Podcasts about modern monopolies

Ever wondered how the big players in eCommerce like Instacart and DoorDash solved the classic 'chicken and egg' dilemma? Join us as we dive into the world of online marketplaces with Shirish Nadkarni, a mastermind behind successful startups, and unravel the secrets to thriving in a world dominated by digital giants.In this enlightening episode, we sit down with Shirish Nadkarni, the brain behind LiveMocha and a key figure in BlackBerry's internet email development. We delve into the intricacies of marketplace success, from overcoming initial hurdles faced by giants like Instacart to tackling the monopolistic tendencies of platforms like Amazon. Shirish sheds light on the evolution of managed marketplaces, the potential in B2B sectors, and strategies for eCommerce businesses to flourish outside the shadow of Amazon. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or just curious about the eCommerce world, this episode is packed with insights and strategies to help you navigate the competitive digital landscape.Key Takeaways:Marketplace Dynamics: Shirish highlights the innovative strategies used by Instacart and DoorDash to attract both suppliers and consumers, addressing the initial 'chicken and egg' problem faced by new marketplaces. He also discusses the evolution towards 'managed marketplaces' like Opendoor, which simplify transactions, showcasing the continuous transformation in the eCommerce sector.Beyond Amazon: For eCommerce businesses, Shirish advises exploring avenues beyond Amazon, given its high commission rates. He emphasises direct consumer selling and the need to balance customer lifetime value with acquisition costs. He also discusses the potential of B2B marketplaces, citing Convoy as a prime example of connecting trucking services with freight suppliers.Monopoly Risks and Niche Opportunities: The episode touches on the risks of successful marketplaces turning into monopolies, as seen with Amazon. Shirish encourages entrepreneurs to focus on niche categories or emerging markets to avoid direct competition with giants. He also suggests creative solutions for dealing with supplier resistance, like forming partnerships or exploring alternative channels.

Brian speaks with Shirish Nadkarni. Shirish is a serial entrepreneur creating multiple consumer businesses. He was the co-founder of Livemocha, the world's largest language learning site, and TeamOn Systems, a mobile wireless email pioneer that was acquired by BlackBerry. Shirish started at Microsoft where he engineered the acquisition of Hotmail and launched MSN.com. He serves on the board of TiE Seattle, where he chairs a number of programs, including the GoVertical Startup Creation Workshop, the TiE Entrepreneur Institute, and the Z5 Catalyst funding initiative. He talks about his book “WINNER TAKES ALL - Case Studies in How Online Marketplaces Are Creating Modern Monopolies”.

Today's guest = Shirish Nadkarni A serial entrepreneur with proven success in creating multiple consumer businesses that have scaled to tens of millions of users worldwide. Shirish was the co-founder of Livemocha, the world's largest language learning site with 15+ million registered members from over 200 countries. Livemocha was acquired by RosettaStone in 2013. Prior to Livemocha, Shirish was the founder of TeamOn Systems, a mobile wireless e-mail pioneer that was acquired by BlackBerry in 2002. The TeamOn technology served as the core foundation for Blackberry Internet E-mail which serviced over 50 million BlackBerry users. Shirish started his career at Microsoft where here engineered the acquisition of Hotmail and launched MSN.Com which became a leading web portal in the early days of the internet. Follow Shirish on social: https://www.shirishnadkarni.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/shirishn/ https://twitter.com/shirishn?lang=en Get the new book, Winner Takes All here - https://amzn.to/3BNmM6B Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyXIFu_U_h-3LCfRN26adIg/join --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hicksnewmedia/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hicksnewmedia/support

In this episode, I break down five to-dos if you want to create a product that gains market share fast. They include: make interactions easy, embed shareability, sponsor influencers, gamify the experience, and use data to drive decisions. These points were taken from The Cold Start Problem by Andrew Chen, but I also highly recommend another book called Modern Monopolies which explains more on how the platform economy is taking over. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Big tech platforms like Amazon have been dominating the industry for a while, but what will the future hold? How can smaller B2B platforms and brands win and compete when monopolies are controlling the game? Alex Moazed, Founder & CEO of Applico and the co-author of the book, Modern Monopolies, breaks it down on this episode.  Tune in to learn:How business models have evolved over the last 25 years (2:10)What is the future business model for platforms? (8:40)Platform opportunities for founders to take advantage of (17:00)How can B2B marketplaces disrupt distributors? (28:40)Mentions:Modern MonopoliesZero To OneAtlas Shrugged1984Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Learn more at http://www.salesforce.com/commerce Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at http://www.mission.org.

