Envirofit International: A Venture Adventure

This case focuses on Envirofit International, a student start–up venture that began in an undergraduate entrepreneurship course. Two engineering students and two faculty members at a land grant university in the United States designed a retrofit kit to vastly reduce emissions from dirty two–stroke motorcycles, which are used throughout Asian cities as taxis. This case presents the beginnings of the Envirofit story, and the issues involved in creating an entrepreneurial venture focused on triple bottom line objectives in “base of pyramid†markets. Specifically, the case examines the ambiguity facing a start–up as it begins to develop a technology, a business model, and a management team. The case demonstrates the tension between planning and doing in managing the uncertainty facing a new venture.