Abstract
This case describes the entrepreneurial journey of two college friends — Anchal Taatya and Abhiram Nukalapati. While studying at IIM Ahmedabad, they saw an opportunity for aggregating credit card discounts and launched a pilot in February 2019 under the name Circles. Circles helped discount seekers and credit card holders to connect and make transactions. Case A outlines their journey until the launch, where they faced the dilemma of choosing between a B2B and a B2C business model. Case B outlines their struggles in launching a B2C product and eventual shutdown of the venture. The key objective of this case is to understand the business formation stage of a college start-up, and how they arrived at opportunity identification. The case is aimed at enabling classroom discussions on the role of trust in platform businesses and how regulations — or lack thereof — can shape the destiny of new ventures.
Additional Information
| Product Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Reference No. | CIIE0025(B) |
| Title | Circles (B): Launch and Pivot |
| Pages | 8 |
| Published on | Dec 3, 2021 |
| Year of Event | 2020 |
| Authors | Mendonca, Valerie; Karna, Amit; Mukherjee, Saral; |
| Area | Centre for Innovation, Incubation, and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) |
| Discipline | Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Strategic Management |
| Sector | Banking Finance Insurance (BFI) |
| Learning Objective | Understand the entrepreneurial journey of college startups. Appreciate the role of experimentation in launching new businesses. Understand the struggles in an early stage of venture scaling. |
| Keywords | Entrepreneurship; College Startup; Experimentation; New Venture; Business Model |
| Country | India |
| State | Gujarat |
| City | Ahmedabad |
| Organization | Circles |
| Access | For All |
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