We spoke with Nick Johnson, co-author of Modern Monopolies and Managing Director at Applico, about marketplaces and the platform economy. In this episode we analyzed how big name brands such as Walmart, Best Buy, and Home Depot have fared while trying to compete with Amazon and the importance of making decisions that put you at the forefront of new digital

Nick and I welcome Jonathan A. Knee onto the show, author of The Platform Delusion: Who Wins and Who Loses in the Age of Tech Titans. Knee is Professor of Professional Practice and Co-Director of the Media and Technology Program at Columbia Business School and also a Senior Advisor at Evercore Partners. At a quick glance, The Platform Delusion appears to stand in opposition to Nick and I's book, Modern Monopolies. Tim Wu describes Jonathan's new book as "a jolting and often hilarious exposure of our delusions that teaches, once again, that the fundamentals of business may not have changed quite as much as you think they have." When we really dig down into Knee's "Core Tenets of the Platform Delusion" and discuss why platforms like Amazon and Google have become so dominant, we find a lot more alignment between Modern Monopolies and The Platform Delusion than one would initially think. One area we differ on is whether or not big tech companies are monopolies. We've often criticized U.S. antitrust regulator's focus on consumers while big tech runs rampant taking advantage of producers on platforms e.g. Amazon third-party sellers. For more on this topic, see our recent video on the FTC reshaping its anti competition arguments to take monopsony power into account. See more

Today we're discussing monopolies in the modern age. We'll understand what a monopoly is, how they operate and why they are detrimental to a free and open market, yet they are a unique product of capitalism. We'll take a brief look at the history of monopolies in American and how they've been handled before we look to the future with today's monopolies and the complications inherent in regulating them.

Modern Monopolies co-author Nick Johnson hops on the episode to discuss OnlyFans backpedaling on its decision to ban explicit content. Also covered in this episode, investors selling off Alibaba stock amid the Chinese tech crackdown, Walmart's activities in India with Flipkart, and Discord's continued valuation growth after declining a $15 billion acquisition offer from Microsoft. 00:00 - Subscribe for Tech & Business News Daily 00:30 - OnlyFans Backpedals Ban 04:10 - Alibaba Investor Exodus 07:42 - Walmart's Flipkart Investment 13:05 - India Tech Regulation 18:44 - Walmart GoLocal Delivery Service 22:19 - Discord Valuation Rises Originally Aired: 08/27/21 #Podcast #Tech #Business

Are platforms eating the world? How can entrepreneurs build a platform that brings value to their customers? Why are traditional monopolies despised and platform monopolies loved by customers? In this episode Dheeraj Pandey, industry superstar, Co-founder and CEO of DevRev and former CEO of Nutanix shares his insights about the book “Modern Monopolies”, authored by Alex Moazed and Nicholas L. Johnson. Listen to the podcast and discover the secrets to build successful companies and platform businesses.

Alex does an in-depth analysis of the centralized power of big tech using 1984, Star Wars, Modern Monopolies, and Rules For Radicals to draw parallels and exemplify concepts. Originally Aired: 05/11/21 #1984 #BigTech #Monopolies

Today we’re discussing monopolies in the modern age. We’ll understand what a monopoly is, how they operate and why they are detrimental to a free and open market, yet they are a unique product of capitalism. We’ll take a brief look at the history of monopolies in American and how they’ve been handled before we look to the future with today’s monopolies and the complications inherent in regulating them.Support the show (https://www.twitch.tv/insightsintothings)

We discuss the European Commission decision on Google's comparison shopping service. How will this affect the big tech firms and is breaking them up in order to open the market the correct approach?

