardner, 40, is trying to join their ranks.

Shawn who works for the Saratoga, California parks department loves his job. But he realizes that these days public employees are not the most popular people around and with budget cuts always looming he figures it would be a good idea to hedge his employment bets.

“With the changing economy, there is tons of uncertainty out there. You have to be the one to plan your own future,” he says.

But what kind of future?

“I was on a winter break in 2009 and wanted to rent a snowmobile for a couple of hours,” he recalls.  “Not only was the price—$325—absurd but they wouldn’t provide insurance.  I had just bought a house and I wasn’t going to risk it if I got into an accident. I had a debate with the rental guy but he said nobody who rented snowmobiles provided personal liability insurance.”

Shawn did not rent the snowmobile, because of the potential risk. But on the way home he noticed how many people had snowmobiles on trailers in their driveway along with boats, jet skis and other “grown up toys.”

“I spent about six months researching all this and concluded based on the median income people couldn’t afford all the toys they had in their garages and driveways.  They’d buy a boat with a home equity loan, and then all of a sudden the value of their homes fell, or they lost their jobs, or they realized they really couldn’t afford to have it.”

During the Great Recession, a lot of people sold their toys, and sales of new boats and powersport vehicles  dropped nearly 50% across the industry. There's nothing more discretionary than a boat, jet ski, ATV or snowmobile.

Clearly there was a mismatch in the marketplace. You had people who wanted to rent grown-up toys as opposed to owning them.  (The upkeep on boats is substantial and even if things like jet skis are relatively easy to maintain, do you really want your money tied in owning them, if you are only going to use them a couple of times a year? (A jet ski runs about $10,000-$12,000 new and people tend to buy them in pairs.)

But while you had potential demand, potential renters like Shawn thought the average rental price was way out of line. Jet skis typical rent for more than $100 an hour.

Conversely, you had people who didn’t want to sell their toys, but they sure would appreciate some extra income.

Fun2Rent  was born

                            Walking through the Model

Shawn saw the opportunity, and it turns out he followed our model exactly.  Did he have the desire to make this happen? Yes, and yes.  Not only was he worried about the security of his day job, but he is “into power sports.”

As for the small steps, he had already done some research that showed that a significant percentage of the people who owned all these toys were in over their head financially and could use the extra cash that could come by renting.

The next step was to talk to potential renters. They were interested, but it was clear there was a lot to learn before Shawn could create a successful company to fill the hole in the marketplace.

For one thing, promoting the business wouldn’t be as easy as he thought.

“ Google word advertising won’t get the attention of our market, I found out. Many of our customers—both owners and people who rent—work hard for their money, and are not easily convinced that they can rent their stuff or rent from neighbor. We also discovered that we needed to build relationships. The people who rent out their stuff want to know it will be taken care of.”

That’s why offering insurance was important, as Shawn assumed it would be, but so was a rating system where people—both renters and the people renting their stuff—could comment about the person they interacted with.

Shawn also learned that these owners needed help in determining what they should charge.  Obviously, people renting their stuff want to get as much as they can, but high prices scare off potential renters.

He suggests people looking to rent out their stuff look around and see what traditional rental companies are charging and price theirs at a substantial discount. Our average, he says, renters charge 50% less.

Shawn’s company, which takes a 25% commission for handling the transaction, is now in the the Beta phase and is looking to expand and is going to go through the Act. Learn Build And Repeat Model again.

We are in the middle of an experiment

From now until the end of October you have the chance to shape this space.  During that time this blog will be devoted to discussing the very tangible problems you have in starting and growing your business—how to get financing; what kind of customers should you target; where and how to market, and the like.

You suggest the topics and talk about the concerns you have (and also what you have found that works well) and your peers will offer their suggestions, and raise concerns of their own.  I will go through everything, cull the best answers/comments/ideas, and as a micro business owner myself (as well as someone who has been writing about this stuff for more than 30 years ) will add ideas of my own.

Paul B. Brown is the co-author (along with Leonard A. Schlesinger and Charles F. Kiefer) of Just Start: Take Action; Embrace Uncertainty and Create the Future recently published by Harvard Business Review Press.

Please note the Action Trumps Everything blog now appears every Sunday and Wednesday.

Click on the “Following” button to get the new Action Trumps Everything blog post as soon as its goes live.

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Case Questions

Smart phones are everywhere today. You probably have one nearby right now. However, access to landline phone service has not been complete for very long, and wireless service is not as widespread as many people might think. The first phone lines (landlines) connected Boston and Somerville, Massachusetts in 1877. The last town in the United States to receive landline service was Mink, Louisiana, a small community 100 miles south of Shreveport, which received landline service in early 2005. Check any major US wireless carrier, and its maps have gaps in service. Building networks of any kind takes planning, money, and time.

• What are some similarities between an entrepreneur starting a new business in a new profession in a new market and a telephone service network?
• How are the requirements for a telephone network infrastructure like those for a new entrepreneur?
• What are some estimated costs, not necessarily monetary ones?
• What are some benefits to an entrepreneur who enters a market with established networks?
• How do established networks save the entrepreneur valuable money and time?
• With limited resources, what criteria should an entrepreneur use to determine priorities of spending time, effort, and money in developing networks?
• Does each criterion have equal weight? Why or why not?

The Internet Association (IA, https://internetassociation.org/) was founded in 2012 as a trade association devoted to Internet-based companies. Founding companies included Google , Amazon , eBay , and Facebook . These Internet-based companies founded this new trade group because they did not have a voice in Washington, DC, with respect to potential regulations and laws. The IA has synergy—more influence as a group than each company would have individually.

• What prompted the formation of the IA?
• Was it for marketing purposes?
• Management support?
• Industry advancement?
• Regulatory influence?
• What are some secondary purposes for the IA?
• How might the original purpose of the organization shift as the industry matures?
• Will small companies enjoy the same benefits of the larger founding organization?
• Any new venture involves substantial risks and costs. How might a new Internet startup benefit from joining the IA?
• How else do the large corporations benefit besides having a say in the political discussion in Washington, DC?
• What time commitment should a new business make before expecting any positive return on investing time and money in a trade association?
• If joining the IA requires a membership fee, what determinants should you use to place a value on the amount spent for dues?
• What benefits of a trade association may be not easily linked to membership expenses?

In 1989, the new NFL owner of the Dallas Cowboys , Jerry Jones , fired the legendary coach Tom Landry and hired one of his former college football teammates, Jimmy Johnson , as the new head coach. Johnson faced the same problems that a new entrepreneur has: Who should be on my leadership team? What should be their responsibility? Out of twelve key coaching positions, Johnson kept only three coaches from Landry’s staff in the same positions and moved one coach to a different position. Within four years (1993), the Dallas Cowboys, under head coach Jimmy Johnson, won Super Bowl XXVII with six of the original coaches Johnson hired his first year still in the same positions.

• How is a startup similar to an existing organization that needs to be turned around? How are they different?
• What are some reasons to surround yourself with others instead of taking the attitude that “I can do it myself?”
• For any leader, what are some reasons that skills in identifying and recruiting key people are more important than technical skills?

Every four years, the United States elects a president. Although the incumbent might be reelected, the United States is guaranteed to have a new president at least every eight years. On winning the election, the new president must identify candidates for cabinet positions. Some potential candidates decline the invitation and voluntarily withdraw themselves from consideration. Those who accept the invitation are put through an intensive screening process. The president then submits cabinet-level nominees to the US Senate for confirmation. As in any close group, recruiting and selecting individuals to join the presidential cabinet is critical for the president to achieve any objectives or goals.

