invisaWear: bridges under construction
Publication date: 7 July 2020
Issue publication date: 2 October 2020
Abstract
Theoretical basis
Forming ties with prominent partners can help convey greater status and legitimacy to the company (Hallen, 2008) and also increases the entrepreneur’s influence within their own network (Bonacich, 1987). This allows entrepreneurs to gain greater access to the information, experience or resources that the company needs.
Research methodology
The founders of the company provided us with access to the inner workings of the company, their mentors and advisors and themselves. The authors used archival research and interviews when preparing this case. Interviews allow for the development of uncensored, real-life insights into the entrepreneur’s business experience. The authors also interviewed two of their mentors and investors.
Case overview/synopsis
Having graduated from UMass Lowell with engineering degrees, co-founders Rajia Abdelaziz and Ray Hamilton build invisaWear into a venture, but they did not know much about business. With coaching from their mentors, Rajia and Ray focused on building their network to raise capital to finance the business. Despite all their hard work networking, however, they faced a hurdle. Rajia and Ray contemplated their dilemma. “Are the authors doing something wrong? What can the authors do differently to attract investors?”
Complexity academic level
This case is suitable for an undergraduate course in business or entrepreneurship. This case is intended to illustrate to both business and non-business students how entrepreneurs can go about building their networks to grow their businesses. Presented as a real-life example of how entrepreneurs build their networks, the case can also be used to hone in on select topics including mentoring, searching for resources and coachability.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Rajia Abdelaziz, CEO of invisaWear, Raymond Hamilton, CTO of invisaWear, Ray Southworth, CEO of Netria Corporation, and Nowfal Ebrahim for their valuable insights during personal interviews. Roberto Santos received a Paul R. Lawrence Fellowship to attend the 2018 North American Case Research Association (NACRA) annual conference in Orlando, Florida where an earlier version of this case was presented at a roundtable discussion. We would like to express our gratitude to Anne T. Lawrence, Bill Naumes, Christopher M. Cassidy, and Erin Pleggenkuhle-Miles for their helpful comments and thoughtful suggestions.
Disclaimer. This case is intended to be used as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. The case was compiled from published sources.
Citation
Santos, R.S., Sun, S.L. and Luo, X. (2020), "invisaWear: bridges under construction", , Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 415-432. https://doi.org/10.1108/TCJ-12-2019-0127
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited