The ability to exploit disruptive innovation is the main factor in a company’s continued success. The ability to significantly advance a field or create a new field is paramount not only to a venture’s ability to generate revenue, but it is key to our nation’s economic vitality. Yet today’s business environment is dominated by funding options and exit strategies focused on near-term results and unreasonable profit expectations (Estrin, 2008b). Given these constraints, software startups must focus on incremental innovation to obtain initial funding. The result is an industry focused on short-term strategies that limit the likelihood of developing disruptive innovations and companies with long-term focuses. Current business models do not adequately address a key factor in preventing the loss of innovations and stagnancy in industries and their markets. New business frameworks and models are required that focus on preserving the core teams found in software startups and to provide them with the runway they require to develop disruptive innovations. Nowhere is innovation more crucial than in the startup environment where the abilities to invent, adapt, outwit, and outlast on a shoestring budget predict success. This paper evaluates today’s business models to determine how they help overcome roadblocks faced by software startups in today’s acquisition environment, identifies related research, and recommends new models and adaptations to existing models to overcome these roadblocks. “It is estimated that 70-95 percent of acquisitions fail. A significant percentage is due to the friction that is created by trying to integrate the startup with the large company's financials, HR department, product, market and business model. Most startups when they are acquired are uncertain on many of these dimensions, and forcing them to conform on any one of these dimensions to the large company can stunt their growth and often kill them.” – (Herrmann, September 2011) This paper investigates how to preserve innovation within a startup and within an acquiring company, how innovation is interwoven in team members, the leadership characteristics that inspire innovation, and the importance of balancing the value of innovation against process. The recommended guidance and frameworks focus on preserving the core team and their innovations, as well as generating a strong return on investment, when an established business acquires a startup. The perspectives presented are based on the author’s experiences as a key team member in two startups in the mid 1990s, multiple failed internal incubation groups within a fortune 100 company, and in considering a new startup in today’s environment. / text

In recent years, Silicon Valley has become virtually synonymous with startup companies. These companies are defined by their famous "startup culture." An interesting and unanticipated outcome of this research was the finding that the discourse of Silicon Valley startups is framed centrally in terms of culture. I use discourse analysis to understand the way people create and perpetuate structures of power, gender, and culture. By studying the way people in startup companies talk about their expectations and experiences, this analysis hopes to gain a deeper understanding into the normalized cultural discourses surrounding startup organizations, as well as the way individuals negotiate their subjective realities within this sphere.

The aim of my thesis is to define an issue of the business model Canvas now together with its implementation at the certain timber company tools with the help of tools like public relations, analyses of communication mix. In the theoretical part is described business model Canvas in detail and also defined the importance of communication in the market background including the marketing communication tools. In the practical part is with the help of business model analyzed and evaluated the current condition of communication mix at the certain timber company. Finally there are recommended the ways of improvement of the current marketing and communication system.