• What kind of experience is beneficial to members of a board of directors for a local performing arts group? Should they be experienced in industry? Government? Fundraising? Management? Marketing? The arts?
• Besides experience, what other type of backgrounds should be considered? What about board members’ ages? Education? Gender? Residency? Financial Status? Connections to local or regional major employers?
• What can a new entrepreneur learn from an executive director of a nonprofit about selecting candidates to build a winning team? How important is it that some candidates decline to join the board? How long should members be on the board?
• How important is diversity in building a winning team? What skills must the entrepreneur perfect? What skills can be learned and developed later by the entrepreneur? Why is a variety of backgrounds, in the technical field and outside of the industry, important?
• Who is the actual team leader? (1) Entrepreneur? (2) Strongest personality? (3) Smartest? (4) Most technically skilled? (5) Financier? (6) Most experienced in management?

Narciso Gómez has worked in the service department at an auto dealership for about twenty-five years and has served as the service manager for the past seven years. He is qualified for retirement through the dealership but wants to open his own business. He is looking at buying a franchise, either a Jiffy Lube quick oil-change franchise that is for sale or a new SuperGlass Windshield Repair franchise. Both are automotive service and repair related, where he has plenty of experience.

• Besides his technical skills, what does Narciso need to consider before purchasing a franchise business?
• How might the estimated volume of work required to generate enough sales to cover his financial obligations affect his decision?
• The Jiffy Lube business model requires a four-bay facility. What does Narciso need to calculate in developing his business plan?
• The SuperGlass Windshield Repair is an on-site repair model whereby the technicians drive to the vehicle’s location for work. What should Narciso’s main concerns be in developing a business plan for this business model?

Han Jia-ying was an office manager for a construction company until she decided to be a stay-at-home mother with her kids. Her former employer has called her to take over some administrative work at home, such as payroll processing, payroll tax filings, bookkeeping, and other general administrative work. Her employer has said that some of his customers probably could employ her for their general administrative tasks.

• If she works from home, what type of scheduling issues does Jia-ying face? What might be some interruptions to her ability to meet specific deadlines, such as processing paychecks each week?
• If Jia-ying needs additional help, what options does she have? Would she be wise to hire an employee or seek some support from someone else? Who might that be? What problems might Jia-ying encounter when seeking a nonregular employee?
• Jia-ying will need new office equipment, including a new computer, a new scanner/printer, phone service, Internet connections, and so on. However, she is not tech savvy. How might she best manage working from home by herself, especially is something goes wrong or does not work?

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• Location: Houston, Texas
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These are the reasons why businesses are getting started in 2023, 29% of entrepreneurs say they wanted to be their own boss, 17% were dissatisfied with corporate life, 16% wanted to pursue their passion, and 12% say the opportunity presented itself. Entrepreneurship in India has witnessed a remarkable surge over the past few decades. With a burgeoning economy and a dynamic ecosystem, the country has produced a plethora of successful entrepreneurs and startups. In this article, we delve into the top 10 case studies on entrepreneurship in India, each offering unique insights, lessons, and inspiration for aspiring business leaders.

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Table of Content Top 10 Case Studies on Entrepreneurship in India

Top 10 Case Studies on Entrepreneurship in India

Flipkart: revolutionizing e-commerce.

Founders : Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal

Year Founded : 2007

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Key Takeaway : Customer focus and innovation can disrupt traditional industries and lead to exceptional growth.  

Upgrade your skills with this digital marketing course:  Click here for Details

OYO: Disrupting the Hotel Industry

Founder : Ritesh Agarwal

Year Founded : 2013

Ritesh Agarwal's story is a prime example of young entrepreneurship in India. OYO, which began as a budget hotel aggregator, has expanded globally, becoming one of the world's largest hospitality chains. Ritesh's vision is backed by a robust technology platform, and streamlined and standardized hotel operations, offering affordable, quality stays.

Key Takeaway : Identifying a market gap and using technology to address it can lead to rapid business expansion.

Read more:  Top 12 Examples of AI Case Studies in Content Marketing

Byju's: Changing the Face of Education

Founder : Byju Raveendran

Year Founded : 2011

Byju, the edtech unicorn, was born from Byju Raveendran's vision to make learning engaging and accessible. He built a unique platform offering interactive online classes for students across India. Byju's became one of the world's most valuable edtech companies, catering to millions of students.

Key Takeaway : Leveraging technology for education can create substantial opportunities and impact a wide audience.  

Paytm: A Digital Payment Pioneer

Founder : Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Year Founded : 2010

Paytm, initially a mobile recharge and bill payment platform, became a pioneer in digital payments in India. Vijay Shekhar Sharma's journey from a small town in Uttar Pradesh to building a fintech empire is an inspiration. The company's success can be attributed to its innovative approach and the ability to adapt to evolving market needs.

Key Takeaway : Flexibility and adaptability are crucial in the ever-evolving fintech industry.

Zomato: From a Restaurant Guide to a Food Delivery Giant

Founders : Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah

Year Founded : 2008

Zomato began as a restaurant discovery platform but swiftly evolved to include food delivery services. The founders, Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, navigated challenges like fierce competition and the logistical complexity of food delivery. Their ability to pivot and cater to diverse customer needs allowed them to expand globally.

Key Takeaway : Adapting to changing market demands and diversifying offerings can lead to substantial growth.

Related article:  Top 10 Ways to Achieve Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategies

MakeMyTrip: Trailblazing in Online Travel

Founders : Deep Kalra

Year Founded : 2000

Deep Kalra founded MakeMyTrip at a time when e-commerce was in its nascent stage in India. Over the years, the company transformed the way Indians booked travel. With continuous innovation and expansion, MakeMyTrip is now a leading online travel company in the country.

Key Takeaway : Identifying an untapped niche and being a pioneer can result in long-term success.

Nykaa: Redefining Beauty Retail

Founder : Falguni Nayar

Year Founded : 2012

Falguni Nayar, a former investment banker, ventured into the beauty and cosmetics industry with Nykaa. The e-commerce platform revolutionized the beauty retail sector by offering a vast range of products, including both luxury and affordable brands. The company's success underscores the importance of understanding consumer preferences and delivering a seamless online shopping experience.

Key Takeaway : Customer-centricity and a diverse product range can lead to rapid growth in e-commerce.

Suggested:  Nykaa Case Study on Digital Marketing Strategies 2023

Freshworks: SaaS Unicorn from India

Founders : Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy

Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy co-founded Freshworks with the aim of creating a customer engagement software company. The company's suite of SaaS products has gained global recognition. Their approach to building a robust software platform with a focus on customer satisfaction exemplifies their journey from a Chennai-based startup to a SaaS unicorn.

Key Takeaway : A strong product and customer-centric approach can drive international success in the SaaS industry.

Lenskart: Redefining Eyewear Retail

Founder : Peyush Bansal

Peyush Bansal recognized the need for a reliable and convenient way to purchase eyewear in India. Lenskart introduced an online platform for buying eyeglasses and contact lenses. By integrating technology, Lenskart streamlined the purchase process, offering a wide range of eyewear and personalized services.

