Calendly (Tope Awotona)
A scheduling app born from a salesperson’s frustration, grown through a free version that spreads every time a link is shared.
- Sector
- Software as a service (SaaS) — scheduling
- Source
- Week 1 tutorial mini-case 4
The case in brief
Tope Awotona, a Nigerian-born American entrepreneur and former EMC salesperson, founded Calendly in Atlanta in 2013 because he was frustrated by how hard it was to schedule sales calls. He funded the start with his savings and a small-business loan while working from the Atlanta Tech Village co-working incubator, and hired Railsware, a company based in Kyiv, Ukraine, to help develop the software.
Users share a scheduling link showing their open time slots; the recipient picks a time and the meeting is added automatically to Google or Microsoft Outlook calendars. Calendly launched with a free (freemium) version for individual users and added a premium version in late 2014; team and enterprise plans followed.
The software is known for its viral nature: every invitation shows the recipient the product and encourages them to try it. In January 2021 Calendly raised $350 million from OpenView Venture Partners and Iconiq at a reported $3 billion valuation, and in July 2021 it closed its Atlanta headquarters and became fully remote.
Key facts
- Founder
- Tope Awotona
- Founded
- 2013, Atlanta, Georgia
- Early development
- Railsware, Kyiv (Ukraine)
- Seed investment
- $550,000 in late 2013 (Wikipedia)
- Pricing
- Freemium at launch; premium version added late 2014
- 2021 funding
- $350 million from OpenView and Iconiq at a reported $3 billion valuation
Analysis through module theory
Type of entrepreneurship
A commercial venture founded outside any existing organisation, with no primary social or environmental mission, so social entrepreneurship, ecopreneurship and intrapreneurship do not fit. Whether it counts as international entrepreneurship depends on evidence that it pursued opportunities across borders; one clear cross-border element is that it combined US founding with software development in Ukraine.
Innovation type and level
The product (a shareable scheduling link) can be argued as service innovation. The freemium model, in which the free version acts as the marketing channel, is a business model innovation because it changes how the firm captures value and acquires customers. Scheduling tools already existed, so the level is closer to incremental; students may debate disruptive features (simpler and free at entry).
INV elements
Using developers abroad illustrates the INV element of foreign location advantage — synthesising resources across national borders (Oviatt and McDougall, 2018). The software itself is proprietary knowledge, a unique resource.
Discussion questions
- 1.Is Calendly’s key innovation the product or the freemium business model? Why not the other?
- 2.Which INV elements can you see in how Calendly was built?
- 3.What would PESTEL (for example Legal rules on data) suggest before entering a new market?
- 4.Does born-global theory or the Uppsala model better describe a digital service like this?
Takeaways
- A business model innovation can matter more than the product itself.
- Digital ventures can combine resources from several countries from the start.
- Growth can be built into the product when each use exposes new potential customers.