Submitted by Ghislain Claude Emmanuel Chassagne (ghislain.chassagne@sciencespo.fr) on 2015-05-06T23:26:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis - Ghislain Final Version.pdf: 704738 bytes, checksum: 9d6de4e46d4e33ef1c90137607eb6e78 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luana Rodrigues (luana.rodrigues@fgv.br) on 2015-05-07T12:30:50Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis - Ghislain Final Version.pdf: 704738 bytes, checksum: 9d6de4e46d4e33ef1c90137607eb6e78 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-07T14:07:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis - Ghislain Final Version.pdf: 704738 bytes, checksum: 9d6de4e46d4e33ef1c90137607eb6e78 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-10 / Too many startups abort for launching products that nobody wants and standards approaches like business planning and rigorous product evelopment have failed to diminish the number of startups failures. That is why a new methodology called 'The Lean Startup' has gained, for a few years, an important popularity among entrepreneurs that seek to reduce their risk of failure. The Lean Startup methodology was developed by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to help startups to find the right product/market fit without spending a huge amount of money. Moreover, the Brazilian startup environment has been booming for the last few years in the wake of the last successful Brazilian cash outs. However, very few academic research have been conducted to explore the phenomenon of Lean Startup in Brazil. The purpose of this report is to identify which concepts of the Lean Startup methodology are applied in Brazil and understand if the approach is adapted regarding the specificities of the country. The results of this study have been collected through in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs operating in Brazil. The first conclusion is that Brazilian entrepreneurs are familiar with the Lean Startup approach and some of them have applied the main principles. Second, many interviewed entrepreneurs have encountered difficulties implementing the methodology, in particular during the 'get out of the building' phase. Finally, interviews showed that the Lean Startup methodology might not always be relevant to succeed in Brazil due to the size of the market and the high level of competition. It was found for the entrepreneurs interviewed that 'running fat' instead of 'running lean' can be an efficient approach to win in the Brazilian market in specific situations. / Demais startups abortam por lançar produtos que ninguém compra e o uso de metodologiais tradicionais como o planejamento de negócios e o desenvolvimento rigoroso de produto não conseguiram diminuir o número de falhas de startups. É por isso que uma nova metodologia chamada 'The Lean Startup' ganhou, por alguns anos, uma popularidade importante entre os empresários que buscam reduzir o risco de fracasso. A metodologia Lean Startup foi desenvolvida por empresários do Vale do Silício para ajudar startups encontrar o 'product/market fit' sem gastar uma enorme quantidade de dinheiro. Além disso, o ambiente de startup brasileira foi crescendo nos últimos anos, na sequência dos últimos sucessos brasileiros. No entanto, poucas pesquisas acadêmicas têm sido realizados para explorar o fenômeno da Lean Startup no Brasil. O objetivo deste relatório é identificar quais são os conceitos da metodologia Lean Startup aplicados no Brasil e entender se a metodologia é adaptada em relação às especificidades do país. Os resultados deste estudo foram coletados por meio de entrevistas com empresários que operam no Brasil. A primeira conclusão é que os empresários brasileiros estão familiarizados com a metodologia Lean Startup e alguns deles têm aplicado os princípios fundamentais. Em segundo lugar, muitos empresários entrevistados encontraram dificuldades na aplicação da metodologia, em particular durante o 'get out of the building' fase. Por fim, as entrevistas mostraram que a metodologia Lean Startup nem sempre pode ser relevante para o sucesso no Brasil para os empresarios entrevistados, devido ao tamanho do mercado eo alto nível de competição. Verificou-se que 'running fat' em vez de 'running lean' pode ser uma estratégia eficiente para vencer no mercado brasileiro em alguns casos especificos.

