Modern Monopolies

“My guest is Alex Moset and the book in question is Modern Monopolies which explores the platform business model. Think Uber, Airbnb, or GitHub and also explores the history of business in general. Most non-fiction books are three times too long but I wish this one had been longer.”

“And modern monopolies is one of a fairly small list in that group. It's a fantastic book and it kicked off for me an interesting journey into the history of the corporation. So I'm going to read a quote, which, which I came across in, in some of my reading, which I think is really interesting.”

“And that was a lesson from your book as well, that in the platform business model, the early days, it just struck me that you have to be a hustler, right? Um, you have to really focus on a niche. Uh, you have to really do right by the early adopters, um, like open table did”

“I want to come back then to my earlier question, which we didn't get into, which is the title of the books, Modern Monopolies. Monopoly has a negative connotation, meaning people are getting fleeced because, you know, standard oil has cornered the market in oil”

“And I always appreciate when books are make you think of questions and then go there, go to the actual answers to those questions. Um, and it really, the book really does that. So, so I highly recommend people read it.”

“Alex wrote the book Modern Monopolies about this model which describes how companies like Uber, Airbnb and others serve their clients.”

“It makes me think about the role of stress in a couple of different ways. So you mentioned this idea of a great way to find a good business, the Pritzker Brothers. It was also in this book, Modern Monopolies, which I'm a big preacher of the value of this book.”

“So it takes at least 10 years for these businesses to really hit a point of strong critical mass or the book I co-authored called Modern Monopolies, essentially to become that modern monopoly for these network effects and winner take all dynamics, which we'll discuss.”

“And while putting together the book and actually doing this work, helping to build platforms from an advisory and an execution standpoint, from a product development and user acquisition standpoint.”