Forum: Discussion Board: You Be the Vc

Case 1.1: RunKeeper

Discussion Questions

1. Which of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, discussed in this chapter, do you see in Jason Jacobs? To what degree do you think these characteristics have contributed to RunKeeper’s success?

The characteristic that best describe Jason Jacobs is execution intelligence. Jason Jacobs was able to execute his business idea successfully. He raised money, developed a business model, and put a venture team of six persons. Jason Jacobs launched RunKeeper application in 2008. This application allows runners to track and share their runs. The execution intelligence that Jason Jacobs implemented to RunKeeper’s application has allowed his application to be one of the top selling apps in the ITunes store. Also, this application has more than two million downloads with a high retention rate.

2. To what extent do you think RunKeeper’s basic business idea “adds value” to the lives of its customers? Who is the ideal candidate to be a RunKeeper customer?

RunKeeper creates to its customers an exemplary user experience. RunKeeper’s basic download is for free; this allowed its customer to enjoy of the basic features that RunKeeper offers to them. Customers can pay $10 dollars to upgrade to a premium service which offers additional features. The ideal candidates to be a RunKeeper customer are the runners and athletic people since they are interested in tracking their progress.

3. To what degree do you think it would be easy or difficult for another company to imitate what RunKeeper is doing?

It would be easier for another company to imitate what RunKeeper is doing. The hard part for other companies is that customers usually prefer to use a product or service that they are familiarize with it. RunKeeper engaged its user from the beginning and generated a community of users around RunKeeper's experience. This result is showed back in 2008 when people who bought the premium RunKeeper application still active users....