Key Takeaway : Identifying gaps in the market and providing innovative solutions can create new business opportunities.  

Rivigo: Revolutionizing Logistics

Founders : Deepak Garg

Year Founded : 2014

Deepak Garg's Rivigo introduced an innovative approach to logistics and transportation in India. Their relay model and tech-enabled trucking system optimized supply chain operations, reduced transit times, and enhanced efficiency. Rivigo's success in a traditional industry showcases the power of technology-driven solutions.

Key Takeaway : Applying technology to traditional sectors can lead to significant improvements and growth.

These 10 case studies on entrepreneurship in India provide a diverse range of success stories, demonstrating the versatility, resilience, and innovative spirit of Indian entrepreneurs. Each of these entrepreneurs identified market gaps, harnessed technology, and adapted to changing dynamics to build successful businesses. Their journeys serve as inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs and underscore the limitless possibilities that await those willing to take risks and pursue their visions in the Indian business landscape.

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How Intrapreneurship Accelerates Organizations: 4 Case Studies

Fostering an intrapreneurial culture can reap long-lasting rewards for your business, what is intrapreneurship.

Intrapreneurship is a people-centric approach to developing an entrepreneurial culture . Unlike entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs are actual employees who work with an existing company’s resources to achieve corporate innovation.

While the term “intrapreneurship” has a debatable history, it was first coined by Gifford Pinchot III and Elizabeth Pinchot in their published paper “Intra-Corporate Entrepreneurship” in 1978 and used again in their 1985 book “Intrapreneuring”. The term is a portmanteau of the words “inside” and “entrepreneur”.

Intrapreneurs are not building ventures from scratch, nor are they investing their own money into businesses. Instead, these people use an entrepreneurial mindset to develop innovative products and ideas that benefit the companies they’re working for.

Intrapreneurship can be achieved in 2 ways:

• Experimenting with new lines of business through investment in new internal ideas
• Instilling an entrepreneurial approach to strategy and execution into existing business lines

Why intrapreneurship accelerates growth

Companies that embrace innovation while optimizing existing products see lasting growth and profitability. A powerful yet simple approach to achieving innovation is capitalizing on the most important resource within your company: your people.

Research shows that intrapreneurship elevates both productivity scores and employee engagement . This is especially true for those employees who are more motivated by rewards as opposed to punishment. (As you might expect, employees that have a cautious and risk-averse mindset generally do not make good intrapreneurs.)

Why it’s hard to achieve

Intrapreneurship runs the risk of pinning all hope on a “genius who can save the day” which results in unpredictability of results and returns. This in turn can make it hard to champion intrapreneurship again in the future in front of boards and execs.

Furthermore, intrapreneurship isn’t as perfect a fit for all industries, especially where capital requirements and regulatory burdens are high. Some industries like aerospace and energy may face headwinds simply because the investment into internal startups must be more significant to generate data and measurable returns—and usually without the typical funding channels available to the rest of the business.

Intrapreneurial projects are also different from a traditional startup that is usually based on a blank canvas. As Bill Aulet, director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship puts it, startups are generally worry-free compared to larger companies. When you’re operating an enterprise, there’s already “a lot of paint on the canvas”.

An established business like this has several products, revenues, staff, processes, and an organizational structure—all those things that a startup is still trying to obtain—which can be both an enabler and a decelerant.

As startups mature, staying flexible and avoiding rigidity becomes harder. An entrepreneur has nothing to lose, but when you’re part of a bigger business you just don’t have that much freedom anymore due to potential threats and risks. Maintaining a balance in cases like these is crucial.

The right way to do intrapreneurship

Companies leveraging intrapreneurship the most fully tend to have 4 traits :

• They embrace uncertainty
• They assemble the right team and resources around intrapreneurs
• They reward agility and incremental proof
• They widely explore new customer needs and segments

Let's explore 4 companies that have had stellar results from intrapreneurship.

Case study 1: Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a global cloud computing service provider. The story of how AWS became the workhorse of the cloud computing industry, now standing next to such giants as IBM, Microsoft, and Google, is fascinating, to say the least.

According to Andy Jassy, AWS leader and SVP , no “ah-ha” moment lead Amazon, then an online bookseller, to become a game-changing force in the technology market. Instead, the idea to expand gradually emerged out of the company’s frustration with its ability to support existing customers, and launch projects.

Amazon stumbled upon the concept of AWS while trying to solve a recurring need for faster technology deployments. The reason for this was the company’s focus on delivering better experiences both internally and for its partners. 

The AWS team soon started as an intrapreneurial venture within Amazon. After some time, the company began to look seriously at what this branch of business would look like in the long term. Amazon’s early-stage startup questions included:

• Is there a market need for a better solution?
• Do we have the competency to provide a successful product?
• Is the space large enough to become part of the business?
• Do we have a differentiated approach?

The answer to all of these was a solid yes. AWS was launched in 2006 and soon manifested itself as a disruptive approach to cloud computing development.

Case study 2: PlayStation

PlayStation is a captivating story of a successful product creation launched by Sony’s intrapreneur Ken Kutaragi.

Ken joined Sony in Japan in 1975. He was working as an electrical engineer at Sony sound labs when he bought his daughter a Nintendo game console. As his daughter played games, he noticed that the quality of the sound was sub-par. Ken figured that a digital chip dedicated to sound would drastically improve the quality of the gaming system. 

Long story short, he started working as an outside consultant for Nintendo while keeping his day job at Sony. Ken managed to develop the SPC7000 for Nintendo games, and as he continued working as a part-time consultant, he eventually developed a CD-ROM-based system for Nintendo.

Nintendo decided not to move forward with the CD-ROM system. That’s when Ken saw the market opportunity of gaming systems for Sony. Being a natural intrapreneur, he pressed hard to convince Sony to enter the electronic gaming industry. Sony’s then-CEO Chairman Ohga recognized Ken’s creativity and innovation-focused mindset. He backed Kutaragi’s plan despite most of the senior management opposing the idea.

Ken went on to lead the effort to help Sony develop a gaming system that later became widely known as PlayStation. The product became a global success, taking a significant market share of the same consoles and selling more than 70 million units in the late 1990s . By 1998, the PlayStation made up 40 percent of Sony’s operating revenues.

Case study 3: Post-It Notes

Post-It Notes is the classic business school example of an intrapreneurial mindset. It all started in 1974 when a 3M engineer Arthur Fry saw that a special adhesive developed by the company was failing. He noticed the glue had a slight tacky quality so he tried some of it to stick a note in his hymnal. Not only did it work, but it was also easily removable. 

However, after the initial discovery, 3M management failed to see value in the non-sticky adhesive. There was no internal senior support for the concept until a change in management in 1973. That’s when the new products laboratory manager Geoff Nicholson was convinced to give this a go. 

It wasn’t until 1977 that the product has been finally tested for real-world sales, and the rest is history.

Case study 4: Gmail

As Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt puts it , Google’s business is all about innovation. A notable aspect of Google’s innovative culture is its legendary 20 percent time policy that allows employees to invest about a day per week to pursue projects outside of their area of duty. Through this practice, Google encourages its employees to act as intrapreneurs and think outside the box. Most of the time, Googlers that work on 20 percent projects join forces with others to create an internal start-up.

One of the most notorious and successful examples that resulted from this practice is Gmail. It all started with Google’s employee Paul Buchheit and his idea to expand Google’s services by developing a web-based email that could provide a search engine.