Show from 1/15/21The show kicks off with Wharton Finance Professor Jeremy Siegel's latest takes on 2021 earnings, Biden regulations, jobless claims, COVID-19 vaccine distribution and more. Then Jeremy Schwartz discusses platform companies with an expert in the space. How are tech and content platform companies performing? What is the impact of Trumps ban on Chinese tech monopolies? Guest:Alex Moazed - Founder and CEO of Applico. In 2016, Macmillan published his book, Modern Monopolies, which defines the platform business model.Follow Alex on Twitter: @AlexMoazedCheck out his book "Modern Monopolies": https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Monopolies-Dominate-Century-Economy/dp/1250091896Visit the Applico Website: https://www.applicoinc.com/author/amoazed/Follow Jeremy Schwartz on Twitter: @JeremyDSchwartzAsk Siegel: If you have a pressing finance question we invite you to email us: asksiegel@wisdomtree.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Show from 7/31/20Host Jeremy Schwartz and WisdomTree Guest Hosts Kara Marciscano and Rafi Aviav talk to an expert on platform business models. They discuss the dual nature of these platforms: consumers and producers. The producers contribute the inventory that the the consumers come to the platform for. Think Youtube or Instagram. According to our guest, these platforms have a winner take all scale because it's difficult to overcome network effects. This conversation tries to codify and make sense of these large platform monopolies and provides insights into investing in the space.Guest:Alex Moazed - Founder and CEO of Applico. In 2016, Macmillan published his book, Modern Monopolies, which defines the platform business model.Follow Alex on Twitter: @AlexMoazedCheck out his book "Modern Monopolies": https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Monopolies-Dominate-Century-Economy/dp/1250091896Visit the Applico Website: https://www.applicoinc.com/author/amoazed/Wisdom Tree Growth Leaders Fund: https://www.wisdomtree.com/etfs/thematic/platThe WisdomTree Growth Leaders Fund* seeks to track the investment results of high growth, mid and large-cap companies leveraging platform-based business. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How a few companies own most of what you buy.

In the last few years, companies have made huge investments in digital transformation. Companies need to leverage these investments to unlock business model transformation. One of the most common business models that we see is this platform model. My guest this week, Alex Moazed, the founder and CEO of Applico wrote the definitive book on platform businesses, "Modern Monopolies". And now his firm operationalizes these insights inside incumbent businesses.

Alex opens the show looking at Verizons recent acquisition of video conferencing tool BlueJeans and breaks down what makes a communication tool a true platform. Next, he discusses Stripe's $600 million raise and Microsoft's new multi-year deal with the NBA. The show closes with a special offer for viewers interested in reading Modern Monopolies on a Kindle device. TIMESTAMPS: 00:16 - Verizon Acquires BlueJeans 00:32 - What is a Communication Platform 07:52 - Stripe Raise 10:10 - Microsoft NBA Deal 16:13 Modern Monopolies Giveaway UPDATE: It appears the sale on the Kindle edition of Modern Monopolies has ended. Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway!

The attorneys general of 48 out of the 50 US states have come together to challenge the control of the search giant over what we buy or view online. Manuela Saragosa speaks to the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones about why the US anti-trust authorities have decided to join their EU counterparts in taking on Google. Jonathan Tepper, author of the new book The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition, takes us through the history and significance of anti-trust legislation. But are anti-monopoly laws equipped to deal with the tech giants of today? And can these companies even be called monopolies? We'll also hear from Sally Hubbard of the Open Markets Institute, and Alex Moazed, co-author of the 2016 book Modern Monopolies. (Picture: The Google logo displayed through a magnifying glass; Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images)

Platforms are disrupting traditional industries at a rapid speed, becoming modern day monopolies.  In this episode of Platform Players, Applico’s Nick Johnson discusses the state of the platform economy and how players can gain their own competitive edge. 