Esta pesquisa investigou como os modelos de negócios (MDNs) das empresas de e-commerce, atuantes no Brasil, foram modificados com a ação dos empreendedores nas fases de: concepção; início de operação e confirmação dos respectivos MDNs pelo mercado. Investigou, também, as razões que justicaram tais mudanças e suas contribuições para os desempenhos das empresas estudadas. Foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa, baseada no método de múltiplos casos, realizada junto à quinze empresas de e-commerce que adotam o modelo painel de controle e que atuam no mercado brasileiro. As entrevistas foram pessoais e orientadas por um roteiro de pesquisa. A apresentação dos dados dos casos e as análises qualitativas, extraídas dos depoimentos dos empresários, foram realizadas com base em uma Matriz de Análise Cruzada. A pesquisa revelou que os MDNs das empresas que haviam sido idealizados pelo empreendedor, na fase de concepção, sofreram mudanças dos tipos: estratégicas, mercadológicas, financeiras, tecnológicas e operacionais, as quais modificaram um ou mais dos submódulos do modelo, no sentido de introduzir ajustes na proposta/oferta de valor, no acervo de recursos, na base de fornecedores, nas redes de parceiros, nas formas de captura de valor (receitas), nas definições de segmentos de mercado e nos sistemas de gerenciamento e controle das operações. As razões destas mudanças, segundo os empreendedores, foram as necessidades de conquistar mercado para conseguir realizar vendas, atrair e ampliar a clientela. As mudanças realizadas pelos empreendedores, segundo eles, contribuíram positivamente, para gerar melhorias nos resultados de desempenho, ou seja, aumento da quantidade de clientes-usuários, clientes-fornecedores e crescimento do faturamento, conforme os índices utilizados.Os achados desta pesquisa foram: 1º) Nenhum dos MDNs idealizados pelos empreendedores estudados foi definitivo. 2º) O processo de construção do MDN só pode ser concluído depois que a empresa é submetida às condições de mercado, o que indica os ajustes e mudanças que serão necessárias neles. 3º) A confirmação do MDN, ou seja, quando ela gera resultados econômicos e atende às exigência de seus stakeholders, sempre é uma confirmação em caráter provisório. As limitações principais das conclusões são: a impossibilidade de generalização das conclusões para o universo de empresas de e-commerce atuantes no Brasil e utilizar informações de uma única fonte, que foram os depoimentos dos empreendedores ou dirigentes das empresas estudadas.A originalidade dos achados desta pesquisa contribuem para a teoria da construção de MDN em condições de mercado presente, revelando a ação do empreendedor na condução de diferentes fases do processo para a confirmação do modelo pelo mercado. Mostra as razões das mudanças incorporadas e suas contribuições para o desempenho da empresa. Para os empreendedores, os resultados da pesquisa servem como orientações para condução do processo, alertando para a necessidade de identificar as mudanças oriundas das necessidades dos clientes, da concorrência e de outros stakeholders. Em síntese, a pesquisa revelou que a construção dos MDNs, nos casos estudados, é um processo contínuo e sempre inacabado. / This research investigated how the business models (MDN) of e-commerce companies, active in Brazil, have been modified by the action of entrepreneurs in stages: conception; startup and confirmation of their MDN by the market. Also investigated the reasons justified such changes and their contributions to the performance of the companies studied. A qualitative research was made, based on the method of multiple cases performed by the fifteen companies of e-commerce that adopt the model panel of control and operating in the Brazilian market. The interviews were personal and guided by roadmap for research. The presentation of case data and qualitative analyzes extracted from the testimonies of businessmen, were made based on a Matrix Analysis Crusade. The research revealed that the MDNs of the companies that had been conceived by the entrepreneur, at the conception stage, passed for changes the types: strategic, marketing, financial, technological and operational, which changed one or more of the sub-modules of the model, in order to introduce adjustments in the proposal / offer value, the collection of resources, on the basis of suppliers, networks of partners, ways to capture value (revenue), the definitions of market segments and the management and control of operations systems. The reasons for these changes, according to entrepreneurs, were the needs to boost market to accomplish sales, attract and expand clientele. Changes made by entrepreneurs, according to them, contributed positively to generate improvements in performance results, in other words, increasing the amount of customers-users, customers-suppliers and revenue growth, as the indexes utilizados. Os findings of this research were: 1) None of the MDN conceived by entrepreneurs studied was final. 2) The process of building the MDN may be concluded only after the company is subject to market conditions, which indicates the adjustments and changes that will be required of them. 3) Confirmation of MDN, in other words, when it generates economic outcomes and meets the requirements of its stakeholders, it is always a confirmation provisionally. The main limitations of the conclusions are: the inability to generalize the findings to the universe of active e-commerce companies in Brazil and use information from a single source, that the statements were entrepreneurs or managers of companies studied. A originality of the findings of this research contributes to theory building MDN present market conditions, revealing the action of the entrepreneur to conduct different phases of the process to confirm the model by the market. Shows the ratios of incorporated changes and their contributions to the company\'s performance. For entrepreneurs, the survey results serve as guidelines for conducting the process, stressing the need to identify the changes originating from the needs of customers, competition and other stakeholders. In summary, the survey revealed that the construction of the MDN, in the cases studied, is an ongoing process and never finished.

