Rocco Puno's Profile

One of the most interesting parts of the article was wen you mentioned that 25% of Hopper sales comes from a ticket that the person did not ask for. I’m also surprised by the frequency with which users end up visiting the site – in the digital world user engagement is key, and this is certainly on the right track. My only concern is that this model can be replicated. As the large aggregators like Kayak and Expedia grow, the better data they’ll have. While Hopper may have built some stickiness with its customer, I wonder if they’ll be able to withstand copy cats coming into the market. Regardless, it seems that the business is headed in the right direction!

The copyright issue is an interesting one, and as we know the music industry is concentrated in a number of very large record labels, who own the vast majority of the music catalog. While I agree that the company should keep its applications open-source, I wonder if a viable path to value capture would be to partner with one of the major record labels. My deconstructing some of the more famous tracks, they can maybe use some of this AI to understand where consumer preferences are going, and give these recommendations to artists to then create new music. In addition, it could work with DJs to create sounds that have never been heard before.

Since Spotify already has its own semi-AI recommendation algorithm, it may make sense to try and create differentiation through a different value-add, mainly on the musician side as opposed to the consumer side.

Thanks for sharing! What an interesting read. I wonder: if this business is able to in fact fend off its competitors and begin to scale this model, what would be next after simply relying on a niche, subscription-based model? What may be interesting would be a commercially viable beer that has been tried and tested by its subscribers. Once it does get commercialized and you’re able to sell it to both bars and retail stores, the next challenge will then be marketing. The beer market is highly concentrated, with large players but a number of smaller craft brewery players as well. As the company scales, it will be interesting to see where it goes next!

Thanks for writing on this! Interestingly, I wrote about this exact trend, but from the perspective of McDonald’s. One of the most difficult aspects of shifting to consumer preferences in real-time is being able to manage inventory in various stores. McDonald’s seems to be ahead of the curve in this aspect, particularly due to its partnership with Dynamic Yield. However, what Burger King is doing with regards to using its app to engage with its customers is compelling. By creating multiple touchpoints with customers through gameification, the company can hopefully convert some of these users into lifetime customers.

Thanks for writing on this! We’ve seen in this class with Viacom that the entertainment industry must adapt to this new paradigm, and incorporating real-time data into content decisions is a ‘must-have’ to be able to survive. With the addition of their new streaming service Disney +, it’ll add another input into their systems.

Disney definitely takes it a step further with its parks though. The enhanced customer experience would be incredible though, particularly if it translates to less wait times and increased satisfaction. There may also be an opportunity to generate higher inventory turnover in slow-moving products (or rides) by pushing ads. Looking forward to seeing what happens with this!

Thanks for sharing this – an interesting post! Having lived in New York for 9 years, I would go to the Met often, especially when they had new exhibitions. While I understand the concept of tracking consumer behavior, and thus using data to cater to their needs, I feel that there’s a fine balance in doing this. While you want to make sure you’re putting exhibits that are relevant to the consumer, part of the role of an institution like the Met is to preserve and protect artistic ideologies and principles. I see this industry as somewhat separate from other consumer products, in that it is a catalog of the pinnacle or artistic achievement. The ordinary consumer will not be an expert, but more of a casual enthusiast. Taking an extreme example, if a Monet exhibit does not get many views, does it then mean that it should be removed in favor an exhibit with more traffic, say one of the fashion at the Met gala? While I like the idea, I would caution against overly relying on data in this very esoteric industry.

I’m so glad you wrote about this! A platform like this will enable the democratization of energy, allowing independent producers to sell their excess electricity, leading us to a more sustainable and carbon-free future. It seems that the entire business model depends on creating a liquid market to trade energy, and to do it in real-time, depending on the blockchain to execute all of these transactions. If it works, this system will be pivotal in helping avert climate change!

As a user of this platform, I believe in the mission as well to make cryptocurrencies a liquid and viable market for the world! What I am most excited about is the idea of giving these currencies a platform to improve industries like real estate, art, remitance payments, and energy. It’s an exciting time for financial innovation; let’s hope that this benefits industries ripe for disruption!

I’ve hosted one of my birthdays at a Tentrr site, and it was one of the best yet! On their website I was able to find a gorgeous spot in an abandoned zoo, with a tent, a fire pit, and everything we needed to have an amazing weekend. The site takes the due diligence out of the entire process, giving you exposure to so many parts of the country previously difficult to find. For those of you that have never tried this, I highly recommend!!

Thanks for sharing! In Peleton’s IPO papers, it certainly began to position itself as a tech company first rather than a hardware company; my guess is that such positioning allows it to achieve a higher valuation. I’m curious to know a bit more about their proprietary IT as it relates to their digital content: does it create enough barriers to entry, such that it can’t be replicated by its competitors?

Thanks for sharing! This is incredibly interesting. I once heard (from a podcast, of course) that the brain is actually more engaged when it consumes media just through audio, rather than through audio + visual. This is obviously great news for advertisers, and creates a massive opportunity to engage with its audience. To your point, there are very low barriers to entry. Should the next move for the larger players then be to create leaner operations to compete, or to outsource some of their content and instead license the brand?

Thanks for this, as an NBA fan this trend is certainly very intriguing! The Houston Rockets do a good job in this as well, and while it has undoubtedly served the team well, it remains to be seen if they can turn that into a championship. The one question I would have is will this be a trend that all teams will be forced to follow?