Most within the company thought this was a bad idea from both the strategic and product point of view. But all worries were set aside when founders of Google Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to go ahead and support Paul’s project.

As a result, Google’s Gmail launched in 2004 and became the company’s first landmark service since its search engine service started in 1998.

Today, Gmail has more than 1.5 billion active users from around the world. It has gone from a small intrapreneurial experiment to becoming one of the key services of Google’s product offering.

Final words

It’s important to understand that intrapreneurship is by no means the catch-all solution for companies looking to innovate. As mentioned earlier, intrapreneurship is not made for every business, and it certainly can’t solve all problems. Think of it more like one of the many elements that can be applied to foster company innovation.

The case studies provided in this article all point out one simple truth: intrapreneurship isn’t just about doing things in a certain way but is more of a mindset that enables your employees to think and act in a way that supports entrepreneurial culture within the company.

It’s also not about hero employees saving the day. Developing an intrapreneurial culture takes time and has to be supported at an organization-wide level to bring lasting results.

Photo by Riccardo Annandale .

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The Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Answer

Diversify your product line. Stick to your knitting. Hire a professional manager. Watch fixed costs. Those are some of the suggestions that entrepreneurs sort through as they try to get their ventures off the ground. Why all the conflicting advice? Because in a young company, all decisions are up for grabs.

Based on his observations of several hundred start-up ventures over eight years, Amar Bhidé has developed a three-step sequence of questions that all entrepreneurs must ask themselves in order to establish priorities among the vast array of opportunities and problems they face: What are my goals? Do I have the right strategy? Can I execute the strategy?

Before entrepreneurs can set goals for a business, they must articulate their personal goals. They may want, for instance, to attain a certain lifestyle, experiment with technology, or build an institution that can outlive them. Only when entrepreneurs decide what they want from their businesses can they determine what kind of company they must build, what they are willing to risk, and whether they have a well-defined strategy.

Great strategies, however, don’t guarantee great execution. A venture may fail if its founders do not hire the best people, attract capital, invest in organizational infrastructure, and shape a culture to suit the venture’s strategy.

Founders must also consider the evolution of their personal roles. Entrepreneurs cannot build self-sustaining companies simply by “letting go.” While they sketch out the future, entrepreneurs must manage as if the company were about to go under. They must continually acquire new skills—and continually ask themselves where they want to go and how they will get there.

What are my goals? Do I have the right strategy? Can I execute the strategy?

The Idea in Brief

Of the hundreds of thousands of business ventures launched each year, many never get off the ground. Others fizzle after spectacular rocket starts.

Why such dismal odds? Entrepreneurs—with their bias for action—often ignore ingredients essential to business success. These include a clear strategy, the right workforce talent, and organizational controls that spur performance without stifling employees’ initiative.

Moreover, no two ventures take the same path. Thus entrepreneurs can’t look to formulas to navigate the myriad choices arising as their enterprise evolves. A decision that’s right for one venture may prove disastrous for another.

How to chart a successful course for your venture? Bhide recommends asking yourself these questions:

• Where do I want to go? Consider your goals for the business: Do you want the rush that rapid growth delivers? A chance to experiment with new technology? Capital gains from selling a successful company?
• How will I get there? Is your strategy sound? Does it clarify what your company will and won’t do? Will it generate sufficient profits and growth?
• Can I do it? Do you have the right talent? Reliable sources of capital?

Improvisation takes a venture only so far. Successful entrepreneurs keep asking tough questions about where they want to go—and whether the track they’re on will take them there.

The Idea in Practice

A closer look at Bhide’s three questions:

Where Do I Want to Go?

To articulate your goals for the enterprise, clarify:

• What you want personally from your business: An outlet for artistic talent? A flexible lifestyle? The immortality of building an institution that embodies your values? Quick profits?
• The kind of enterprise required: For example, if you want to sell your business eventually, you’ll need to build a sustainable enterprise—one that can renew itself through changing generations of technology, employees, and customers. And you’ll need a company big enough to support an infrastructure that won’t require your daily intervention.
• Your risk tolerance: For example, building a sustainable business entails risky long-term bets—including trusting inexperienced employees, personally guaranteeing debt, and tolerating delayed payoffs. Are your goals worth the attendant risks?

How Will I Get There?

Successful strategies:

• Provide clear direction: Articulate the enterprise’s policies, geographic reach, capabilities, and decision-making framework—in concise terms that employees, investors, and customers can understand.
• Generate sufficient profits and growth: Ensure that your strategy will produce desired business results. For example, Mothers Work—which sells maternity clothing to professional women—took off only when its founder revised her strategy from mail order (which generated low profits owing to stiff competition) to retail stores.
• Serve the enterprise long-term: Anticipate future market saturation, intensified competition, and major technological change, then ensure that your strategy accommodates those future scenarios.
• Establish the right growth rate: Plan for a growth rate that will attract customers and capital without causing excessive stress for you and your employees.

Can I Do It?

A great strategy is worthless unless you can execute it. To do so, you’ll need the right:

• Resources: Augment your workforce with employees possessing the skills, knowledge, and values needed to implement your strategy. A strong workforce attracts customers and investment capital.
• Infrastructure: Establish the organizational systems needed to execute your strategy. For example, suppose you want to build a geographically dispersed business, grow rapidly, and eventually go public. In this case, you’ll need to invest heavily in mechanisms for delegating tasks, specializing job roles, forecasting and monitoring availability of funds, and maintaining financial records.
• Role flexibility: To grow your business, your role must shift from doing the “real work” to teaching others to do it, prescribing desired results, and managing the work environment.

Of the hundreds of thousands of business ventures that entrepreneurs launch every year, many never get off the ground. Others fizzle after spectacular rocket starts.

• AB Amar Bhidé is the Thomas Schmidheiny Professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Somerville and Medford, Massachusetts, and a visiting professor at Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a founding member of the Center on Capitalism and Society, and the author of A Call for Judgment: Sensible Finance for a Dynamic Economy (Oxford, 2010). A former senior engagement manager at McKinsey & Company and proprietary trader at E.F. Hutton, Bhidé also served on the staff of the Brady Commission, which investigated the 1987 stock market crash.

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Top 10 Inspiring Indian Entrepreneurs Success Stories: That Will Inspire You!

• December 12, 2023

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Aspiring entrepreneurs in India are always looking for role models and success stories to motivate and guide them. We can count tons of success stories from various websites to join their tribe or affiliate link. But most of the stories don’t mean value to us. We’re looking for real-life success stories that we can learn from to make our own business successful.

As a result, we’ve decided to publish an article for real-life heroes who have carved out their paths with unique business models become role models for other aspiring entrepreneurs, and have their own success stories.

With their incredible adventures, these entrepreneurs have not only achieved enormous success but have also inspired others. Check out this digital marketing course for crafting a digital transformation with a successful blueprint if you’re interested in starting your own business model. 

Read on to learn about their successes and what you can learn from them, and create your own success stories as an entrepreneur.

Top 10 Inspiring Entrepreneur’s Success Stories from India 2024

There’s no shortage of inspiring entrepreneurship stories from India. Despite the immense challenges of starting and running a business in the country, Indians have found ways to persevere and innovate, creating new products and services that have helped lift millions out of poverty. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the most inspiring success stories from Indian entrepreneurs, highlighting the key lessons that you can learn from their experiences.