Nick Johnson is the Principal at Applico; he is also the co-author of the best selling book “Modern Monopolies,” which is incredible reading to understand the business model that is dominating today’s business world. With Nick, we explored the dynamics of platform business models. Contents How did you get to study business modeling and the platform business models? How has the business world changed since platform business models dominate? What is a diseconomy of scale? How have economies of scale changed in a world dominated by platform business models? What’s the definition of a platform business model? What is the core transaction? Why is the core transaction so crucial for a platform business model? How are platform business models primarily categorized? Are traditional business strategy tools like Porter’s five forces still useful? How do you build network effects? Uber network effects case study How do you know when you reached the critical mass to scale? Do platform business models create more prominent and larger markets? What’s the critical difference between a modern monopoly to an old monopoly? Is scale an essential element for any platform business model? What suggestion do you have for anyone starting a platform business model from scratch? Key takeaways

Nick Johnson is the Principal at Applico; he is also the co-author of the best selling book “Modern Monopolies,” which is incredible reading to understand the business model that is dominating today’s business world. With Nick, we explored the dynamics of platform business models. Contents How did you get to study business modeling and the platform business models? How has the business world changed since platform business models dominate? What is a diseconomy of scale? How have economies of scale changed in a world dominated by platform business models? What’s the definition of a platform business model? What is the core transaction? Why is the core transaction so crucial for a platform business model? How are platform business models primarily categorized? Are traditional business strategy tools like Porter’s five forces still useful? How do you build network effects? Uber network effects case study How do you know when you reached the critical mass to scale? Do platform business models create more prominent and larger markets? What’s the critical difference between a modern monopoly to an old monopoly? Is scale an essential element for any platform business model? What suggestion do you have for anyone starting a platform business model from scratch? Key takeaways

Show from 5/24/19 In this episode of the Behind the Markets podcast host Jeremy Schwartz talks to the Founder and CEO of Applico, a company that helps new and existing businesses build their own platforms. He’ll explain that while a traditional business model creates value through linear supply chain production, a platform business is non-linear and can connect interdependent groups of consumers and producers. Companies like Amazon, Walmart and Microsoft have made the switch—so is this the business model you should consider for your company? GuestsAlex Moazed, Founder of Applico. He founded Applico in 2009 when he was 20 years old and funded the company with his own credit cards. Alex co-authored the best-selling book, Modern Monopolies, which defines the platform business model dominating the 21st century economy. In his role as CEO, he works directly with Fortune 500 C-suites and boards to help them build or buy their own platform businesses. Alex is a graduate of Babson College, Choate Rosemary Hall and Greenwich Country Day School.For more on Applico visit this link: https://www.applicoinc.com/Rafi Aviav - Head Of Product Development at WisdomTree in Europe. He has an MBA in Analytic (Quantitative) Finance from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, as well as a BA in economics from Tel Aviv University. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We’ll start off tonight’s show with an article from The Hill about whether or not Political Correctness is going to ruin Classic Films. Then our old friend, Kyle (@HNIJohnMiller) should be dropping by at some point to talk about Apple, Facebook, censorship, App Store price-gouging, and Anti-Trust Laws: How can the great monopolies of our time be brought to heel without empowering the government? It is a baseball-shortened so, but I think we are going to hit some GREAT points tonight and hopefully have a few moments left over for one or two callers. Sponsor the Show: Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/QuiteFrankly One-Time Gift: http://www.paypal.me/QuiteFranklyLive SubscribeStar: https://www.subscribestar.com/quitefrankly BTC: 1EafWUDPHY6y6HQNBjZ4kLWzQJFnE5k9PK LTC: LRs6my7scMxpTD5j7i8WkgBgxpbjXABYXX ETH: 0x80cd26f708815003F11Bd99310a47069320641fC Episodes On Demand: iTunes: http://apple.co/2dMURMq SoundCloud: http://bit.ly/2dTMD13 Google Play: https://bit.ly/2SMi1SF Stitcher: https://bit.ly/2tI5THI BitChute: https://bit.ly/2vNSMFq Official WebSite: http://www.QuiteFranklyPodcast.com DISCORD Hangout: https://bit.ly/2FpkS11 Quite Frankly Subreddit: https://bit.ly/2HdvzEC Steemit: https://bit.ly/2FrNkyi Twitter: @PoliticalOrgy MINDS: @QuiteFrankly Live On: Periscope: https://bit.ly/2FmsOzQ Twitch: https://bit.ly/2TGAeB6 YouTube: https://bit.ly/2exPzj4 DLive: https://bit.ly/2PpY0k0

