Who Are Public Entrepreneurs?

Oct 19, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209

Modules
Cross Registrant Required Reading

Materials
Case - More Citizens Connect

Assignments
More Citizens Connect

Case: More Citizens Connect (Mitchell Weiss)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has selected Bostons Citizens Connect, the nations first big-city mobile 311
app, as a model for expansion to more than 35 cities and towns across the state. Citizens all over Boston were
already using the app to report issues like potholes and graffiti; with the creation of Commonwealth Connect, soon
this would be happening all over the state. Nationally, the technology was being picked up in Baltimore and other
major cities. This chance to scale broadly seems like the holy grail for civic startups, and Citizens Connects
founders and co-chairs of the Mayors Office of New Urban Mechanics, Chris Osgood and Nigel Jacob, were ecstatic.
Yet they faced a difficult decision as the formal state procurement process pitted their original developer,
Connected Bits, against another tech startup, SeeClickFix. Should they pass over Connected Bits and select
another developer?

Assignment Questions:

1. What distinguished Osgood and Jacobs approach to developing Citizens Connect, if anything, from other
leaders you have observed or know about it in the public sector?
2. What were the risks facing Osgood and Jacob as they pursued Citizens Connect? How are they similar or
different to the challenges the two now face with Commonwealth Connect?
3. Who would you choose to partner with on the state project, Connected Bits or SeeClickFix?

Permission, Forgiveness, or Neither?

Oct 20, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209

Materials
Case - Uber: 21st Century Technology Confronts 20th Century Regulation
Case - Flight: Now Without Humans Aboard

Assignments
Uber and UAVs
Cases: Uber: 21st Century Technology Confronts 20th Century Regulation (David Hoyt and Steven Callender)
Uber began operations in 2010 providing a service that allowed customers to call for a limousine using their mobile
device. The service was more expensive than a taxi, but cheaper and more responsive that a conventional
limousine service. Uber did not own limousines, but contracted with existing, licensed, limousine owners and
drivers. By some, Uber was viewed as operating in a regulatory gray area. And yet, or perhaps because of this, by
mid-2012 it had service in 16 cities, mostly in the United States. Among the places they were operating was
Washington D.C., and the City Council prepared in July 2012 of that year to vote on measures that would legitimize
Ubers existing operations, but prevent it from offering a planned lower-priced service. What can Uber do in the
face of this proposed regulation and what should they? And what does that tell us about getting started in so called
gray-areas and expanding once operating in them?
Flight: Now Without Humans Aboard (Mitchell Weiss, Karim Lakhani, HT Kung, and Kerry Herman)
This note provides an overview of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) industry in September 2015.
UAVs offered many promising applications in industries as diverse as aerial imaging and photography, agriculture,
construction, infrastructure inspection and monitoring, logistics or commercial payload delivery, and search and
rescue and disaster relief. The pace of software and hardware innovation in the sector were transforming UAV
capabilities on a rapid basis. Yet regulations and issues around ethics, privacy and security remained unclear. As
UAVs gained ground, an ecosystem had begun to take shape that included players in insurance, data analytics,
law, and component developments, to name a few. The note raises the question: How might industry players work
together as they contemplate the promises and challenges of UAVs.
Assignment Questions:
1. What risks did Uber face as it started out?
2. What alternatives did Uber have to address regulatory issues when beginning service in new cities? What are
the benefits and challenges of each?
3. What should Uber do in the face of the proposed D.C. legislation? What should D.C. do?
4. How are the risks UAV startups face the same or different from Uber's?
5. How should UAV startups navigate their regulatory "gray" area? How should the FAA?

Which Business Model is Best?

