Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game

by Naeem Zafar


Alex Mehr and Shayan Zadeh founded Zoosk in 2007 and by 2012, the company had reached over $100 million in revenue. The Zoosk case study provides an overview of the company's short history, paying particular attention to the founding of the company and to its growth. The main case study objective is to teach students how to analyze a startup's go-to-market strategy and to discuss a startup's ability to pivot as one of its drivers of success. Entrepreneurs (and students) often do not realize the myriad of decisions that must be made in order to go to market with their product or service. What are these decisions and how can a startup identify them and organize them? Importantly, a startup's go-to-market strategy is not static, as can be seen in the case of Zoosk. The backdrop of social media and the opening of the Facebook platform make this an especially rich case that offers several opportunities to discuss various options that any startup company has.

Learning Objectives


To teach students how to analyze a startup's go-to-market strategy and to discuss a startup's ability to pivot as one of its drivers of success.

Details

Pub Date: Feb 9, 2013

Discipline: Entrepreneurship

Subjects: Startup, International business, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Technology, Marketing, Internet marketing, Pricing, Competitive advantage, Corporate strategy, Internet, Start-ups, Growth strategy

Product #: B5768-PDF-ENG

Industry: Technology,Internet services,E-commerce

Geography: United States, California

Length: 11 page(s)


Berkeley Haas Case Series
Berkeley Haas Case Series The Berkeley Haas Case Series is a collection of business case studies written by faculty members at the Haas School of Business. Cases are conceived, developed, written, and published throughout the year, on subjects ranging from entrepreneurship and strategy to finance and marketing. Each case includes a teaching note for use in the classroom.

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Berkeley Haas Case Series

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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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