India is home to some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. Despite having to endure numerous challenges, these business owners have found success by persisting and innovating. From e-commerce to technology, these entrepreneurs have made their mark in a variety of industries. Here are ten inspiring Indian entrepreneur’s success stories that will undoubtedly motivate you to achieve your goals and become a successful entrepreneur like other inspiring entrepreneurs in India.

Now, let’s get to know about the top 10 best inspiring success stories from Indian entrepreneurs;

Here is the list of the top 10 Indian entrepreneurs you must know about. After reading this article, you will definitely get inspired by our Youngest Entrepreneurs in India. Now, let’s dive into it. 🏄‍♂️

1. Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal – Flipkart

Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal are the #1 Youngest Successful Entrepreneurs in India out of other Indian Entrepreneurs .

In a garage, Sachin and Binny Bansal founded Flipkart, a modest eCommerce company, and the rest, as they say, is history. One of India’s most successful business people sold Flipkart to Walmart for $16 billion in 2018. 

▶️ Quote By Flipkart Founder – 1

“ ‘No’ is a very difficult word, and more so in our culture, where people quickly tend to take offence. But a ‘no’ which makes your business and customer say ‘yes’ is worth the while.” — Sachin Bansal

Along with Binny, the IIT graduate used to transport books on his own and pioneered the wave of eCommerce marketing. Sachin was in charge of the company’s SEO, design, marketing, and content. Binny handled the delivery and backend operations well. 

What began as an INR 4,00,000 business gained immediate acclaim and, finally, an incredible bid from Walmart. Bansal created everything from the ground up, starting with the initial iteration of the website. Through his present firm, Navi Technology, he has been investing actively. Flipkart is undoubtedly one of India’s most successful startup success stories.

“Flipkart” – Sachin and Binny Bansal’s path – would be familiar to everyone. Both of them, who graduated from IIT-D and previously worked for Amazon, presented a similar concept to the Indian market. 

▶️ Quote By Flipkart Founder – 2

“For an entrepreneur work is not seen as ‘work’, it is passion, you like it you want to do it.” — Binny Bansal

Flipkart began selling online books only in 2007 and has since expanded to sell practically everything, ranging from home items to personal care products, educational materials, and workplace stationery. According to an article on Yourstory.com, mobile accounts for more than half of Flipkart’s income, and mobile has been at the heart of Sachin’s strategy since the beginning. 

Sachin admitted in an interview that creating Flipkart was the dumbest thing he has ever done and that everyone around him thought he was mad, according to a Quora.com post. However, it has recently purchased Myntra for around INR 2000 crore. Flipkart has now been promoted to the top five-billion-dollar start-up club, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, and it has a valuation of $11 billion. 

Learn more about Flipkart’s Digital Marketing Strategies – A Complete Case Study!

❇️ Social Media Accounts of Sachin Bansal

Twitter – NA Facebook – NA Instagram – @sachin_bansall LinkedIn – NA

❇️ Social Media Accounts of Binny Bansal

Twitter – @binnybansal Facebook – NA Instagram – NA LinkedIn – @binnybansal

2. Bhavish Aggarwal – Ola Cabs

Bhavish Aggarwal is the #2 Youngest Successful Entrepreneur in India out of other Indian Entrepreneurs.

After two years as a Microsoft research team member, Bhavish Aggarwal followed in his iconic footsteps. He started Ola Cabs, a multibillion-dollar company. With his zeal and colourful vision, Bhavish, an IIT Bombay alumnus, set the way for his success. 

▶️ Quote By Ola Founder

“All of us have an entrepreneur in us. Entrepreneurs are not driven by fear; they are driven by the idea to create impact.”

In 2015, Bhavish was the youngest person on Forbes’ list of India’s wealthiest individuals, with co-founder Ankit Bhati. After confronting insufficient and expensive cab services, he created his own cab firm. Ola makes it simple to hire a taxi anywhere in the country. Its popularity grows in minor and major cities, broadening Bhavish’s reach. 

He has since established himself as a successful entrepreneur. Ola Cabs is India’s most successful cab firm, with over a million customers.

❇️ Social Media Accounts of Ritesh Aggarwal

Twitter – @bhash Facebook – @bhavish.aggarwal.7 Instagram – @bhavishaggarwal LinkedIn – @bhavishaggarwal

3. Ritesh Aggarwal – Oyo Rooms

Ritesh Aggarwal is the #3 Youngest Successful Entrepreneur in India out of other Indian Entrepreneurs.

Ritesh Aggarwal was never scared to explore new things or take risks. And the success of Oyo Rooms, which he founded in 2013, has rewarded out handsomely. He became the world’s second-youngest billionaire in the year of the outbreak. 

Ritesh did not attend college in the traditional sense. He dropped out of the Indian School of Business and Finance before completing his education. Isn’t it frightening? Ritesh’s lack of a college degree has no impact on his success. The Thiel scholarship was given to Oyo, and he hasn’t worried about the past, and he moved forward. 

▶️ Quote By OYO Rooms Founder

“Hire people not for today but for 2-3 years from now, and let them grow with the company.” — Ritesh Aggarwal

His primary concern was always to provide low-cost accommodation. Oyo continues to offer regardless of location. Oyo has increased in recent years and is estimated to be worth more than $1.1 billion by 2020. Ritesh is only 27 years old, yet he has come a long way.

With over 500 hotels and 50000 rooms, “OYO Rooms” is India’s largest budget hotel brand. It was founded in 2012 by Ritesh Agarwal to provide basic, trustworthy accommodations, and it has since changed the face of the Indian hospitality industry. According to an article on Yourstory.com, the company now partners with 4,200 hotels in over 170 locations, booking up to a million room nights every month. 

OYO Rooms has been a massive success because it is dedicated to addressing the issue of budget hotel cleanliness, availability, and affordability across the country. OYO works with several hotels to obtain rooms that may be rented out to those who wish to use its services. 

According to a Yosuccess.com post, OYO Accommodations provides tourists with efficient and standardised rooms at low costs, with a current evaluation of approximately 370Cr. 

Twitter – @riteshagar Facebook – @riteshagarwall Instagram – @riteshagar LinkedIn – @riteshagar

4. Nandan Reddy, Rahul Jaimini & Sriharsha Majety – Swiggy

Nandan Reddy, Rahul Jaimini & Sriharsha Majety are the #4 Youngest Successful Entrepreneurs in India out of other Indian Entrepreneurs .

Apart from Zomato, Swiggy has quickly established itself as one of the most popular meal delivery services. On the other hand, food delivery did not have a solid footing when it initially entered the market. 

In truth, Reddy and Majesty had intended it to be a Bundle courier service. After meeting Jamini, though, they altered their minds. Swiggy was founded as a result of its strong network building. Swiggy has raised a lot of money since its inception in 2013. 

▶️ Quote By Swiggy Founder

“Growth is about learning and evolving with the different variables and moving parts” — Sriharsha Majety

Providing exceptional customer service has always been a priority for business owners. Swiggy’s efficient logistical procedures also ensure that clients receive their meals on time. 

Swiggy has conquered the difficulty of hiring employees remotely who bring food on time. The unicorn start-up is exploding with the three founders, and the business is successfully running up to date.

