Acquired

For the entire 20th Century, you’d be hard pressed to find a better business than an American newspaper — Warren Buffett famously described them as “franchises” — and no American newspaper stood taller than the New York Times. Controlled by a single family bound by a legal oath “to maintain the editorial independence and integrity of The New York Times and to continue it as an independent newspaper, entirely fearless, free of ulterior influence and unselfishly devoted to the public welfare”, the Times served as the paper of record for generations of Americans and people around the world. But no good thing lasts forever, and the dawn of the 21st Century saw both the Times and this once-mighty industry devastated by the dual disruptive forces of the internet and the 2008 financial crisis. And yet by 2021, The Times, essentially alone of its former peers, has reemerged from the American newspaper wreckage and transformed itself into a thriving digital business with an order of magnitude more subscribers than its print heyday. Curious how it all happened? We dive into 170 years of history to find out! 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

The New York Times Company Playbook is available on our website at https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/the-new-york-times-company

Links:

• The 2014 NYT Innovation Report: https://archive.org/details/pdfy-59s-4-I2qSvG6MnA/mode/2up
• Mine Safety Disclosures’ NYT presentation: https://minesafetydisclosures.com/blog/newyorktimes

Carve Outs:

Ben:

• Titan by Ron Chernow:  https://www.amazon.com/Titan-Life-John-Rockefeller-Sr-ebook/dp/B000XUDGHG
• Iteratively: https://iterative.ly

David:

• Sabaa Tahir’s Ember in the Ashes series: https://www.amazon.com/Ember-Ashes-3-Book/dp/B074VDZB17

We cover Sequoia Capital a lot on this show. Not only across our now four(!) dedicated episodes, but across a stunning nearly 50% of recent season companies where Sequoia was a primary or only investor — the most of any venture firm by an enormous margin. Today in this very special episode, we dive into the principles that have led to the firm's 49 years of unparalleled success in venture, and the playbook behind how they identify markets and companies that create outcomes worthy of the firm's namesake tree.

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

The Sequoia Capital Playbook is available on our website at https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/special-sequoia-capitals-investment-playbook-with-alfred-lin

Links:

• Our two-part Sequoia history: 
  • Part I: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-1
  • Part II:  https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-ii-with-doug-leone
• Don Valentine's talk at Stanford GSB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKN-abRJMEw&t=2555s
• Our conversation about Sequoia's Black Swan Memo with Roelof Botha: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoias-black-swan-memo

We had to do it. After 12 years and 3,000,000x appreciation, we kick off Season 8 with the best investment of all-time and our biggest episode ever: Bitcoin. From the first bitcoin transaction of 10k for two Papa John's pizzas (worth about $350m today!!) to $40k+ BTC and maybe the moon beyond, we cover the whole crazy, improbable journey of how a single 8-page PDF document changed the world of money — and perhaps the world itself — forever. 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

The Bitcoin Playbook is available on our website at https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/bitcoin

Links:

• Satoshi's Whitepaper: https://www.bitcoin.com/bitcoin.pdf
• Matt Huang's "Bitcoin for the Open-Minded Skeptic": https://www.paradigm.xyz/Bitcoin_For_The_Open_Minded_Skeptic.pdf
• Nellie Bowles's "Everyone Is Getting Hilariously Rich and You’re Not":  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/style/bitcoin-millionaires.html
• Square’s $50m investment in BTC:  https://images.ctfassets.net/2d5q1td6cyxq/5sXNrlEh2mEnTvvhgtYOm2/737bcfdc15e2a1c3cbd9b9451710ce54/Square_Inc._Bitcoin_Investment_Whitepaper.pdf

Episode Sources: 

• Full list of episode sources available here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/16QCDNm2qzG3Bn5h1j1KXisxL_JGT7egDx7czX9ThHLY/edit?usp=sharing 

As regular listeners know, we typically cover some of the biggest companies who often receive the most media attention (see Airbnb and DoorDash). But today's episode is a little different. In our conversation with Courtland Allen of Indie Hackers, the largest community of startup founders, we dive into the stories of underdogs. What happens when there are millions of people doing small business entrepreneurship? How does anyone having access to the globally addressable market of 3 billion internet users open the door for the niche-est of products? We tell the story of Courtland’s own “Indie Hacker” journey, how he came to found Indie Hackers itself, and the lessons learned along the way. 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Playbook Themes from this episode are available on our website at https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/special-acquired-x-indie-hackers

Links:

• Indie Hackers: https://www.indiehackers.com

Over 13 years after its founding, one of the defining startup companies of the past decade finally makes its public debut — and boy was it a big one. But for all the hype (and all the legitimately great things Airbnb has accomplished), this is a company that looks very different today than in the past. Even before COVID, Airbnb's once-exponential bookings growth had declined to linear levels while the company's costs continued to balloon at accelerating rates. What’s going on here? Are public investors smart to bet on a permanent shift in travel behavior coming out of the pandemic? Or is this a case of unrealistic expectations? As always, we dive in. 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Playbook Themes from this episode are available on our website at https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/airbnb

Carve Outs:

