Where To? BlazingDB Contemplates Relocation

Where should technology startup BlazingDB be headquartered to have the best access to knowledge, talent, and capital?
Jorge Guzman  | Spring 2019
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In June 2015, brothers Rodrigo and Felipe Aramburu founded BlazingDB, a promising new technology company that leveraged recent trends in data processing and computing power. The brothers had received undergraduate degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and chose that city for BlazingDB’s headquarters. Despite a small influx of seed funding, significant venture capital investments that would enable the company to scale had remained frustratingly elusive. For BlazingDB to continue as a going concern, the company needed the capital and expertise that only a well-established venture capital funder could provide. With no traction in Austin, Rodrigo and Felipe could not help but notice that similar startups were getting funded in other places, especially Silicon Valley. Were they just in the wrong place to make this company a success? This case asks students to consider BlazingDB’s headquarters location options to position it best for a venture capital investment and long term growth.

Case ID: 190412

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