❇️ Social Media Accounts of Nandan Reddy

Twitter – @nandanreddy Facebook – NA Instagram – NA LinkedIn – @nandan-reddy-1830659

❇️ Social Media Accounts of Rahul Jaimini

Twitter – @rahuljaimini Facebook – NA Instagram – NA LinkedIn – @rahuljaimini

❇️ Social Media Accounts of Sriharsha Majety

Twitter – @harshamjty Facebook – NA Instagram – NA LinkedIn – @sriharsha-m-563aa217

5. Vijay Shekhar Sharma – Paytm

Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the #5 Youngest Successful Entrepreneur in India out of other Indian Entrepreneurs.

Vijay Shekhar established Paytm and continues to lead it. And there’s no denying that Paytm’s trust has fuelled a meteoric surge in digital payments across the country. 

Sharma has a track record of producing brilliance, dating back to his student days at DTU when he founded Indiasite.net. He got $1 million for it. He subsequently founded One97 Communications, which later became Paytm. 

▶️ Quote By Paytm Founder

“There are two kinds of companies in the world one is who BUILD and the second who BUY”. — Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Paytm has revolutionised the face of digital payments, and it shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. As a result, Vijay Shekhar’s popularity continues to soar. 

We all know that we don’t have phones without Paytm money, which shows that Paytm has successfully reached out to people and will continue to do so in the future. 

❇️ Social Media Accounts of Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Twitter – @vijayshekhar Facebook – @vijayshekhar Instagram – @vssx LinkedIn – @vijayshekhar

6. Sorav Jain – Digital Scholar & echoVME

Sorav Jain is the #6 Youngest Successful Entrepreneur in India out of other Indian Entrepreneurs.

Sorav Jain is the founder of echoVME Digital & Digital Scholar. He is also known as India’s top digital marketing influencer, trainer, author, and speaker. Sorav started his career at 17 as an SEO executive and baggage 10 years of knowledge in this digital marketing field which made him become a successful digital marketing and social media marketing expert who started his venture with a small team of 30 members in 2011 in the name of echoVme, a digital marketing agency based out of Chennai.

He has been successfully running his business for the past 11 years, which gives him the courage to take a risk by simultaneously running an agency-style based digital marketing training institute called Digital Scholar in 2019 and the echoVME Digital .

▶️ Quote By Digital Scholar & echoVME Founder

Marketing you’re presence on social media is as important as creating your presence. “The only fashion that never fades: Digital Marketing”. — Sorav Jain

Initially, Digital Scholar invited students to their place and started teaching them how agency-style digital marketing works. But the time of the pandemic turned the tables around, taking Digital Scholar to the rooftop when people began to focus on passions online. Sorav Jain became famous on Instagram as a digital marketing influencer with 306k+ followers within a short period. You can follow his business insights here @Soravjain .

Sorav was named one of the Top Social Media Marketers under 30 by Social Samosa. He was named one of the “ Top 25 Social Media Professionals of India “ by Global Youth Marketing Forum. 

Sorav also works as a corporate trainer for 2020MSL, Hanmer MSL, Times Internet, Genpact, Shriram Value, Bosch India, Preethi Appliances, Hexaware, Communicate India, and a variety of other IT, PR, digital, and advertising firms. 

Sorav runs one of Facebook’s most popular Digital Marketing groups, Digital Marketing Question and Answers on Facebook, which has more than 60,000+ members which is a vast community where you can always participate with questions and answers you have.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Digital Scholar (@digital_scholar)

Digital transformation is what Every business owner looks for, also one who needs a feasible blueprint to understand better how to build a solid digital marketing presence.so, Suppose you are searching for a Digital marketing guru who teaches you to become a digital marketing expert within four months. In that case, you must try his online digital marketing course to upskill in the digital marketing field.

❇️ Social Media Accounts of Sorav Jain

Twitter – @soravjain Facebook – @soravjain & @SoravJainDigital Instagram – @soravjain LinkedIn – @soravjain

🗣️ Sorav Jain’s TEDx Talk

How Sorav turned his Internet addiction into a business empire, and you can do it as well!! In this talk, Sorav Jain shares his highs and lows while choosing an unorthodox career. Sorav Jain is an entrepreneur and one of India’s top digital and social media marketing experts.

He is also a skilled consultant, trainer, author, and speaker. Sorav started his career at 17 as an SEO executive and has about 10 years of Industry experience. Sorav has been listed among the top 25 social media professionals in India under the age of 30. Sorav has trained more than 100,000 professionals. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

7. Deepinder Goyal – Zomato

Deepinder Goyal is the #7 Youngest Successful Entrepreneur in India out of other Indian Entrepreneurs.

Foodiebay is a name that no one recalls. Although Deepinder Goyal founded it, he is more known for Zomato, the rebranded version of Foodiebay.

Zomato began as a food-reviewing website. Food bloggers were encouraged to give candid reviews of each restaurant’s service and food quality. It also provided menu cards in high demand among Deepinder’s coworkers, prompting him to launch Zomato. Before launching Foodiebay, he graduated from IIT Delhi and worked at Bain and Company. 

▶️ Quote By Zomato Founder

“Everything is solvable. You have to put your mind to it.” “Focus on building a business that solves a real problem.” “You can’t say that If I don’t have access to capital, I can’t build a company.” — Deepinder Goyal

Deepinder’s has become one of India’s most well-known food-entrepreneur success stories in the previous decade. Other than India, the corporation has operations in Portugal, New Zealand, and Qatar. Zomato also bought Urbanspoon and launched a meal delivery business in the United States and Australia. 

When they first started Zomato, they didn’t have enough money, but as they say, hard work pays off. Zomato is a big success nowadays, as we all know. 

According to an article on Yosuccess.com, it is the largest of such media in Asia and one of the greatest globally, having a solid & single presence in over 10,000 cities across 22 countries.

Zomato has also ventured into the world of digital marketing. It enables firms to expand without incurring new expenditures. 

One of the most significant advantages of Zomato is its marketing campaign, as we all know. Once the notification gets on, you will be getting full urge messages in your mother tongue, which will significantly support the company’s growth in the future too.

This online restaurant platform was founded in 2008 to assist Indians in discovering new tastes in a variety of meals. “Zomato” is a one-stop shop for all your appetites, whether for food, drinks, or alcohol. It’s an online restaurant guide that includes home delivery, cafés, and nightlife! 

Learn more about Zomato’s Digital Marketing Strategies – A Complete Case Study on it!

Twitter – @deepigoyal Facebook – @deepigoyal Instagram – NA LinkedIn – @deepigoyal

8. Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh – Mama Earth

Founder of Mama Earth – Varun Alagh Co-founder of Mama Earth – Ghazal Alagh

Varun and Ghazal are the #8 Youngest Successful Entrepreneurs in India out of other Indian Entrepreneurs.

Varun and Ghazal are the trailblazers behind Mamaearth; not only that; they are real-life partners. Mamaearth is the online-first game plan that relies upon posting offers on the D2C stages like Amazon, Flipkart, etc., and their inescapable arrangements, close by the proposal of things displayed at actual standard stores.

Story Behind the StartUp

Varun and Ghazal understood that the childcare products they ran over harmed their baby’s skin and that there could have been no other safe choices since they got a child youngster to manoeuvre carefully.

Since they couldn’t find reliable things in India, the couple chose to import trustworthy childcare items made elsewhere, all else equivalent.