[REPLAY] 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

Matt Stoller of the Open Market Institute talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the growing influence of Google, Facebook, and Amazon on commercial and political life. Stoller argues that these large firms have too much power over our options as consumers and creators as well as having a large impact on our access to information.

This week’s episode is part of an experiment and so requires a longer than normal introduction. I’ve come to view this podcast as a learning tool, a means to understand a new topic in a short window of time. One of those areas is venture capital and startups—an area that one year ago was completely foreign to me. I think the best way to learn is aggressive immersion in a topic along with some consequences, what we often call some skin in the game. Accordingly, this is a conversation with the founder of a startup in which I am an investor. I say this in full disclosure because I believe in being very transparent with you, but also obviously want this business to do well. Part of the reason I invested was because I thought I could affect the outcome of the business personally, in part by exposing the model and ideas to you all. I deeply respect your opinions and collective breadth of knowledge, and welcome thoughts you have on this topic.  The founder is Brett Maloley and his company is called Ladder. Ladder represents an overlap of many topics we’ve explore together over the last year. We’ve talked about venture capital, health and wellbeing, the difficultly of fundraising and power law outcomes in startups. We also spent an entire episode, with Alex Moazed, talking about the business model that Ladder is pursing: what Alex calls platform business model and what my favorite technology writer Ben Thompson calls the Aggregator model. Alex wrote the book Modern Monopolies about this model, which describes how companies like Uber, Airbnb, and others serve clients. Platform companies sit at the intersection between consumers and producers in a given category, helping make life easier, cheaper, and/or better for consumers and more profitable and flexible for producers. But the value creation itself is about the facilitating the exchange of value more efficiently than it is about actually creating the underlying product. Airbnb, for example, doesn’t own real estate (the value in this case), but they unlock the potential of real estate owned by others.  Same for Uber which, so far, doesn’t own cars. As Alex explained to me in our discussion, a key sign of a market which might benefit from a platform company is some form of latent, untapped supply. Which brings me back to Ladder. The company is being built to unlock latent potential in fitness and potentially other types of coaching. Personal trainers are typically on the job [or; "at work'] 11 horus a day, of which four on average are downtime. That is the untapped supply. Ladder will allow two key things: much cheaper access to a real fitness coach for consumers who don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars a month in the current format, and a way for trainers with lots of free time to both get new customers and to better engage with their existing customers. Think of it almost like Opentable—which started as a way for restaurants to better manage their reservations, but turned into a liquid market for consumers to make reservations.  The reason this is so interesting, I think, is the enormous size of the commercial fitness industry and the fact that it hasn’t changed for a long time. I love people who have an almost bizarre level of knowledge in a niche field, and Brett certainly fits that bill. He grew up with the industry, his mentors and relatives having literally build the commercial fitness industry, what we think of today as gyms and personal training. He knows how this legacy model works and ticks, the flaws and benefits of different business models, and why the future might be different, with a much larger percent of the population using a fitness coach, and maybe other types of coaches, in categories like nutrition and health.  To see the app in action and get paired with a coach, Brett kindly set up a promo code of sorts like you often hear on other podcasts. If you search for “ladder coach” in the app store, download the app, and then use the promo code ILTB (as in, invest like the best) you’ll get 50% off the service forever. I don’t get any cut of that at all. Brett and his team are data heads, and their main goal early in this company’s life is to generate data on the relationships between consumers and their new coaches to figure out what works best for both groups to constantly improve the service, so the early adopters among you get a permanent discount.  Now this will be obvious, but nothing about what I do personally is investment advice—it should not be mimicked. Like my investment in bitcoin, this investment represents a small part of my portfolio, and as always I think the majority of anyone’s portfolio should be balanced and well-priced. I do not expect that I have any skill at selecting startups, as probably very few people do. But I know that having some skin in the game means you learn differently: more efficiently, and faster. I hope you enjoy this collective experiment, which is largely the result of what I’ve learned from past guests and from all of your support which helps me meet those great people in the first place. Let’s dive in to my conversation with the founder of Ladder, Brett Maloley, who starts by describing how he got his start in the fitness world.   For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/ladder For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier. 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   Show Notes 5:25 – (First question) – Brett describes his history in the fitness industry 10:04 – Realized he could fix the commercial fitness industry by changing it 12:46 – Explain how Ladder works 14:14 – What does the ratio of digital to in-person coaching need to be in order to be effective coaching 17:12 – Explaining the platform business model as a whole and how to scale these types of business 22:15 – Origin of health clubs 24:01 – Current state of the health fitness space through some key stats 26:44 – What happened where gyms were able to start charging a lot less for memberships 30:20 – How Ladder is going to attract customers in the beginning 36:10 – How to drive engagement 37:46 – The opportunity for coaches on the platform 40:28 – How will ladder ensure the quality of coaches on the platform remains high 42:41 – Exploring the value of the data 45:32 – How will Ladder work with gyms in the scope of how a new business can take advantage of existing businesses 48:58 – Comparing Ladder to crossfit and what is not sustainable about  53:14 – Difference between a franchise model vs a license model 55:12 – Strategy for building an audience 59:56 – Competitors to this business 1:03:39 – Brett’s thoughts on brand broadly speaking and how he’s worked to shape Ladder’s brand 1:05:00 – Best individual experience of the platform so far  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

