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Case Study

CVTrust and the Smart Certificate

By Benoit F. Leleux, Baldvin Kovacs, Sayat Kurmanbayev and Luigi Mirri

18 pages

January 2025

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Reference: IMD-7-2611

When the dotcom bubble burst in March 2000, this did not stop the world from going digital, but it did poke holes in the concept of trust, especially in the digital world. David Goldenberg, a Belgian entrepreneur with extensive experience in management consulting, was confronted daily with the hassles of recruiting when information about candidates could not be validated easily. Research showed that 30% to 50% of CVs contained errors, omissions or outright fraudulent claims. Could trust in the recruitment process be re-created for the benefit of all parties? The initial idea in 2010 was to develop a solution for digitally certified diplomas, and it led to the launch of CVTrust. Through a number of iterations based on feedback from early adopters, including some prestigious European business schools, the solution evolved from Smart Diploma to Smart Certificate and a full suite of fully integrated SaaS addressing the digital certification needs of all certificate-granting institutions. By 2024, CVTrust was forced to revisit its business model, competitive advantages and routes to market for a number of reasons. These included the emergence of open standards, legislation on digital certificates and an increase in digital education in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Was it time to pivot again to remain relevant?

Learning Objective

Moving from problem-solution to product-market fit
Taking technology to market
Managing the startup and early growth phases
Pivoting the business model

Keywords

Entrepreneurship, Digital, Venture Capital, Digital Certification, Digitalization, Strategic Pivot, Venturing, Certification, Trust, Recruiting, Curriculum Vitae, Business Model, Go to Market Strategy, Strategic Positioning, Scale-up, Growth Management, Fundraising, Crisis Management, Team Building, Competitive Advantage, Digital Platform, Software as a Service

Settings

Belgium
CVTrust, Information Technology, Information Technology Services
2010-2024

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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Teaching note

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Reference IMD-2736

Organization Slow Forest

Industry Food Production, Agriculture;Consumer Goods, Coffee

Available Languages English

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