• David — San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker: https://www.sfballet.org/productions/nutcracker-online/
• Ben — Star Wars Lofi HipHop:  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5iu1sp3UBb1rjf8KNKETtJ?si=WxPdJcRpSnelHN9qh0xYSw

Live from the scene of its blockbuster IPO, we recount the crazy, roller coaster journey of this "Palo Alto delivery company". From Sand Hill darling during their Series A and B fundraises to all but left-for-dead during the great unicorn massacre of 2015/16, DoorDash has clawed their way back from the brink and emerged as America's dominant meal delivery service, and its only unit-economic positive standalone logistics player. Is this the dawn of the next great Amazon-like story, or is the company simply benefiting from temporary tailwinds due to the pandemic? As always, we dive DEEP to find out. 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Playbook Themes from this episode are available on our website at https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/doordash

Carve Outs:

David:

• Hades on the Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/hades-switch/

Ben:

• Watchmen on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/watchmen
• Succession on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/succession
• Palm Springs: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9484998/

Acquired is live on the scene covering Salesforce's blockbuster $27.7B acquisition of Slack, with the help of the internet's #1 Slack bull (and top internet analyst in his own right), Packy McCormick of Not Boring. We dissect the deal itself, Slack's relatively short life as a public company, the impact of Microsoft and Teams, and most importantly what this means for enterprise SaaS startups broadly. And oh yeah — we have a ton of fun too. :)

Note: you can find our full June 2019 episode on Slack's history and their DPO here: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/the-slack-dpo

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Playbook Themes from this episode are available on our website at https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/slack-salesforce-emergency-pod-with-packy-mccormick-of-not-boring

Links:

• Not Boring: https://notboring.substack.com
• Packy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/packyM
• Packy's bull thesis on Slack from November 2020: https://notboring.substack.com/p/slack-the-bulls-are-typing

Live from the 2020 ASCEND Space Conference, Acquired covers the full story behind the most "out there" technology story of the past few years: Virgin Galactic. How did this space tourism company grow out of the winning X Prize team, and catch the eyes and fancy of billionaires like Paul Allen, Sir Richard Branson, and, most recently, company chairman Chamath Palihapitiya who took it public via the first "modern" technology SPAC transaction in history? Tune in to find out!! 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Playbook Themes from this episode are available on our website at https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/virgin-galactic 

Links:

• Virgin Galactic's "One Small Step" reservation program: https://www.virgingalactic.com/smallstep/
• The November 2020 launch delay:  https://www.virgingalactic.com/articles/virgin-galactic-adjusts-test-flight-schedule-in-response-to-new-state-government-covid-19-restrictions/

Superstar past guest and Superhuman CEO Rahul Vorha joins us for a deep dive on how Superhuman applies concepts from game design to building productivity software. We're not talking points and badges — we mean hardcore, Unreal Engine-style technical innovations and Fortnite-level understanding of fun and mastery. It's a topic where Rahul has serious cred: before Superhuman and Rapportive, he worked as a game designer on RuneScape, the pioneering browser-based MMORPG. This is a topic every founder, engineer, product and even sales person should listen to. Tune in! 

You can listen to Part I of our Superhuman story with Rahul here: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/superhuman

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Playbook Themes from this Episode available on our website at  https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/special-superhuman-part-ii-designing-software-to-feel-like-a-game-with-rahul-vohra )

A week before the 2020 US Presidential election, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo joins us to tell the story of a company that has impacted all of our lives (political and otherwise) like none other. While it's easy to forget now, a very viable alternate history exists where it's Twitter, not Facebook, who owns Instagram, and Vine, not TikTok, that's the global platform for mobile video. We dive into it all on this episode — and of course while we had Dick, we also had to discuss his controversial recent deleted tweet. 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

New! We're codifying our own Playbook notes and takeaways from each episode, and posting them on our website. You can read them at: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/twitter-with-dick-costolo

Links:

• Ashish Goel at Stanford: https://web.stanford.edu/~ashishg/twitter.html
• Dick and Adam's new firm, 01 Advisors: https://01a.com/

Carve Outs:

• Vote! https://www.vote.org

On this special episode of Acquired, we're joined by a master interviewer himself, Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like the Best. We turn the tables and cover the most fascinating story he's never told on ILTB... his own! What is O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, and how are they bringing "AWS-level" innovation to the sleepy wealth management industry? How did he go from Notre Dame philosophy major to quant researcher to (arguably) technology CEO and now also an early-stage venture investor... all while simultaneously building one of the world's top new business media empires? Acquired is here to explore it all. 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Playbook Special! Patrick’s Favorite Themes from 5 Years of ILTB:

• Chetan Puttagunta (#1): Go slow to go fast — http://investorfieldguide.com/chetan/
• Chetan Puttagunta (#2): Open source isn’t about saving on R&D, it’s about building differentiated distribution among developers —  http://investorfieldguide.com/chetan-puttagunta-and-jeremiah-lowin-open-source-crash-course-invest-like-the-best-ep-188/
• Bill Gurley: Healthy marketplace opportunities have increasing marginal value to demand from incremental supply penetration — http://investorfieldguide.com/gurley/
• Matthew Ball: The key to unlocking the Metaverse isn’t about building Ready Player One, it’s about creating interoperable systems that will move value and information between experiences —  http://investorfieldguide.com/matt-ball-the-future-of-media-movies-the-metaverse-and-more-invest-like-the-best-ep-185/
• Charlie Songhurst: The best place to look for talent is in less-competitive markets — http://investorfieldguide.com/songhurst/
• Katrina Lake: The past of e-commerce was about price, convenience and selection; the future is about personalization and curation —  http://investorfieldguide.com/katrina-lake-the-next-wave-of-e-commerce-invest-like-the-best-ep-187/
• Daniel Ek: Company scaling as “seeing around corners” — http://investorfieldguide.com/ek/
• Kat Cole: Inversion as a tool to deal with difficult people —  http://investorfieldguide.com/kat-cole-how-to-operate-lessons-in-brand-distribution-and-leadership-invest-like-the-best-ep-184/
• Sarah Tavel: Hierarchy as a framework — http://investorfieldguide.com/tavel/
• Josh Wolfe: The “directional arrow of progress” and the simple power of extrapolating trend lines — http://investorfieldguide.com/wolfe2/

Links:

• Invest Like the Best: http://investorfieldguide.com/podcast/
• Founder's Field Guide: http://investorfieldguide.com/founders-field-guide/
• OSAM and Canvas: https://www.osam.com

On the eve of the 2020 NBA Finals, we dive DEEP into the history and business model of the league behind the world's 2nd largest and fastest growing major sport. How did the NBA grow from merely an excuse to monetize hockey arena off-nights into a global powerhouse with more reach and influence and reach than any other American sport? Tune in!! 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

New! We're codifying our own Playbook notes and takeaways from each episode, and posting them on our website. Check them out at: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/the-nba

Links:

• Our old LA Clippers episode: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/episode-36-the-la-clippers
• The Last Dance: https://www.netflix.com/title/80203144
• Allen Iverson Players' Tribune piece:  https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/life-and-times-of-allen-iverson

Carve Outs:

David:

• Phil Libin and Mmhmm on Joe Sweeny's Just Raised podcast: https://overcast.fm/+hJ7uJqHMA

Ben:

• Meow Wolf + documentary https://meowwolf.com/explore/origin-story

Acquired teams up with the My First Million podcast for a “best of both worlds” crossover episode. First we go deep, “Acquired style”, on the wild story of MFM host Shaan Puri’s bought, sold, and then bought-again OG social networking site Bebo, and then we turn the tables and brainstorm startup ideas and investing themes “MFM style”. This episode was frankly a blast to do. We hope you have as much fun listening as we did recording!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Links:

• My First Million‘s website: https://thehustle.co/my-first-million-podcast/

We go deep behind the "epic" story of a plucky game developer from Cary, North Carolina (by way of Potomac, Maryland) which, after bootstrapping for its first 22 years, has quietly morphed into an $18b juggernaut that may become the most important technology company for the next evolution of the internet. And oh yeah, its founder, CEO and controlling shareholder? He cares more about land conservation than he does about money, he's beholden to no one and has the firepower of China's biggest internet giant behind him, and he's willing to stare down Apple, Google and anyone else who doesn't support his vision of an open and equal-opportunity internet future in a fight to the death. You'll want to buckle your seats for this one!! 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

New! We're codifying our own Playbook notes and takeaways from each episode and posting them on our website. Check it out:  www.acquired.fm/episodes/epic-games

Links:

• MTV Cribs, "Tim Sweeney Edition": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRGUKMKadJ8

Carve Outs:

• Ben's "3 part carve out": 
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bErPsq5kPzE - original video demo of Unreal Engine for filmmaking
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUnxzVOs3rk - Feb 2020, video on "The Volume"
  • https://ascmag.com/articles/the-mandalorian
• David 
  • Asimov's Foundation Series:  https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Asimovs-Foundation-Foundations-Prelude/dp/B01EFDEMS8

Sources: (available on Journal at  https://usejournal.com/app/space/journal:space:project/7efa6d43-a601-4784-8e36-1edda2b1b451 )

We're joined by two very special guests, Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz and her cofounder, spouse and Eventbrite Chairman Kevin Hartz, to tell their story of building Eventbrite together (along with their lives and family) from the PayPal diaspora to bootstrapped business, unicorn status, IPO and now starting all over again in the wake of COVID with both a tragedy and a huge new opportunity in front of them as public company. 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

New! We're codifying our own Playbook notes and takeaways from each episode, and posting them here in the show notes and on our website. You can read them below or at: www.acquired.fm/episodes/eventbrite