Nov 2, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209

Materials
Case - On Two Wheels in Paris
Cross-registrant required reading - Business Model Analysis

Assignments
Velib
Case: On Two Wheels in Paris: The Vlib Bicycle Sharing Program (Peter Coles, Elena Corsi, Vincent
Dessain)
The bike sharing concept has required decades of adjustment and reformulation in cities across the world
to develop a viable business model. Paris-based Vlib, in 2009 the worlds largest bicycle-sharing program, is
now grappling with this issue. With nearly 27 million rentals in its first year of operation, Vlib has proven key
to bolstering Paris transportation system and aiding efforts to reduce traffic congestion and pollution. Yet high
levels of theft and vandalism have led to ballooning operating costs, leaving the private sector operator of the
program, JCDecaux, unhappy. The city of Paris and JCDecaux are now at an impasse, unable to agree on who
should cover the unexpected costs. Is there a business model that will benefit both JCDecaux and the city, or will
conflicts make Vlib another defunct bike share program?
Assignment Questions:
1. What risks have bike share programs faced in the past and in Paris?
2. How well do you think JCDecaux and the city prepared to manage those risks?
3. What are the biggest challenges facing each party now? What should they do?
3. Envision alternative business models for bike share either in Paris or other cities. What could they be?

Whom Do I Sell to and How?

Nov 3, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209
Jack Kutner, CEO of Bigbelly, is scheduled to be our guest in class today.

Materials
Case - BigBelly (to come)

Assignments
BigBelly
Case: Bigbelly (Mitchell Weiss)
If Bigbellys stiffest competition was the status quo, the company had by 2015 won a share of battles. Bigbellys
smart, connected waste and recycling bins were deployed in every U.S. state and 47 countries. And the bins and
the data and analytics solution that Bigbelly paired with them were hailed in the industry and by city and tech
media as a sign of Internet of Things success stories to come. Yet the status quo had won some battles, too.
Several big cities that had been initial nos showed little prospect of converting, even as Bigbelly improved the
stations and reduced the prices. Other cities that had been early purchasers declined to expand on those pilots.
Jack Kutner, Bigbellys President and CEO, headed into an April 2015 board meeting with a two-part proposal for
the companys next phase. He wanted to re-position the stations beyond trash and recycling. He also wanted to
pivot the sales model. The company would shift from equipment sales, its lifeblood, to an untried subscription
service. Would the company's board buy his subscription-only pitch? And if they did, would Bigbellys still-reluctant
purchasers?
Assignment Questions:
1. What is the value proposition of Bigbelly through 2014. If you were the lead sales person on a new city account
at Bigbelly, how would you sell the units - what would you highlight in your meetings?
2. What mostly explains Bigbelly's inability to grow sales as fast as Kutner wants them to, to date, both for existing
customers and new customers?
3. What will have to happen for Kutner's new plan to succeed? What would cause it to fail?
4. Imagine, again, that you work in sales at Bigbelly, but now under the new plan and with the new product
offerings. How would you change your approach?

Customer Visits: Get Me Some New Ideas!

Nov 9, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209

Materials
Public Entrepreneurship Customer Visits Assignment

Assignments
Customer Visits
Field visits

Public leaders turn often and with energy to their staffs and private partners to refresh their agendas and to look
for new opportunities. Where can their staff and partners turn? To the public and to public workers. New insights
can come from firsthand, frontline experience.
This is a prelude assignment to the final project. Your final project doesn't have to originate from these visits. You
may ultimately choose to pursue an entirely unrelated idea. But the visits may well give you some insight into a
problem or it's solution that you hadn't forseen.
Assignment:
See the attached document for the full details.
Students will not come to class on this day. Instead, the time should be allocated toward visiting a local city or
town. In order to encourage insights from places you spend less time, downtown Boston and Cambridge are not
included among the places you should visit for the assignment.
Students can either spend time visting with public workers or interviewing citizens on the street, in coffee shops,
etc.
You are not required to do your visits in this time slot, but you must have them completed by November 15. A one
page reflection is also due by November 17.

A Global Opportunity?

Nov 10, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209
We have three guests scheduled to visit us "virtually" today: Gabriella Gomez-Mont, Director, Laboratorio para La
Ciudad, Mexcio City; Luiz Carlos Guedes - Assessor Especial para Engajamento Cidadao, LAB.Rio; and Rudi
Borrmann, Directo of the Buenos Aires GovLab.

