Economics & Strategy Podcast

The episode contains useful frameworks (willingness to pay minus cost, resource-based view, platform vs. traditional models) and some practical observations about trading and education, but much of the runtime is devoted to biographical narrative, motivational philosophy, and relatively abstract discussion of strategy without concrete business application. The insights about AI, platform economics, and market-making are present but not densely packed - there's considerable throat-clearing around educational philosophy that doesn't directly illuminate business decision-making.

“information is the currency of the decision maker”

“you are not your major”

The core ideas - economics as a lens for decision-making, resource-based strategy, business model types (platforms, asset-light models) - are well-established in business literature. Thompson presents them competently but not with contrarian insight or first-principles challenge. His observation that AI is both threat and opportunity, and that platform switching costs create competitive moats, are sensible but not novel. The framing through education and personal narrative is somewhat fresh, but the strategic concepts themselves are canonical.

“They disperse the risk to others, which makes their model less risky”

“the network effect, uh, at this juncture, cannot be easily competed away”

Thompson is a clinical professor with trading experience (CBOE floor, summer internship in 1998-99, equity derivatives background) and involvement in angel investing, which gives him real market exposure. However, he is primarily an educator rather than an active operator at scale. He did not build or scale a significant business, and his trading experience ended around the financial crisis (2008). While credible and thoughtful, he is more of a thoughtful academic with market experience than a high-caliber active business practitioner operating at significant scale today.

“clinical professor of economics at DePaul and faculty member in the Business Strategy and Decision Making program”

“I worked, you know, I was on the floor and I moved to a firm that, you know, where my position was upstairs”

The episode relies heavily on anecdotes (CBOE floor experience, buying flooring for his house during inflation, Rice Krispie Treats analogy) but offers very few hard numbers, named companies, or concrete metrics. Thompson mentions 1998-99 trading floor experience, discusses trading commissions dropping from $29.95 to pennies, references Airbnb, LinkedIn, Facebook Marketplace, and AI tools, but does not provide specific case studies with data, dollar figures, or measurable outcomes from his teaching or advisory work. The examples illustrate concepts but lack the quantitative rigor a B2B operator would need.

“if you bought stock, it would not be uncommon for buying, you know, 100 shares of stock to cost you 29.95”

“I was at Governor State”

Host Rich Mullen asks reasonable setup questions and shows genuine curiosity, but the conversation rarely pushes Thompson into discomfort or challenges his framing. Mullen's questions are mostly open-ended invitations for Thompson to expand his narrative (e.g., "Tell us a little bit about them," "Tell me a little bit about what that experience did for you?"). There is minimal productive disagreement, few sharp follow-ups that test Thompson's claims, and the host largely affirms Thompson's viewpoints. The interview reads more as a sympathetic profile than a rigorous probe into strategy and business judgment.

“You hedged a little bit in describing what you're like. I will tell you, you are like that. You do present that way. That is who you are.”

“I like that question you asked, uh, of your class. It forces them to think about the trade offs that. Yeah, you're nodding.”