Playbook

• Seeing the next technology wave before others do is rare. It provides a roadmap for what to build and invest in if you're willing to bet on that knowledge. 
  • Kevin worked at Silicon Graphics in the mid 90's. This led him to realize that internet services like PayPal, YouTube, and many others would be possible long before others (similar to Don Valentine realizing computers would penetrate every industry from his time at Fairchild).
• PayPal and its subsequent "mafia" was successful in part because of rapid experimentation. They observed what got used by customers and then doubled down. 
  • PayPal's "core" use case on eBay started as an experiment. International money transfer (Xoom) and event ticketing (Eventbrite) also initially started as experiments on the PayPal API before the eBay acquisition — and went on to become large companies.
  • Julia, Kevin, and their cofounder Renaud had a prototype of Eventbrite running and serving customers even before starting the company — which gave them the confidence to do what seemed crazy on paper, but was actually "de-risked": start a company as an engaged couple, have a remote technical cofounder, bootstrap for 2 years after being turned down by VCs, etc.
  • When a company is experiencing explosive growth, they often need to leave other huge opportunities on the table. PayPal knew international remittances could be huge, but didn't build it internally because of the need to focus on eBay merchants.
• The TAM for bringing an offline behavior offline is often WAY bigger than anything you can calculate beforehand. The range and size of what were previously niche or impossible use cases will often expand dramatically with easy-to-use online tools. This is especially true in long-tail use cases that can only be aggregated by self-serve internet-based software. 
  • One early encouraging sign for Eventbrite was its use to host speed dating events in New York. Before Eventbrite, it was nearly impossible to organize, promote, and charge for something like that. Now, organizers could suddenly become entrepreneurs and make real money hosting events like this. Most VCs ignored or were confused by this data (~"Call us when you attack Ticketmaster."), but they missed that it unlocked a massive new market which previously operated only through word-of-mouth and cash transactions (if at all).
  • All three major dislocations of the 21st century — the tech bubble bursting in 2001, the financial crisis in 2008, and now COVID in 2020 — have only accelerated offline behaviors to online. COVID is unlocking a new wave of online event entrepreneurs for Eventbrite in the same way the financial crisis unlocked a wave of in-person event entrepreneurs in 2008-10.
• Starting with just one niche can be incredibly powerful; often your customers will then lead you to more. 
  • Before the speed-dating in New York (which was fully inbound), Eventbrite was used to organize tech meetups in the then-smaller tech community in SF. It was even used for the first TechCrunch Disrupt!
• Too much capital (and too little accountability) can hurt a company much more than help it. Capital covers up problems, distracts focus from customers, and leads to poor resource allocation. 
  • Kevin: "The periods where we had raised the most money privately were the hardest and most difficult for me, because we were really fighting this gravity of overspending and creating inefficiency. And it took us away from our roots as a capital-efficient, highly-effective perpetual motion machine [that we'd had as a bootstrapped company]."
• Being a public company not only instills more capital allocation discipline, but can ALSO afford a degree of financial flexibility that just isn't possible as a private company. 
  • Within weeks of COVID hitting, Eventbrite dramatically shrunk the size and scope of the company AND raised $375m in new capital from new and longterm shareholders. Both actions would have been difficult to impossible as a private company with a static valuation (and associated anti-dilution, ratchet terms, etc) that no longer reflected the reality of the current situation.

We kick off Season 7 with a bang: Pinduoduo, the incredible five year-old Chinese mashup of "Costco and Disneyland" (as self-described in their IPO prospectus) which recently became the fastest company ever to pass $100B market capitalization. What makes PDD so special, and how were they able to enter a market that everyone considered "already won" and disrupt massive entrenched competitors Alibaba and JD.com? This story is chock-full of lessons that apply not only to China tech, but to high-growth company building and investing everywhere. 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
• Join the Slack
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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Links:

• Photo of 26 year-old Colin at lunch with Warren Buffett: https://thelowdown.momentum.asia/cv-of-pinduoduos-founder/
• PDD users on mini-programs vs other Chinese e-commerce players: https://miro.medium.com/max/1080/0*39fpSP_JqhDaPhQ2.png

Carve Outs

• How to Make a Spaceship https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Spaceship-Renegades-Spaceflight/dp/1594206724
• Creativity, Inc. https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Inc-Overcoming-Unseen-Inspiration/dp/0812993012/

Sources:

• http://investor.pinduoduo.com/static-files/468b2c9f-9112-410d-84b3-2b22e07c7ee0
• http://investor.pinduoduo.com/static-files/5539839d-0a1c-4d40-9bb7-bdb490e2370c
• https://analyse.asia/2018/08/09/episode-260-pinduoduo-their-upcoming-ipo-in-china-with-matthew-brennan/
• https://analyse.asia/2020/06/28/pinduoduo-on-social-ecommerce-agriculture-with-xinyi-lim/
• https://blog.ycombinator.com/pinduoduo-and-the-rise-of-social-e-commerce
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinduoduo#cite_note-8
• https://hans.vc/pinduoduo/
• https://medium.com/@clarkboyd/pinduoduo-everything-you-need-to-know-about-pdd-chinas-third-biggest-ecommerce-site-38ac42086e47
• https://overcast.fm/+HWy7CWz34
• https://overcast.fm/+I8dmHF4NU
• https://overcast.fm/+PLdRNCiCg
• https://overcast.fm/+TmYdC1VPQ
• https://overcast.fm/+TmYfSO3sc
• https://targetchina.com.au/article/how-pinduoduo-successfully-gained-market-share-through-social-commerce/
• https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/26/the-incredible-rise-of-pinduoduo/
• https://technode.com/2020/05/12/pinduoduo-growth-story-needs-a-new-chapter/
• https://trendslates.substack.com/p/amazons-335bn-in-gmv-amazon-testing
• https://twitter.com/bgurley/status/1255172025053663232
• https://www.businessinsider.com/fabulous-life-colin-huang-pinduoduo-2020-7
• https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/22/what-is-pinduoduo-chinese-ecommerce-rival-to-alibaba.html
• https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/07/02/why-pinduoduo-stock-popped-today.aspx
• https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/07/07/4-tough-tasks-for-pinduoduos-new-ceo.aspx
• https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#721870433d78
• https://www.scmp.com/tech/e-commerce/article/3081078/pinduoduo-doubles-down-rural-china-five-year-us71-billion-e
• https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1737806/000104746918005204/a2236308z424b4.htm
• https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1737806/000110465920051022/pdd-20191231x20f.htm
• https://www.techbuzzchina.com/episodes/ep-17-pinduoduo-from-zero-to-23b-in-three-years
• https://www.theinformation.com/articles/chinas-pinduoduo-is-nipping-at-alibabas-heels
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BidaQ22vWvM
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqxtfOMMVFg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjLhCK8sUcw
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbskb0KMBUU&t=4s

