Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • October 2022
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Volt Lines: Leading a B2B Service Provider through a Crisis (A)

By: Navid Mojir and Gamze Yucaoglu
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:14
ShareBar

Abstract

Volt Lines was a next-generation transportation service in Istanbul, Turkey. The company was trying to disrupt the traditional corporate transportation market by developing software that allowed it to offer subscription-based transportation. Under the subscription model, Volt Lines pooled employees from different clients to ride on the same bus and charged its clients using a per-seat pricing model instead of the traditional per-bus model. In 2020, when the pandemic hit and companies pivoted to working from home, the need for corporate transportation almost disappeared overnight. While this drop in demand put tremendous pressure on Volt Lines as a startup with negative cash flow, it also allowed the company to leverage its software infrastructure and offer even more flexible pricing models. Such flexible pricing models could help Volt Lines clients that now had their employees show up at the office only a few days a week cut costs. The three cases (Volt Lines A, B, and C) follow the journey of Ali Halabi, the company's founder and CEO, as he moves from trying to survive in the early days of the pandemic to seeing the pandemic as a unique opportunity to gain market share.

Keywords

Business To Business Marketing; B2B Marketing; B2B Pricing; Subscription Model; Crisis Marketing; Startup; Service Management; Information Technology; Transportation; COVID-19 Pandemic; Disruptive Innovation; Digital Platforms; Business Model; Price; Crisis Management; Opportunities; Transportation Industry; Technology Industry; Turkey

Citation

Mojir, Navid, and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Volt Lines: Leading a B2B Service Provider through a Crisis (A)." Harvard Business School Case 523-037, October 2022.
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Navid Mojir

Marketing
→More Publications

Related Work

    • October 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Volt Lines: Leading a B2B Service Provider through a Crisis (C)

    By: Navid Mojir and Gamze Yucaoglu
    • October 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Volt Lines: Leading a B2B Service Provider through a Crisis (B)

    By: Navid Mojir and Gamze Yucaoglu
Related Work
  • Volt Lines: Leading a B2B Service Provider through a Crisis (C) By: Navid Mojir and Gamze Yucaoglu
  • Volt Lines: Leading a B2B Service Provider through a Crisis (B) By: Navid Mojir and Gamze Yucaoglu
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College