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  • August 2022
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Meaningful Gigs

By: Brian Trelstad and Rachel Philbin
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:21
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Abstract

In October 2020, just a year after founding their company Meaningful Gigs, founders Ronnie Kwesi Coleman and Stephanie Nachemja-Burton prepared for a vital investment meeting with Rethink Education. They had already reached $400,000 in annually recurring revenue (ARR) on their mission to connect American companies with skilled freelance digital designers in Africa and were committed to developing an upskilling platform to nurture their designers’ growth. However, early advice from advisors and investors cautioned Ronnie and Stephanie to focus on marketplace growth. The team needed to decide if their upskilling product was worth the investment now or if they should focus on sales and engineering of their marketplace in this round of investments. Furthermore, given the founders’ ambitions to turn Meaningful Gigs into a $1 Billion revenue company, was Rethink the right capital partner for them or should they target a more traditional venture capital fund?

Keywords

Venture Capital; Growth and Development Strategy; Revenue; Education Industry; Technology Industry; Africa; United States

Citation

Trelstad, Brian, and Rachel Philbin. "Meaningful Gigs." Harvard Business School Case 323-006, August 2022.
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About The Author

Brian L. Trelstad

General Management
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  • Measuring and Managing Social Impact By: Brian Trelstad
  • Patagonia: 'Earth Is Now Our Only Shareholder' By: Brian Trelstad, Nien-hê Hsieh, Michael Norris and Susan Pinckney
  • FoodCloud: Tackling Food Insecurity and Climate Change in One Bite By: Brian Trelstad and Emer Moloney
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