We close out Season 6 with the story of perhaps the single most successful media entrepreneur of all-time: Oprah Winfrey, and her juggernaut conglomerate Harpo Studios. Born to a poor single mother in the segregated 1950's deep south, Oprah's rise from terrible adversity to wealthiest Black woman in the world ranks among the very greatest American success stories. And oh yeah — along the way she single-handedly created the entire influencer economy, rewrote the blueprint of a modern power broker, and set the world record for most cars given away at one time (276). Sit back, listen and get ready to live your best life. 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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Survey link!: http://acquired.fm/survey

Carveouts:

• David: The Dark Tower series by Stephen King https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07959YG1R?
• Ben: Reply All "Long Distance" https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/6nh3wk

Sources:

• http://blackeconomics.co.uk/wp/oprahs-empire/
•  http://www.oprah.com/entertainment/the-oprah-winfrey-show-by-the-numbers-oprah-show-statistics/all
•  http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/The-Oprah-Shows-Most-Shocking-Moments_1
• https://diverseeducation.com/article/1205/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey_Network
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WW_International
•  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-oprah-regrets-famous-wagon-233648610.html
•  https://freakonomics.com/2008/08/06/so-much-for-one-person-one-vote/
•  https://hbr.org/podcast/2018/01/black-business-leaders-series-oprahs-path-to-authentic-leadership
•  https://stmuhistorymedia.org/from-rags-to-riches-the-story-of-oprah-winfrey/
•  https://www.amazon.com/Oprah-Biography-Kitty-Kelley/dp/0307394875
•  https://www.amazon.com/Ride-Lifetime-Lessons-Learned-Company/dp/0399592091
•  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-09-25-9809260006-story.html
•  https://www.cnn.com/ampstories/entertainment/how-oprah-winfrey-built-her-business-empire
• https://www.forbes.com/profile/oprah-winfrey/#c52ce3e5745f
•  https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifereum/2014/09/29/how-oprah-went-from-talk-show-host-to-first-african-american-woman-billionaire/#7f21cfb76163
•  https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/oprah-gives-away-nearly-300-new-cars
•  https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/you-get-a-car-oprah-winfrey-giveaway-studio-audience-gift-tax-members-guests-pay-show-a8208051.html
•  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/an-anxious-america-gets-set-for-life-after-oprah-2285528.html
•  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-21-ca-27886-story.html
• https://www.npr.org/podcasts/500692140/making-beyonc
•  https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/12/news/jackson-interview-high-in-ratings.html
• https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/business/media/23carr.html
•  https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/business/media/end-of-oprahs-show-tightens-races-for-tv-ratings.html
•  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/the-oprah-phenomenon-by-the-numbers
•  https://www.robertfeder.com/2016/06/15/legendary-tv-exec-dennis-swanson-retires/
•  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2017/05/13/oprah-winfrey-untold-story/
• https://www.thebalancesmb.com/oprah-winfrey-entrepreneur-1200951
•  https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jan/12/oprah-winfrey-unlikely-to-run-for-us-president-but-could-win-if-she-did
•  https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/oprahs-last-show-averaged-8957-million-fewer-viewers-than-mash-finale/2011/06/08/AGD5AUMH_story.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cooRceBiE8E

On the eve of SpaceX's historic scheduled launch of its first human spaceflight mission — both the first ever by a private company, and the first to take place on American soil in nearly a decade — we tell the incredible story of its rise from ragtag rocket jocks to the most disruptive and advanced force in aerospace today. While much of the Musk spotlight has shone on Tesla in recent years, is SpaceX actually the company that will have the greatest impact on our world's future, and perhaps even other worlds beyond? All of a sudden that idea seems a little less crazy... 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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Links:

• The Tesla episode: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/season-3-episode-1tesla
• The Ascend Conference: https://www.ascend.events

Carveouts:

• David: The Last Dance:  http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28973557/the-last-dance-updates-untold-story-michael-jordan-chicago-bulls
• Ben: Michael Mauboussin on the Success Equation: https://youtu.be/1JLfqBsX5Lc

Sources:

• Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance:  https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X
• https://timelines.issarice.com/wiki/Timeline_of_SpaceX
•  https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/03/spacex-historic-falcon-9-re-flight-ses-10/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/wiki/economics
• https://www.space.com/40547-spacex-rocket-evolution.html
•  https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/08/how-and-why-spacex-will-colonize-mars.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Cantrell
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mueller
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwynne_Shotwell
•  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Orbital_Transportation_Services
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Act_Agreement
• https://www.spacex.com/mission/
•  https://venturebeat.com/2008/08/06/private-rocket-company-spacex-gets-20m-from-the-founders-fund/
•  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches
• https://www.space.com/40547-spacex-rocket-evolution.html
•  https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-spacecraft-pictures-elon-musk-2018-2
•  https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/09/inside-the-eight-desperate-weeks-that-saved-spacex-from-ruin/
•  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/science/spacex-nasa-launch.html
•  https://graphics.reuters.com/SPACE-EXPLORATION-SPACEX/010091Q82NF/index.html
•  https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/31/elon-musk-spacex-is-now-worth-more-than-tesla.html
•  https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-wins-launch-contract-egyptian-telecom-company/
• https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-booster-overboard/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYocHwhfFDc
• https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/IG-18-016.pdf
•  https://everydayastronaut.com/will-the-falcon-9-actually-be-reusable-or-just-refurbish-able-like-the-space-shuttle/

When you think of Intel today, you probably think of the microprocessor company. Maybe you also think about about 'Intel Inside' and their famous jingle. You might even think "big, stable, boring public company". But for the first two decades of Intel's life, absolutely none of those things were true. Today we tell the incredible story of how the company that started it all in Silicon Valley clawed back from a crisis that brought them to the brink of death, and of one man who rose as the ultimate survivor to become their leader and a legend even in his own time: the late, great Andy Grove.

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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Sources:

• Only the Paranoid Survive:   https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challenge-ebook/dp/B0036S4B2G
• Swimming Across:  https://www.amazon.com/Swimming-Across-Andrew-S-Grove-ebook/dp/B07CJRM4DX/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Moore
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Noyce
•  https://www.businessinsider.com/alan-patricof-greycroft-ipo-market-2011-1
•  https://anthonysmoak.com/2016/03/27/andy-grove-and-intels-move-from-memory-to-microprocessors/
•  http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Oral_History/Intel_386_Business_Strategy/102701962.05.01.pdf
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80386
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shockley
•  https://www.inc.com/ilan-mochari/remembering-andy-grove-intel.html

We're joined by the one and only Jason Calacanis for this very special episode, wherein we chronicle Jason's journey from a kid porter in the barrooms of Brooklyn to building the largest independent media business in tech, becoming the "3rd or 4th greatest seed investor of all-time" (and the original Sequoia Scout), launching one of the top accelerators in the world, and constructing a one-man empire that may just disrupt the entire capital stack in our industry. We dive into how it all ties together, and where the money and power is shifting in the ever changing sands of Silicon Valley...

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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On March 5th 2020, Sequoia Capital published a Medium post entitled ‘Coronavirus: The Black Swan of 2020’. The memo minces no words, admonishing founders & CEOs to “question every assumption about your business”, and portends that “as Darwin surmised, those who [will] survive ‘are not the strongest or the most intelligent, but the most adaptable to change.’” We’re joined by longtime Sequoia partner and head of the firm’s US business Roelof Botha to discuss on what Sequoia saw leading up to the memo and why they decided to publish it, how they and their portfolio companies are adapting to the new world it warned of, and what lasting changes might come to Sequoia itself from this moment. For anyone facing hard decisions and/or looking for ways to think about opportunity, this is not one to miss. 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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Links:

• The Black Swan Memo:  https://medium.com/sequoia-capital/coronavirus-the-black-swan-of-2020-7c72bdeb9753 
• The COVID-19 Decision Matrix:  https://medium.com/sequoia-capital/the-matrix-for-covid-19-c25bd5195f46 

The world has changed. Acquired is changing too: we’re taking a pause from our normal episodes. The world doesn’t need stories of M&A and IPOs right now. But it does still need stories of great companies and great leaders. So we’re taking everything that we’ve put into Acquired - our format, our infrastructure, and the way we can reach all of you - and launching Adapting. Adapting is a series all about doing just that -- changing to fit what the world needs right now, not what it needed last week.

Our first episode starts on the front lines of change: the local restaurant industry. Mark Canlis joins us to discuss how the world-renowned Canlis restaurant in Seattle is adapting by simultaneously closing their 70 year old dining room service, and launching three brand new, no-contact concept restaurants in just one week to keep their staff employed and the city fed:

"Pretty quickly we realized that it would be just as risky to do nothing as it would to do something really radical. And if we were gonna live into our values, every once and awhile that’s really going to cost you something."

