Sean Zinsmeister and Meera Venkatraman
I AM HUNGRY (IAH), a free mobile App for the iPhone and Facebook, was introduced in early 2010 by a small Web 2.0 startup business. This location based App provided users with a…
Abstract
I AM HUNGRY (IAH), a free mobile App for the iPhone and Facebook, was introduced in early 2010 by a small Web 2.0 startup business. This location based App provided users with a list of restaurants and food specials within a one-mile radius of their current location. It offered significant benefits to both restaurants and end users, yet IAH struggled to generate a sustained revenue stream. The case is set in late 2010 when co-founders Markarian and Kravets evaluated IAH performance and considered their options. The two segments, Mom and Pop restaurants and college students, presented different challenges. In the restaurant segment, IAH faced a dilemma not uncommon to Web startups. Should they push for growth (number of restaurants) at the expense of revenue (offering the App free) or should they charge for the App at the expense of growth? Focusing on the end user, the case discusses the outcomes of an IAH promotion at Collegefest, a heavily attended back-to-school event. Data from Google Analytics and Facebook Insights revealed that the event was a success in terms of user traffic. But, was that enough? The case asks students to deliberate on the appropriate performance metrics for evaluating next steps.
Hugo Benedetti and Sebastián Labbé
Decentralized finance is a technological infrastructure built on a blockchain networking environment that supplies transparent, uncensorable, and decentralized financial services…
Abstract
Decentralized finance is a technological infrastructure built on a blockchain networking environment that supplies transparent, uncensorable, and decentralized financial services and products. This infrastructure offers the opportunity to replicate traditional financial instruments on a decentralized platform and incorporate added features provided by blockchain technology. It also allows the creation of new instruments native to blockchain technology unavailable through traditional financial institutions. This chapter presents an in-depth analysis of the inner workings of stablecoins, decentralized exchanges, automated market makers, liquidity pools, decentralized lending, synthetic instruments, and asset management. It also provides specific examples for each application and presents some current challenges the sector faces.