Submitted by Luiz Felipe Barbosa (luiz.fbabreu2@ufpe.br) on 2015-03-09T13:29:30Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO Francisco Barreto Costa Pimentel Filho.pdf: 2880879 bytes, checksum: 09126ae1af54582c2adf23919e98ca2e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-09T13:29:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO Francisco Barreto Costa Pimentel Filho.pdf: 2880879 bytes, checksum: 09126ae1af54582c2adf23919e98ca2e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-29 / O estudo investiga a forma como as Startups implementam as metodologias de Business Model Canvas, Lean Startup e Desenvolvimento de Clientes. Para este objetivo, entrevistas semiestruturadas são conduzidas com empreendedores de 52 Startups para compreender o comportamento na adoção das novas metodologias e sua relevância. Empreendedores, apesar de reconhecerem a importância de efetuar validações do empreendimento antes de entrar no mercado, optam por construir um produto e lançá-lo. Além disso, a prática de Business Model Canvas é bastante elogiada quanto a comunicação e visão estratégica, mas é vista como demasiadamente simples, pois não contempla projeções financeiras e deve ser utilizada em conjunto com outras práticas. E quanto a prática de efetuar coletas de feedbacks, os empreendedores afirmam não possuírem uma cultura organizacional para esta atividade, sendo vista como custosa e feita de maneira passiva. As descobertas são muito importantes dado o grande potencial econômico existente nas Startups.

Start-up companies today tend to find a need to scale up quickly and smoothly, to cover quickly increasing demands for the services they create. It is also always a necessity to save money and finding a cost-efficient solution which can meet the demands of the company. This report uses Amazon Web Services for infrastructure. It covers hosting databases on Elastic Computing Cloud, the Relational Database Serviceas well as Amazon DynamoDB for NoSQL storage are compared, benchmarked and evaluated.

Context: Software startups are newly created companies with no operating history and are extremely fast in producing cutting-edge technologies. These companies develop software un- der highly uncertain conditions, tackling fast growing markets with severe lack of resources. Startups present an unique combination of characteristics which pose several challenges to the software development activities, creating interesting problems for software engineers. However, despite the increasing economical importance and the high failure rate, there are only a few sci- entific studies attempting to address software engineering (SE) issues, especially for early-stages startups. In a context where a wrong decision can easily lead the entire business to failure, the support of SE can contribute to foster performances of startups and making a big impact on a large number of companies. Objective: In view of a lack of primary studies, the first step to attending the software development strategies with scientific and engineering approaches is by an understanding of the startups’ behavior. For this reason this research aims to understand how software development strategies are engineered by practitioners, in the period of time that goes from idea conception to the first open beta release of the software product. Methods: This research combines a systematic review of the state-of-the-art with a cross- sectional case study conducted in 13 web startups recently founded and distributed in di↵erent geographic areas and market sectors. A grounded theory approach guided the execution of a sys- tematic mapping study, integrated with semi-structured interviews and follow-up questionnaires to explore the state-of-practice. Results: We selected, classified and evaluated 37 relevant studies. The systematic review revealed that the studies which constitute the body of knowledge are generally not rigorously designed and executed, make use of inconsistent terminology, and cover only small samples of startups. Moreover, we extrapolated concepts from the case study to form a theoretical model, explaining the underlying phenomenon of software development in early-stage startups. The model is grounded in the empirical data and its explanatory power was further validated through a systematic procedure. Finally we proposed a multi-faceted evolutionary model to describe the dynamics of the software development after the first product release. Conclusions: The research provided a wide set of evidences fostering the understanding of how software development is structured and executed, from idea conception to the first release. The results revealed the urgent priority of startups of releasing the product as quickly as possi- ble to verify the product/market fit and to adjust the business and product trajectory according to the early collected user feedbacks. Nevertheless, the initial gain obtained in speeding-up the development by low-precision and product-centric engineering activities is counterbalanced by the need of restructuring the product and the workflows before setting o↵ for further grow. In fact, when user requests and company’s size start to increase startups face an initial and temporary drop-down in productivity, creating the need of mitigation strategies to find a sweet spot between being fast enough to enter the market early while controlling the amount of accu- mulated technical debt. The conclusions can be generalized with a good degree of confidence to the majority of early-stage software startups involved in the production of innovative products, especially for web and mobile applications.

