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  • November 2010
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Bling Nation

By: William A. Sahlman and Liz Kind
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:26
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Abstract

Bling Nation, a Palo Alto, CA startup, was founded in 2007 as a mobile payment service provider that bypassed industry participants such as Visa and MasterCard. Bling Nation partnered with local community banks and merchants in small towns. The banks provided their consumers with Bling Nation “tags”—microchip stickers that could be placed on any mobile phone device. The tags allowed users to make payments directly from their checking accounts and functioned similarly to a debit card. While Bling Nation had already raised $33 million, and its founders were confident of the market potential for mobile payments, they recognized the challenges they faced in scaling their current business model.

Keywords

Culture

Citation

Sahlman, William A., and Liz Kind. "Bling Nation." Harvard Business School Case 811-029, November 2010.
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About The Author

William A. Sahlman

Entrepreneurial Management
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More from the Authors
  • Deborah Quazzo at GSV Ventures By: William A. Sahlman, Michael D. Smith and Nicole Tempest Keller
  • QuantumScape's Mission to Revolutionize Energy Storage for a Sustainable Future By: William A. Sahlman, Allison M. Ciechanover and Jeff Huizinga
  • Chia Network: Reimagining Programmable Money By: William A. Sahlman and George Gonzalez
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