Materials
"Making Innovation Happen in Governments Around the World"

Assignments
A Global Opportunity?
Today we will hear from a virtual panel of Public Entrepreneurs in three Latin American cities. We will explore with
them how this opportunity translates to their cities and countries and across them.
Our digital guests are scheduled to be:
Gabriella Gomez-Mont - Director, Laboratorio para La Ciudad, Mexcio City
Luiz Carlos Guedes - Assessor Especial para Engajamento Cidadao, LAB.Rio
Rudi Borrmann - Director General de Innovacion y Gobierno Abierto, Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires
You should submit some questions for our guests to the Google doc by 9:00 AM on 11/10. I may ask you to ask
them in class.
[link to come]
You should also skim the Nesta and Bloomberg Philanthropies Report on "Making Innovation Happen in
Governments Around the World" and consider the following question:
How does the opportunity of Public Entrepreneurship, as you see it, vary across the world? Are there cities or
countries where it seems especially large?

Citizen Entrepreneurs?

Nov 16, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209

Materials
Case - Data.gov
Required Exploring: Data.gov
Required Exploring: Data.gov repository on GitHub
Additional Exploring: GitHub for Government 101

Assignments
Data.gov
Case: Data.gov (Karim Lakhani)

Data.gov launches under the leadership of the United States Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra, as a
cornerstone of President Obamas Open Government Initiative. Kundra and supporters of the Open Government
Initiative believe that releasing datasets beyond the walls of government enables citizens to engage in new ways,
empowering entrepreneurship and creating value that far exceeds what government can do on its own. Kundras
prior experience in Virginia suggests that at the municipal and state level, open data can produce many useful
applications. Yet beyond the operational challenges of gathering and opening datasets to the public, concerns
around national security, privacy, and data quality loom significantly as Kundra works to scale open data to the
federal level. Unleashing this data may empower millions of citizen entrepreneurs but do the risks of losing
control over so much information outweigh the potential benefits? As Kundra pushes forward the initiative, he
wonders whether anything valuable will be generated using Data.gov and worries whether some dangerous
things might be discovered as well.

Assignment Questions

1. What opportunities does Kundra envision in scaling open data at the federal level? Who is the data for?
2. Do you think the potential benefits of releasing government data to the public outweigh the possible security
and privacy risks?
3. Explore data.gov and the data.gov repository on github and complete one of options from the assignment
and email to mweiss@hbs.edu by 10:00 PM on 11/15. See below:
Step 1. Explore https://data.gov and https://github.com/gsa/data.gov/

Step 2. Option 1.

1. Identify an opportunity* for public entrepreneurship in the data at Data.gov. It can be:
1) a new initiative government could do
2) a new business that could sell a product/service to government
3) a new business that could sell a product/service to other businesses/consumers

*This can be an opportunity related to ones you are thinking about for your final project. Not a
requirement, but an option.

3. Create a chart/graph/visualization based on the data you found that backs up your idea.

4. Email me at mweiss@hbs.edu by 10:00 PM on 11/15:

1) a few sentence description of the idea/opportunity
2) the chart/graph/visualization
3) a few sentence description of which data you found; where/how on data.gov you found it; and what, if any,
manipulation, aggregation, etc. you had to do to it

**Note: Dont send me any ideas that you wouldnt feel comfortable if I shared in class.

OR

Step 2. Option 2.

1. Create an account on GitHub or use your existing one.

1. Participate in the Data.gov conversation there, on the issues tab: https://github.com/GSA/data.gov/issues

Either:
Comment on an existing open issue on Data.govs repository to help answer the question or to add helpful
information.
Open a new issue if you found a problem on Data.gov you want to report.
Open a new issue to suggest a new product feature (small or large), design improvement, or simplification.

1. Email me at mweiss@hbs.edu by 10:00 PM on 11/15:

1)

A screen capture of your comment/issue submission

2) A few additional sentences beyond your submission with your rationale for choosing this issue to
comment/open/etc.
**Note: Dont submit anything you arent comfortable sharing with the world.

Permission Revisited, At Scale

Nov 17, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209
Molly Turner, Global Head of Civic Partnerships at Airbnb, is scheduled to be our guest in class today.

Assignments
Airbnb in Amsterdam
In January 2014, the Amsterdam City Council passed a set of regulations that appeared to allow short-term
apartment rentals of the type faciliated by listings on Airbnb and similar platforms. The new rules, however, did not
end discussion and debate over the practice. As the year progressed, listings in Amsterdam grew, but so did
questions over forgone tax revenues, illegal hotels, and adherence to the new regulations. This presented a
challenge to Amsterdam, which aimed to position istself as embracing of the sharing economy, and to Airbnb and
its Global Head of Civic Partnerships, Molly Turner. Airbnb had new "shared city" agreements in Portland, Oregon
and San Francisco, California, though it still faced intense scrutiny in New York and in several European cities.
Could Turner and her Amsterdam counterparts come to a shared agreement of their own in the wake of growth's
challenges? Who would get what from it and how?