▶️ Quote By Mama Earth Founders

“How you drive growth is more important than anything else” — Varun Alagh “Success only comes to those who can stick through crazy times. As long as you persevere, things eventually fall in place.” — Ghazal Alagh

Later, the gathering started mentioning things from the US, yet they ended up being costly and inadequately planned. So the partners joined together and started creating their own childcare items under the brand name Mamaearth.

Mamaearth Product and Competence

Mamaearth, in a roundabout way, rivals MNCs like Himalaya and Johnson and Johnson, as well as online electronic business areas like Nykaa. Mamaearth items contend straightforwardly with a couple of deeply grounded and new organizations, selling an assortment of youngster-related things like frills, clothing, and toys.

Mamaearth Achievement and Benefit

• Mamaearth products revenue reached 110 crores in 2020.
• Mamaearth product beat revenue of RS 500 crores in 2020.
• Mamaearth outright pay expanded by 101% to INR 952.4 Cr in 2022 from INR 472.1 Cr as we compare from the past year.

Learn more about Mamaearth’s Digital Marketing Strategies – A Complete Case Study on it!

❇️ Social Media Accounts of Varun Alagh

Twitter – @VarunAlagh Facebook – @varun.alagh Instagram – @varunalagh LinkedIn – @varunalagh84

❇️ Social Media Accounts of Ghazal Alagh

Twitter – @GhazalAlagh Facebook – @ghazal.alagh Instagram – @ghazalalagh LinkedIn – @ghazal-alagh-9755a0128

9. Falguni Nayar – Nykaa

Falguni Nayar is the #9 Youngest Successful Entrepreneur in India out of other Indian Entrepreneurs.

Falguni Nayar established Nykaa, one of India’s biggest magnificence and design organisations. The pioneer and President of Nykaa are prestigious as the most extravagant independent lady in India and is positioned tenth among the world’s most extravagant independent ladies.

▶️ Quote By Nykaa Founder

“Women need to allow the spotlight of their lives to be on themselves. I hope more women like me dare to dream for themeselves.” — Falguni Nayar

Falguni’s total assets may vary by around Rs 57 crore in a hurry in a year. They gained the audience with The organisation’s slogan, “Your Beauty, Our Passion,” which quickly grabbed women’s and youngsters’ eyes.

We are mindful that Nykaa reached this success through their successful campaign assets for acquiring consideration through dispersing enormous and persuading offers.

Let’s see the story of Nykaa and how they accomplished 32 billion bucks in 2022.

Story of Nykaa

Everything began in 2012 when Nykaa was established. On the journey for a promising business opportunity in India, Falguni Nayar found an irregularity in the magnificence beauty products market in India, which was not on pace with the beauty item’s extension in different nations, despite critical interest, attributable to an absence of item accessibility in numerous districts.

This incited her to help establish Nykaa with her significant other, Sanjay Nayar. Starting as a web-based association, the stage ultimately changed to an omnichannel partnership with Amazon, Flipkart, and many more.

Falguni worked in the corporate area for more than 25 years before setting out on her pioneering venture when Nayar was moving toward 50.

Even though initially they faced so many hurdles in marketing and campaign, now they have a pillar foundation of digital marketing and campaign success.

Nykaa Profit and Revenue

The benefit of the beauty care products monster Nykaa has accomplished 32 billion out of 2022, where the business details hope to arrive at twofold the CAGR in the future.

Learn more about Nykaa’s Digital Marketing Strategies – A Complete Case Study!

❇️ Social Media Accounts of Falguni Nayar

Twitter – NA Facebook – @falguni.nayar.5 Instagram – @falguninayar LinkedIn – @falguni-nayar-845065a0

10. Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy – Fresh Works

Founder of Fresh Works – Girish Mathrubootham Co-founder of Fresh Works – Shan Krishnasamy

Girish and Shan are the #10 Youngest Successful Entrepreneurs in India out of other Indian Entrepreneurs.

Freshworks Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy launched the organisation in Chennai in 2010, offering several product suites to meet client needs. Representative objectives, including deals with CRM programming, enrollment gadgets, client assistance helpdesk programming, and many more wanted top sass products, are delivered by Fresh Works.

▶️ Quote By Fresh Works Founders

“It’s not the software. It’s about the way software is supposed to be built, the way it’s supposed to be delivered, implemented and consumed.” — Girish Mathrubootham

Both coworkers had previously worked for Zoho Corp, one of India’s most excellent SaaS businesses. Zoho Corp and Freshworks are both rivals and essential players in this industry.

Freshworks sold 28.5 million regular offers on September 22, achieving an intraday high of $48.75 in the market.

So, what is the story of these two important Indian entrepreneurs who have eternally influenced Indian entrepreneurs with their backtalk sass business?

The Story Behind the Progress of FreshWorks,

Girish and Krishnamoorthy first met through Zoho. They have comparable frequency and the knowledge to start another backtalk organisation by communicating customer care by selling customer support solutions since the choice Zendesk is raising its expense where even an organisation has experienced major shock with the cost change.

He managed to move on with this fantastic idea. So, Girish and Krishnamoorthy left Zoho to start their own Sass organisation with only six people in 2010.

It took around eight years of hard labour for the organisation to increase its revenue to $100 million. Freshdesk was soon rebranded to Freshworks, the success of which followed and supported it in establishing its base camp in the United States, afterward carrying the organisation more like a greater portion of its user base.

Challenges they Faced

Freshworks and Zoho’s dispute took a severe turn in 2020 when Zoho filed a claim alleging that Freshworks used private data to build a business. The backup company Zoho has also accused Freshworks of poaching its employee’s and customers’ confidential details. The battle is still ongoing.

Freshworks Success and Profit

According to their website, the profit of this mysterious Sass company this year at 2022 is $493.0 – $497.0 million.

❇️ Social Media Accounts of Girish Mathrubootham

Twitter – @mrgirish Facebook – @rathnagirish Instagram – @girish.mathrubootham LinkedIn – @girish1

Hello, readers! So, this article showcased ten inspiring Indian entrepreneur’s success stories who have achieved success in such a short span of time. These success stories are sure to motivate and inspire you to achieve great things in your life and career.

Indian start-ups are on the rise, and there’s no stopping them now. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur or have an existing business, it is time to get inspired by these success stories and work even harder to achieve your own goals.

“Wishing you the best in creating your own inspiring success stories!” Today, I’d like to talk about something inspiring: creating your own success story. No matter what your background is or what you’re doing now, it’s always possible to achieve great things. All it takes is hard work, dedication, and a bit of luck. So, go out there and make it happen! I wish you all the best in your endeavors.

Get in touch with us, and we’ll be happy to help you set up or grow your business and also help you in becoming a successful entrepreneur, so you can have your own success stories and inspire the upcoming generations.

Thanks for reading our success stories!

1. Who is India’s No. 1 Entrepreneur?

According to Forbes magazine, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal are among India’s most successful young entrepreneurs.

2. Why do Indians Succeed in Business?

Indians usually find the possibility, opportunity, and risk factors in any sector and start developing their own business journey. If you need any impressions check out the list of successful entrepreneurs’ stories on this blog.

3. Who is India’s Most Successful Entrepreneur?

The most affluent businessman in the twenty-first century is Mukesh Ambani. However, more aspiring business owners are on the list, competing against one another in this cutthroat industry. For inspiration, read this story on the most successful Indian entrepreneur.

