Platform businesses like Uber, Etsy, and Airbnb bring together customers who have complementary needs to a place where they can exchange value with one another. But a thriving platform can't be forced into existence. It must be cultivated like a garden. From ensuring fairness and trust, balancing innovation with regulation, and curating rights to intellectual property, these businesses must orchestrate a living system.

Today we are joined by Alex Komoroski. Alex is an expert in platform businesses with over a decade of hands-on experience as a leader and product manager, designing some of the most influential platforms, and thinking deeply about the principles underlying their success. He is an avid writer on project management, web standards, the power dynamics and creation of platforms, and other topics.

In this episode, Dart and Alex discuss:
- The structure and function of platforms in business
- The power dynamics of providers
- Embracing uncertainty at work instead of fearing it
- Employees as free agents
- Building a flourishing ecosystem around a platform
- Loosening boundaries at work
- The rules for creating effective communities
- The importance of play at work for creativity and innovation
- And other topics…

Alex Komoroske is an expert with over a decade of experience in project management and platforms, exploring the world of platform businesses and the keys to their success. As a former director and project manager for Google, Alex led the Google Chrome web platform product management team. He is the current Head of Corporate Strategy for Stripe.

Alex graduated from Harvard University, where his thesis focused on the emergent paradynamics of Wikipedia’s user community. He is an avid writer of various term papers, articles, blogs, and other publications on project management, web standards, and the power dynamics and creation of platforms.

Resources Mentioned:
The Doorbell in the Jungle, by Alex Komoroske: https://medium.com/@komorama/the-doorbell-in-the-jungle-cca22fbd78d0
The Flux Collective: https://read.fluxcollective.org/
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: https://www.pnas.org/
Talent Wants to Be Free, by Orly Lobel: https://www.amazon.com/Talent-Wants-Be-Free-Should/dp/0300166273
Next Now: https://www.next-now.org/

Connect with Alex:
www.komoroske.com 

Work with Dart:
Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what’s most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.