Denna uppsats undersöker strategier vid marknadsinträde för startups och vilka resultat det ger i olika delar av processen. Teoridelen fokuserar på strategin effektualitet som lyfter vikten av relationer, flexibilitet och experimentering. Detta i kontrast till strategin kausalitet som baseras på teorier som importerats från ekonomiska teorier med linjärt förvalda mål som är utformade för etablerade marknader. En multipel fallstudie har utförts på två svenska tech-startups i Stockholmsområdet där grundarna har intervjuats. Resultatet visar att de studerade startups har dragit nytta av att använda en effektuellt strategi, därmed finns det implikationer att denna strategi är fördelaktig att använda för vissa typer av företag. Strategin är fördelaktig på grund av att den förespråkar fokus på samarbeten som leder till utveckling av värdefull kunskap som i sin tur ger konkurrensfördelar samt ökar sannolikheten för att skapa en unik produkt som det finns efterfrågan på. Resultatet visar även att kausalitet och effektualitet samverkar med varandra och därmed är inte kausalitet oviktigt för startups. Det gäller att ha rätt balans beroende på var i utvecklingen startupen befinner sig och hur branschen ser ut. Implikationer givet resultatet antyder att nystartade företag kan dra nytta av denna insikt för att öka sin chans att överleva på marknaden. Det bör också belysas en bredare syn på marknader på de kurser som lär ut entreprenörskap.

Magíster en Gestión y Dirección de Empresas / En el presente trabajo se expone la metodología usada para llegar al diseño de una nueva empresa llamada Backtime, considerando lo aprendido en el transcurso de este Magíster. La motivación para escoger un emprendimiento o Start Up como tema de tesis, se encuentra en el ambiente de desarrollo y dinamismo que vive actualmente el país, y las motivaciones personales que conforman el motor para la consecución del objetivo final. Como toda empresa, ésta empieza desde una idea, y ésta trata sobre el desarrollo de soluciones para el mejoramiento de la calidad de vida de la gente, empezando por las oficinas de atención a clientes, y utilizando la última tecnología disponible. El uso de herramientas y dispositivos basados en Hardware y Software es una medida que se encuentra alineada con las motivaciones y capacidades de las personas que conforman la empresa. El trabajo empieza con el capítulo del Análisis Externo con un análisis del entorno del país, en donde se destaca el buen panorama económico que existe, además del dinamismo tecnológico debido a la gran influencia de la globalización; Se identifican éstas como buenas oportunidades para establecer una nueva empresa, sin embargo también se identifican las amenazas, como es el hecho de que el mercado se encuentra dominado prácticamente por una sola empresa, la cual se convierte en el principal competidor. Posteriormente en el capítulo de Análisis Interno se expone el diseño interno de la empresa, donde se especifican las principales áreas funcionales, destacando el área de I+D, la cual es fundamental para una empresa que desea ser líder en innovación, y por otro lado la cultura corporativa; basada en la camaradería, trabajo en grupo y compromiso. De la información del Análisis Interno y Externo, se diseña la estrategia del negocio para ingresar en el mercado. No competir directamente con el líder del mercado, si no que diferenciarse de éste con soluciones basadas en Software propio que tengan la flexibilidad para adaptarse de la mejor forma a los requerimientos del cliente. La forma de conseguir este ingreso al mercado se define en el capítulo de Plan de Marketing, el cual empieza con una investigación de mercado, resultando como clientes objetivo las oficinas de atención Gubernamentales, para las cuales se diseña un Marketing Mix acorde a las necesidades identificadas. Seguido se encuentra el Plan Financiero donde se expone la forma de financiar el proyecto en un periodo de 5 años, obteniéndose un VAN positivo y una rentabilidad del 10%, lo que anima a la ejecución de este proyecto de emprendimiento. Finalmente, se exponen las conclusiones donde se destaca la importancia que tienen los proyectos de innovación y emprendimiento para el país, y el anhelo de tener una empresa donde las personas sean el pilar más importante.