The success of platform businesses like Alibaba, Airbnb, and Uber is so remarkable that discussion about them often misses just how hard they are to build. For every successful platform, there are many more that struggle or simply don’t make it. Apple and Google, two of the world’s most valuable companies, have had their share…

Thumbtack, an online marketplace for home and other professional services, faces down a major conundrum of a fledgling platform company: how to build a customer base — fast.  Continue Reading

Venture investor Marc Andreessen famously wrote “software is now eating the world”— encoded intelligence dominates business. A new book (Platform Revolution) wants to update the slogan. Continue Reading

It’s no overstatement to say that the two-sided networked market–or platform–model is one of the most important economic and social developments of our time. The platform model powers many of today’s biggest and most disruptive companies, like Amazon and Airbnb, with others, like Nike, coming on board. Platforms use technology to connect people, organizations, and resources…

The U.S. Postal Service has lost $20 billion in the last two years as it struggles to adapt to a fast changing, increasingly digital business environment. Could the agency help right itself by taking a page from its online competitors? The Freeman School’s Geoff Parker thinks so. – See more at: http://freemanblog.freeman.tulane.edu/freemannews/index.php/can-smart-mail-help-solve-usps-woes/