This conversation is an incredible inspiration to us all, and a reminder of the vast power of the human spirit during challenging times. 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

5 years and 100+ episodes into Acquired, there’s been one question we get asked more than any other: what are the best acquisitions of all-time, and what can we learn from them? We thought it was time to formalize our answers. So here it is, the Acquired Greatest Hits album. :)

We also put together an accompanying blog post, which goes into greater detail on the numbers and methodology behind out rankings. You can find it here:  https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/acquired-top-ten-the-best-acquisitions-of-all-time

Feel free to share with your friends or on social media!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

The wait is over. Acquired returns with a very special Part II of the Sequoia Capital story, joined by the very best person in the world to help us tell it - Doug Leone. Since 1996, Doug has served as Sequoia’s Global Managing Partner, in charge of overseeing the firm’s incredible expansion from a single, $150m early-stage fund focused on Northern California to the multi-billion dollar global powerhouse it is today. Doug is incredibly candid and insightful about all that has gone into building the modern Sequoia: from winning Google and missing Facebook, to the enormous (and enormously successful) bet on decentralized expansion in China and India, to the firm’s “proudest moment” at the depth of the dot com bust. This episode is an absolute must-listen for anyone in the tech, startup and venture ecosystems today. Thank you to Doug and all of the Sequoia team for joining us to make it happen!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Note:

• You can listen to Part I of our Sequoia story, which dives deep into the history and background of the firm, here: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/sequoia-capital-part-1

Sources:

•  https://www.brunswickgroup.com/sequoia-capital-doug-leone-silicon-valley-i11786/
• https://www.sequoiacap.com/people/doug-leone/
•  https://www.sequoiacap.com/newsletter/2018-06-20-doug-leone
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Er4QcNdjVU
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-leone-a2714/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cl8X02Xd1I
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrJgwKiEpaI

We kick off Season 6 with a long-awaited Acquired Classic: Facebook’s $22B purchase of WhatsApp in 2014, which still ranks as the largest acquisition of a private VC-backed startup in history. Yet despite that enormous pricetag and all its associated fanfare, as we sit here 5+ years later WhatsApp actually generates LESS revenue than the meager ~$20m it was bringing in at the time of acquisition. Was this this worst acquisition of all-time, or a brilliant strategic chess move by Mark Zuckerberg & co? Tune in as we render Acquired’s judgement!

Note: Unfortunately David’s audio quality in this episode was impacted by a technical glitch which we didn’t discover until after recording. Our editors worked super hard to fix in post-production, but it’s still not totally perfect. We hope you’ll give it a listen regardless, and we’re working on getting a transcript made ASAP, which we’ll post to the website when it’s ready. Thanks for bearing with us,

-Ben & David 

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

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Carve Outs:

• Ben: Computer glasses: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=computer+glasses
• David: Reebok Floatrides:  https://www.amazon.com/Reebok-Forever-Floatride-Energy-Black/dp/B07NYBRQ96/

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp
•  https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/02/19/exclusive-inside-story-how-jan-koum-built-whatsapp-into-facebooks-new-19-billion-baby/#64c1c94b2fa1
•  https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/03/04/inside-the-facebook-whatsapp-megadeal-the-courtship-the-secret-meetings-the-19-billion-poker-game/#63d8b5c4350f
•  https://www.wired.com/2015/09/whatsapp-serves-900-million-users-50-engineers/
• https://youtu.be/v6PbymjXsto
• https://youtu.be/X4YsJt4rIOI
• https://overcast.fm/+WorS9-a74
• https://youtu.be/-2CAWS7M_0w
• https://youtu.be/X4YsJt4rIOI
•  https://www.wired.co.uk/article/whats-app-owner-founder-jan-koum-facebook 
•  https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/whatsapp-brian-acton-delete-facebook-stanford-lecture 
•  https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2018/09/26/exclusive-whatsapp-cofounder-brian-acton-gives-the-inside-story-on-deletefacebook-and-why-he-left-850-million-behind/#7475a0213f20 
•  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-06-28/tencent-rules-china-the-problem-is-the-rest-of-the-world  
• https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/16/whatsapp-free/
• http://allthingsd.com/tag/jan-koum/
•  http://allthingsd.com/20130510/whatsapp-ceo-jan-koum-hates-advertising-and-the-tech-rumor-mill-full-dive-video/ 
•  https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/31/whatsapp-hits-1-5-billion-monthly-users-19b-not-so-bad/
•  https://blog.whatsapp.com/10000633/Building-for-People-and-Now-Businesses
• https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/05/whatsapp-business-app/ 
• https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/21/whatsapp/
•  https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/whatsapp-founder-plans-to-leave-after-broad-clashes-with-parent-facebook/2018/04/30/49448dd2-4ca9-11e8-84a0-458a1aa9ac0a_story.html
•  https://www.wsj.com/articles/whatsapp-backs-off-controversial-plan-to-sell-ads-11579207682
•  https://www.wsj.com/articles/behind-the-messy-expensive-split-between-facebook-and-whatsapps-founders-1528208641?mod=article_inline 
•  https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/06/05/whatsapp-co-founder-stresses-independence-from-facebook/?mod=article_inline
•  https://bgr.com/2020/01/17/whatsapp-ads-2020-facebook-canceled-plans-to-bring-ads-to-status-bar/
•  https://www.vox.com/2018/5/8/17329524/whatsapp-new-ceo-facebook-cofounder-jan-koum-departs
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/chdaniels/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkoum/

