Thomas Frank made hundreds of thousands of dollars off Notion. Here's how he did it.

Thomas Frank has always wanted to know more.

He went to college in 2009, a year in which the U.S. was struggling to recover from a nation-wrecking stock market crash and recession. His dad lost his job; his friends lost their jobs. He and his college peers were faced with a huge task: Graduate in four years, into a world of...