Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy, which explores the platform business model (Uber, Airbnb, Github). Alex is also the founder and CEO of Applico, a company that he started in his dorm room that is since grown into a huge enterprise that helps startups and Fortune 500 innovate with platforms. Alex and I talk about history and future of businesses and different types of business models. There’s a lot in here for investors, entrepreneurs, and historians. Please enjoy!

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

Books Referenced

Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy

The Systems Bible: The Beginner's Guide to Systems Large and Small

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Links Referenced

Failed Color App

Applico

Show Notes

2:39 – (first question) – Exploring the history of business models from linear to platform.

5:46 – A look at the share of overall business platform companies have taken over

7:06 - Modern Monopolies: What It Takes to Dominate the 21st Century Economy

7:48 – The potential for platform businesses over the next 20 years

9:18 – Detailing the difference between a linear and a platform business

12:08 – Exploring transaction costs and core transactions across different business models

19:49 – Is the platform business model good for investors and VC’s since so many can get crushed when there’s a sole victor, or is it just for the founders and entrepreneurs.

24:35 – How the self-driving car is going to deliver more opportunity for consumer consumption

27:15 – Untapped supplies as the opportunity for new platforms and where we could see new openings

30:24 – How consolidated will things become across all platforms

33:16 – How do platform companies create a moat to keep others from replicating their business strategy

37:03 – Are there platform strategies that specifically don’t work

37:40 - Failed Color App

38:45 – Why complex systems typically don’t scale up and you should think small and easy to get started

38:47 – The Systems Bible: The Beginner's Guide to Systems Large and Small

40:02 – How the origin of so many larger companies started out small and localized, and why it makes investors more comfortable

41:37 – How Alibaba had to tweak their business model to accommodate the Chinese market

44:07 – Why are the modern monopolies better for consumers

47:52 – Exploring platforms that are asset heavy

49:00 – What do you look for as a VC to determine

52:05 – Alex’s take on whether a platform based company like Uber should be more asset heavy

54:31 – Exploring some lesser known platform businesses that Alex finds interesting

56:18 – If there is a demand in the secondary markets for a product, why don’t the primary suppliers simply raise their prices

57:03 – What Alex’s portfolio of platform-based businesses would look like

58:48 – A couple of most influential books Alex has read

59:12 – The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

59:38 – Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future and other Peter Thiel books

59:53 – Looking at Applico, how it started and how it become so focused on the platform business model

1:03:56 - Most memorable day for Alex

1:05:13 – Kindest person to Alex in his life

1:06:10 – What platform opportunities could exist in the financial world

Learn More

For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.

Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub

Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag