Publications
Publications
- August 2019 (Revised March 2023)
- HBS Case Collection
Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)
Abstract
In 2016, senior management at Moz, a venture capital–backed startup providing software tools for digital marketing professionals, must decide how to address a looming cash flow crisis precipitated by failed efforts to broaden its product line. Seattle-based Moz had originally focused only on search engine optimization (SEO) software. Aiming to accelerate growth, the startup had launched products targeted at content marketers, social media marketers, and small local businesses over the past three years. Adoption of these new products had been disappointing, and the resource drain and distraction of launching them had reduced the growth of Moz's core SEO product. Management was wrestling with whether to either 1) shut down or sell the new products or 2) double down on the new products, funding further investment in them by selling the core SEO business or milking it as a "cash cow."
Keywords
Startups; Scaling; Entrepreneurship; Failure; Business Startups; Diversification; Growth Management; Technology Industry
Citation
Eisenmann, Thomas R. "Rand Fishkin at Moz (A)." Harvard Business School Case 820-002, August 2019. (Revised March 2023.)