4. Who is the Youngest Millionaire in India?

The founder of Zepto, Kaivalya Vohra, is regarded as the youngest Indian to appear on the Hurun Rich List and has a net worth of more than Rs 1,000 billion.

5. Who is the Most Valuable Startup in India?

echoVME, founded by Sorav Jain, has shaken up the Indian start-up scene with its unique approach to digital marketing. The company’s focus on digital marketing is driven by data which provides valuable digital marketing services to its clients across the globe. This has resulted in echoVME fast becoming one of the most valuable startups in India.

Written By Digital Scholar

Digital Scholar is a premier agency-styled digital marketing institute in India. Which offers an online digital marketing course and a free digital marketing course worldwide to elevate their digital skills and become industry experts. Digital Scholar is headed by Sorav Jain and co-founder Rishi Jain, who are pioneers in the field of digital marketing. Digital Scholar’s blogs touch upon numerous aspects of digital marketing and help you get intensive ideas of different domains of digital marketing.

Comments on “ Top 10 Inspiring Indian Entrepreneurs Success Stories: That Will Inspire You! ”

Really motivated by these real stories , you all inspire us from within and help us to work even more harder and to achieve our goals.

Many thanks to all, Poornima S B

Absolutely amazing inspirational stories. Thanks a lot

Thank you Pallavi.

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Home » Management Case Studies » Case Study of Steve Jobs: The Ultimate Intrapreneur and Entrepreneur

Case Study of Steve Jobs: The Ultimate Intrapreneur and Entrepreneur

Apple’s success can be without a doubt is credited to Late Steve Jobs and his entrepreneurial skills which reflected the way Apple developed their strategies and hence becoming a corporate Entrepreneur organization .

Steve Jobs was an entrepreneur who turned into an intrapreneur due to demands of the environment he worked in. Apple was established on April 1st, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to sell the Apple I personal computer kit. The kits were hand-built by Wozniak. Steve Jobs was booted in 1985 and returned as CEO in 1997. By the time of his death in 2012 at the age of 56, he had transformed a company that was in such weak financial shape that it accepted a $150 million investment from Microsoft, into the most profitable technology company in the world . A consummate showman, Jobs was adept at explaining his vision to a mass audience and he built Apple into one of the world’s most powerful brands . The company’s annual revenues climbed to $108 billion (CNN most admired company 2012). Jobs and Wozniak , both had a steady job but their entrepreneurial needs were unsatisfied and hence this gave rise to Apple Inc.

But by 1980, increased competition pooled with poor sales of the Apple III and its follow-up, the LISA, resulted in loss of its market share to IBM. Faced with bad sales, Steve Jobs introduced the Apple Macintosh in 1984. The first personal computer to feature a graphical-user interface controlled by a mouse, the Macintosh was a true breakthrough in terms of ease-of-use . This move by Apple demonstrated innovativeness and risk taking at the time of adverse conditions. This was partially because of Steve Jobs entrepreneur skills and partially of the entrepreneurial corporate strategies in place, this resulted in Corporate Entrepreneurship . Steve Jobs and his handpicked group of twenty Apple Computer engineers detached themselves from the other Apple employees to innovatively and intrapreneurially create the Mac. The MAC group, under Steve Jobs’ personal leadership, operated totally autonomously and without meddling from anyone at Apple. The motor of Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) resides in the autonomous strategic initiative of individuals at the operational levels in the organization. This is an example of how Steve Jobs exercised autonomy and disengaged from the organizational boundaries to lead a new business creation inside the same Apple. This action links up with the points of “Autonomous” and “Innovativeness” of the framework. It also fits in well with the definition of CE in question, since it created a new innovative business venture inside the organization.

However due to creative difference between Steve Jobs and the board, Jobs quit Apple in 1985. Here we see that Steve Jobs need for autonomy and power got in the way and eventually resulted in his leaving his beloved Apple Inc. Entrepreneur need to be autonomous and locus of power can sometimes result in unfavorable results. This marked a turbulent time for the company . It can be said that Apple lost it’s “Creative destruction” entrepreneur and hence entrepreneur orientation was lost and so was CE culture. However as entrepreneurs are “wild spirits” and always looking for new challenges , later that year, using a share of the money from the stock sale, Steve launched NeXT Computer Co. with the objective of developing an innovative computer that would revolutionize higher education. Here we see the “never say die” spirit of the entrepreneur that Steve Jobs was. He despite all odds and failures stood back on his feet and created a new business venture. He portrayed attributes of innovativeness and proactiveness. He took a big risk with his savings and it could be argued that it was a calculated risk but others see it as a move to show his doubters that he can create “anything from nothing”.

Once again, head of Apple and having gained back the “locus of power” and “autonomy”, Steve went to his old style of leadership by example but the past taught him lessons and he fully learned from those mistakes like any other good entrepreneur would. Jobs struck a deal with Microsoft to help ensure Apple’s survival. Next, Jobs installed the G3 PowerPC microprocessor in all Apple computers, making them faster than competing Pentium PCs. He also spearheaded the development of the iMac, a new line of affordable home desktops , which debuted in August 1998 to rave reviews. Under Jobs’ leadership, Apple returned to success, and by the end of 1998, boasted sales of $5.9 billion. Jobs’ first major innovation was the introduction in 2001 of the original iPod and iTunes music store , which altered how digital music was purchased. In January 2007, after years of rumors, Jobs rocked consumer electronics with the introduction of the first iPhone, which has since undergone four successive renovations. The device was not the world’s first touchscreen handset, but its design and easy-to-use user interface became the standard for all smartphone aspirants. However in Apple’s iPhone case, they created market or developed a new market by innovating and reinventing the existing product itself. Apple’s re-configuring of the smartphone market caused old-fashioned players, from Microsoft, Nokia, and RIM, to reconsider and alter their own mobile strategies in the wake of the disruption caused by the iPhone. Apple Inc. under Steve Jobs adopted an unconventionality style to strategic design to identify opportunities in its external environment and to position the company to seize these opportunities. Profoundly, this involved the leader, in this case Jobs to think not only about needs of stakeholders but also how the Apple can reinvent or create new markets, products, customers, and services.

Nevertheless, Jobs stressed that the company had a longer-term strategy past personal computers, and that he was waiting for the next big thing, which turned out to be iPod and iPhone. Apple’s corporate entrepreneur strategy was heavily influenced by Steve Jobs personal values of regular and steady entrepreneurial way of doing things. It is important that CE requires consistency in approach and regularity in behavior. Jobs succeeded at seizing opportunities because he was able to recognize and initiating trends by taking a calculated risk at the time. He perceived himself akin to Henry Ford who, when asked about the of the automobile stated, “If I’d have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me a faster horse”. Hence, it can be said that Steve Jobs had a “knack” of seizing opportunities because he was a risk taker and so did Apple Inc. as a company. Apple Inc. embraced “creative destruction” by altering the rules of the game in an IT industry. It also involves the aptitude to recognize industry dynamics and the key success factors that drive performance. Apple is known to be obsessed about the strategic action of its competitors and encourages his employees to do the same so that the company does not become complacent. They with the help of “aggressive marketing” are always looking to “compete intensively”, another dimension of the framework that is very relevant in Apple’s strategy. This is very clear from the mp3 devices market, where iPod’s monopoly has resulted in lack of competitors in the sector.

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