Government as a Platform?

Nov 23, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209

Materials
Case - Aadhaar: India's 'Unique Identification' System
The ID Man by Ian Parker

Assignments
Aadhaar
Case: Aadhaar: Indias Unique Identification System (Tarun Khanna, Anjali Raina)

The government of India is 3 years into the ambitious mission of delivering unique identification numbers to every
one of its 1.2 billion residents. Known as Aadhaar, the 12-digit number is intended to reshape the institutional
context in India, creating financial inclusion, improving social service delivery, and reducing the widespread
diversion of government subsidies. Nandan Nilekani, CEO and co-founder of the global IT giant Infosys, has been
tapped to bring his experience and entrepreneurial acumen to this complex undertaking as Chairman of the Unique
Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Nilekani has the opportunity to transform India and change the lives of
over 1 billion people if he succeeds in his mandate. Yet he wonders which of the skills and techniques that worked
for him at Infosys will help him succeed in his new role, and which might get him in trouble.

Assignment Questions:
1. Why do you think Nilekani was selected to run a government initiative of this scale, despite not having a long
track record of success in government? Was this a good idea?
2. Why do you think Nilekani accepted this new role? Under what conditions might you consider taking on such
a role? What would you ask for?
3. As the case closes in August 2012, what's your assessment of how well (or not) Nilekani has done at UIDAI?

Required Reading:

The I.D. Man by Ian Parker. The New Yorker. October 3, 2011.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/03/the-i-d-man

Venture Capital for This?

Nov 24, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209
Scott Burns, CEO of GovDelivery, is scheduled to be our guest in class today.

Materials
GovDelivery

Assignments
GovDelivery
Case: GovDelivery (Mitchell Weiss)
It had been seven years since Scott Burns, CEO and Co-founder of GovDelivery, joined his friend Zach Stabenow to
get what would become GovDelivery off the ground. In that time, GovDelivery had become one of the first
companies to move governments into the cloud, one of the first to sell them software as a service (SaaS), and in
2007, the countrys largest sender of government-to-citizen emails and the only one with 3 million registered
citizens using its platform. In those seven years, growth capital had come in from almost all corners, expect one:
major venture firms. Now, with roughly $6 million in annual revenue and projections to double that within three
years, Burns was prepping for discussions with half a dozen Tier 1 firms. In doing so, he was anticipating what he
thought would be the elephant in the room. GovDeliverys business-to-government revenue model had been a
conversation-stopper with major investors looking at Burns' company and companies like it. What would he tell
potential backers?
Assignment Questions:
1. If venture investors are skeptical of B2G business models like GovDelivery's, why do you think that is mostly?
2. What attributes of GovDelivery's performance or plans to scale make it attractive for venture investors? Looking
ahead, what things would you do to make it more attractive?
3. Create two "pitch slides" highlighting the GovDelivery opportunity for venture investors.

How Does Big Tech do Public Entrepreneurship?

Nov 30, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209
Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs, is scheduled to be our guest in class today.

Materials
Sidewalk Labs, a Start-Up Created by Go..

Assignments
How does Big Tech do Public Entrepreneurship?
In June 2015, Google announced a new, independent company to focus on city technology: Sidewalk Labs. Dan
Doctoroff, the former Deputy Mayor of New York City, would lead the new company. Among his first orders of
business was defining Sidewalk's business model, delineating Sidewalk's focus areas, hiring a team, and deciding
on when to enlist Google's support (in talent, resources, and otherwise) and when not to. In charting Sidewalk's
path, Doctoroff had some precedents to look to, including Google's own efforts, city initiatives by other big tech
companies such as IBM and Microsoft, and tech initiatives in adjacent industries. He looked back on his most recent
experience running Bloomberg LP and to this new one with the not-so-simple questions: What should Sidewalk do?
We will have a "case" discussion based in part on the New York Times article. And then engage Dan in our
discussion more explicilty.
Assignment Questions:
1. What skills/competencies does "Big Tech" bring to the space we have been discussing in class, Public
Entrepreneurship. What gets in its way?
2. How would you set up Sidewalk to leverage those capabilities and minimize those obstacles?
3. We have covered several different areas of opportunity in Public Entrepreneruship and in cities across the globe.
What areas would you recommend Doctoroff prioritizes and why?

