Management research has begun to explore how cultural entrepreneurs use established or declining
societal traditions to create distinctive new ventures and products. In this study, we propose an
alternative pathway for creating entrepreneurial opportunities, i.e., through leveraging extinct
societal traditions. Extinct traditions yield opportunities to create highly distinctive products and
ventures, yet their use entails substantial challenges. To understand how entrepreneurs can
successfully leverage extinct traditions, we investigate the case of The Merchant of Venice, an
Italian venture founded in 2012 that produces luxury perfumes based on the perfume-making
tradition that flourished in Venice between the 16th and 18th centuries and disappeared
afterwards. Our study illuminates how cultural entrepreneurs can leverage extinct societal
traditions by a) exhuming lost knowledge and practices, b) validating them as an authentic and
appreciable tradition of a given community and territory, and c) elevating their meaningfulness as
core to place identity. Our study contributes to the literature on cultural entrepreneurship and
traditions by revealing the distinct challenges that resurrecting extinct traditions entail, enriching
the understanding of types, goals, and processes of cultural entrepreneurship, and widening current
knowledge of the roles of tradition custodians.