Entrepreneur

Case: RunKeeper: Combining a Passion for Running and Technology to Build an Incredibly Successful Business

Web: www.runkeeper.com

Twitter: runkeeper

Facebook: RunKeeper

Bruce R. Barringer, Oklahoma State University

R. Duane Ireland, Texas A&M University

Introduction

In early 2008, Jason Jacobs was actively looking for a business idea to pursue. He knew he wanted to start his own business –he just didn’t know what that business would be. Anticipating the need for start-up funds, he lived like a bootstrap entrepreneur, even though he had a good job. He was trying to save at least two years of living expenses to support himself when he settled on a business to start.

Trying to settle on a business idea was frustrating for Jacobs. He looked at clean tech, enterprise software, and several other alternatives, but nothing resonated. He got so frustrated that he started training for a marathon as a way to clear his head. While training for the marathon he tried several of the devices that were available at the time to time and track practice runs, including GPS-enabled watches and the Nike+iPod device.

Although the devices worked, he found preparing for the marathon to be a fragmented experience. Difference devices offered different features, but none tied the whole experience of training and running together. Jacobs had his business idea.

He would create a company that would combine his passions for running and technology, and build a Web-based platform that would provide them analytics, coaching, running-related tips, and social support. In this sense, Jacobs’s business idea created a “turnkey” operation for runners interested in tracking their progress.

Getting Started

After a brief period of indecision, Jacobs quit his job to focus on his business idea full-time. He remembers thinking, “Now you’ve got your idea and you’re going to work on it nights and weekends in a coffee shop –are you kidding me?” he started asking around about people who might help...