About
A team studying how platforms really work.
We are a small group of platform researchers and operators. We focus on the design choices that decide how platforms are governed and how they perform, and on the consequences those choices carry into the real world.
The team
Juan Santaló
Professor of Strategy · IE University
Professor of Strategic Management and Vice-Rector of Faculty and Research at IE University. His work spans corporate and competitive strategy in platform markets, with publications in Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, and Management Science.
Snehasis Despande
Researcher · PhD student, IE University
A decade in on-demand platform operations, now a PhD student at IE University, Spain, researching how platforms are governed and how they perform. Focused on complementor governance and multi-sided market design.
Researcher name
Reputation & trust
Placeholder. A platform researcher focused on reviews, ratings, certification, and how trust signals shape behavior. Full bio coming soon.
Researcher name
Regulation & policy
Placeholder. A platform researcher focused on the regulation of digital markets and the spillovers of platforms onto cities, labor, and housing. Full bio coming soon.
Our approach
We combine operating experience with academic rigor. We care less about elegant questions than consequential ones: how platforms are governed and how they perform, and which design choices actually change how a marketplace is built, priced, and run. The goal is research a practitioner would act on, not just cite.