Scaling Public Entrepreneurship Itself

Dec 1, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209

Materials
Inside Obama's Stealth Startup

Assignments
Obama's Stealth Startup
Article: Obama's Stealth Startup
A year after its founding, the United States Digital Service was perhaps still in its "beta" stage. The "alpha's" for
this effort to transform the federal government's ability to deliver for citizens, were the Presidential Innovation
Fellows program, 18F, and even the botched rollout of Healthecare.gov. And for sure, the Government Digital
Service founded in 2011 in the United Kingdom. All were maturing on their own and in their own ways. As the
USDS came to its one year anniversary in 2015, its leaders Mikey Dickerson and Haley Van Dyke assessed their
next moves, including, which elements of the UK GDS they should most emulate, which they should drop, and
what new they should create that hadn't yet been tried?
Assignment Questions:
1. What problem is the United States Digital Service (USDS) an answer to?
2. What seems promising about the USDS at its beginning? What, if anything, worries you?
3. What differences do you detect between the UK's approach to digital government in 2010, as it is presented
in the Martha Lane Fox memo, and the United States' approach in 2015 as it's described in Fast Company.
Why are there these differences? Are there parts of each approach that you prefer over the other?
4. What roles should the various layers (USDS, 18F, and the tech teams) of this three-layer cake play?
5. Who should do project selection for the USDS? How should Dickerson and Van Dyke, on balance, weigh the
priorities of the White House, the agencies, the public, etc.?
6. What challenges will the USDS face as President Obamas administration moves towards its end. How should
Obama, Park, Dickerson, and Van Dyke address those?

Where Do Things Stand Today?

Dec 7, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209
Ron Bouganim, Founder and Managing Partner of the Govtech Fund, is scheduled to be our guest in class today.

Assignments
Where do things stand today?
We will be joined in class today by Ron Bouganim, Managing Partner of the GovTech Fund. In 2014, Ron launched
the first venture fund focussed on investing in companies developing and selling government technology.
Please visit the google sheet and contribute some questions for the guests by 9am 12/7. I may ask you to ask
the question in class, so please also bring it with you.
[Link to Come]
You should also spend time learning about the GovTech Fund and its portfolio companies:
govtechfund.com
@GovtechFund
mindmixer.com
@mind_mixer
smartprocure.us
@SmartProcureUS
AmigoCloud.com
@AmigoCloud
SeamlessDocs.com
@SeamlessDocs
mark43
@Mark43

How Does It All Add Up?

Dec 8, 2015 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM

PUB ENT: Public Entrepreneurship Section 00

Aldrich Hall 209

Materials
Case: Kumbh Mela: India's Pop-up Mega-City

Assignments
Kumbh Mela
PLEASE BRING LAPTOPS TO CLASS TODAY FOR COURSE EVALUATION DAY.
Case: Kumbh Mela: Indias Pop-up Mega-City (Tarun Khanna, John Macomber, Saloni Chaturvedi)

Every 12 years, the Kumbh Mela celebration at Allahabad attracts millions of pilgrims to bathe at the confluence of
the rivers Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati. Simultaneously a religious pilgrimage and a colossal festival, the
2013 Kumbh Mela was the largest human gathering in history, drawing over 120 million people. Since the
auspicious bathing period ranges from one to three months, housing and catering to these millions presents an
extraordinary administrative challenge particularly since the pop-up city cannot be laid out until the river waters
recede following the monsoons. Thus city planners must build a temporary city from scratch in just a few months,
complete with roads, electricity, sanitation, and healthcare facilities. It is an extraordinary undertaking, and yet it
stands in stark contrast to the status quo of daily life in India. If the government can build the biggest city on the
planet in three months, could it move faster in other parts of its daily work?

Assignment Questions:

1. What enables the government to work so quickly to pull together the Kumbh Mela?
2. Is this a unique case, or are there lessons could be generalized to speeding up other government services in
India and elsewhere?