For All the Tea in China http://amzn.to/2u9Mam1 is a wonderful book. It covers the 1800 East India Company, Robert Fortune (and his forgotten wife!), and how to succeed in England without even dying. We'll touch on only a few parts of Fortune's story. Modern Monopolies http://amzn.to/2uj8REC makes the case that it's platform businesses that will rule the day. I guess that YouTube is the best of these. We also look at 6 things platforms need to do (#5 is no naked men).

My guest this week is Alex Moazed, the co-author of 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 comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/alex/ 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

In today’s episode I sit down with Brett Maloley, Co-Founder and CEO of Ladder. Brett grew up in the fitness industry with his father being an owner of health clubs and an owner of an equipment distribution company. Brett uncovered his passion for the fitness industry when he realized he wasn’t going to become a professional athlete and spent time working for his father’s friend in the fitness industry selling flooring. From there Brett went on to start multiple companies in the fitness industry with Ladder being his third. Ladder connects individuals to health and wellness professionals through digital coaching. Ladder uses what it defines as the four ‘rungs’ ,fitness, nutrition, sleep quality, and stress management, to make up a happy and healthy lifestyle.   In this episode, Brett shares among other things:                 Why he wanted to start a platform based business                 How Ladder uses cognitive behavioral therapy to help identify the needs of the user                 Why the commercial fitness industry needs to change in order to survive                 What’s most important to him when hiring                 Why being an entrepreneur is something you’re called not something you call yourself   Links from this episode:                 Rise                 Fitocracy                 Slack                 Calendly                 Producteev                 Intercom                 Audible                 The Hard Thing About Hard Things                 The Icarus Deception                 Start with Why                 Disrupted                 The Buy Side                 The Third Wave                 Applico                 Modern Monopolies                 Ladder on Instagram                 Ladder on Twitter                 Ladder on Facebook   If you liked this episode: Follow the podcast on Twitter Subscribe on iTunes or your podcast app and write a review Get in touch with feedback, ideas, or to say hi: nic {AT} startupbostonpodcast [DOT] com