AbstractsBusiness Management & Administration

Businesses have been forced to restructure and evolve their operations because of disruptive technologies and the growth of FinTech. Along with this there has been a growing number of successful firms that are offering subscription as a service (or SaaS) software rather than purchasing a traditional license. ItsPayd has the potential to be in a prime position to make the company a viable target for an acquisition by a bank, credit union, or financial technology firm such as PayPal. The paper examines businesses in the industries of e-commerce, disruptive technologies, and SaaS to gain an understanding of their growth rates, transaction volume and related acquisitions. Then the project moves on to recommend a hybrid sales channel approach for ItsPayd and how to implement a partnership program for the indirect sales channel. Also included is a representation of growth in related industries by looking at Gartner hype curves as well as an examination of disruptive technologies and their growth. The paper further dives into financial technology companies and breaks down their expansion in the marketplace. With that there is also investigation of FinTech acquisitions in an attempt to understand the potential value of ItsPayd. ItsPayd also recently launched a peer-to-peer lending platform called TewYu and the paper provides a short comparison of TewYu with Venmo. To conclude, the research considers recommendation of potential industries ItsPayd could offer their services to, with suggestions for organic and aggressive growth. Advisors/Committee Members: Grooms, David (advisor), Hammerly, James (committeemember).