Season 5, Episode 10: The Lean Startup and the Long-Term Stock Exchange (with Eric Ries) 

Acquired closes out Season 5 and 2019 with a radical look into both the past and future decades of startup company building, investing and - yes, exiting - in conversation with legendary Lean Startup author Eric Ries. Nine years on from pioneering the now-canonical concepts of product-market fit, minimum viable products, and pivots during the aftermath of the financial crisis, Eric’s new venture at the Long-Term Stock Exchange represents an equally ambitious attempt to rewrite the orthodoxy of how companies and their investors manage liquidity, governance and alignment around longterm value creation. Like Lean Startup a decade before it, can LTSE help address some of the endemic problems in this generation’s startup ecosystem — excessive capital raising, stay-private-longer, dual-class founder hegemony, extreme illiquidity and quarterly earnings myopia? Tune in to find out!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
• Join the Slack
• Subscribe to ACQ2
• Merch Store!

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Coming to you live from the University of Washington, Ben and David are joined by hundreds of awesome Seattle listeners (and a few non-Seattle listeners!) to cover the meteoric rise of trucking industry disruptor and hometown hero Convoy. How did Dan and Convoy go from nervously conducting market research at truck stops on I-5 to one of the largest logistics companies and fastest-growing startups in the world in just four short years, raising over $650m (not a typo) along the way? Tune in to find out!

Special thank you to the Paul Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington and to Pioneer Square Labs for generously sponsoring the show venue.

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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Carveouts: 

• Mystery: https://mystery.sh

We take Acquired to the Old Town Road to cover the amazing story behind the biggest global sensation of 2019 — and the highest valued private startup in the world — TikTok. How did a mid-30 year old UX architect at enterprise software giant SAP wind up creating Gen Z’s favorite social app that’s now rivaling Instagram in global MAU? Why is a 2017 merger of two Chinese companies being branded a US national security threat and retroactively placed under review by CFIUS? And perhaps most importantly, why is TikTok such an important product & technology innovation that all of us should be learning from? Tune in for all the answers!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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• Ben: Track 34 on Ghosts IV by Nine Inch Nails: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF_ceFugJjQ 
• David: Nintendo Switch Lite https://www.nintendo.com/switch/lite/ and Knives Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGqiHJTsRkQ  

Sources:

•  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/technology/tiktok-alex-zhu-interview.html 
•  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bytedance-tiktok-exclusive/exclusive-chinas-bytedance-moves-to-ringfence-its-tiktok-app-amid-u-s-probe-sources-idUSKBN1Y10OH 
•  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/10/arts/TIK-TOK.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
•  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/19/style/high-school-tiktok-clubs.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
•  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/technology/tiktok-facebook-youtube.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
•  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/business/china-toutiao-censorship.html
•  https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/business/media/a-social-network-frequented-by-children-tests-the-limits-of-online-regulation.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTyg2E44pBA
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/keepsilence/
•  https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/12/10/18129126/tiktok-app-musically-meme-cringe
•  https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2018/1/26/16937712/karma-is-a-bitch-riverdale-kreayshawn-meme
•  https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/2/17644260/musically-rebrand-tiktok-bytedance-douyin
•  https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/tiktok-video-app-growth-867587/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical.ly
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ByteDance 
•  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok
•  https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-musically-2016-5 
•  https://supchina.com/2017/09/13/can-pop-music-connect-teens-china-world-musical-ly-co-founder-louis-yang-wants-find/ 
•  https://supchina.com/podcast/ep-28-the-worlds-most-valuable-startup-bytedance-maker-of-tiktok-toutiao/
•  https://supchina.com/podcast/ep-55-kuaishou-the-anti-douyin-tiktok/
•  https://supchina.com/podcast/ep-56-not-just-tiktok-a-short-history-of-chinese-short-video-abroad/ 
•  https://supchina.com/2019/09/25/the-difference-between-tiktok-and-douyin/ 
•  https://pandaily.com/toutiaos-buy-1b-purchase-musical-ly/ 
•  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-internet-livestreaming-idUSKBN17E0EV 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTyg2E44pBA 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey15v81pwII 
•  https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3038639/alex-zhus-journey-failed-startup-tiktok-chief 
•  https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/zuckerberg-musically-tiktok-china-facebook 
• https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/12/instagram-reels/ 
• https://www.techinasia.com/douyin-rise-in-china 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptKqFafZgCk 
•  https://technode.com/2017/05/17/kwai-kuaishou-chinas-biggest-social-video-sharing-app/

The Flywheel is strong with this one. We dive deep into the origins of one of the boldest business strategy decisions of our time: Disney CEO Bob Iger’s attempt to buck the Innovator’s Dilemma - and forego billions of dollars in cashflow from Netflix and pay TV providers - in order to establish a direct distribution relationship with its customers for the first time in the company’s history. Is this the force awakening within the house that Walt built, or a phantom menace that will drag Disney to the dark side of unprofitability? Tune in to find out!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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Links:

•  https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2018-Annual-Report.pdf
•  https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/wp-content/uploads/q4-fy17-earnings-transcript.pdf
•  https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/q4-fy19-earnings.pdf
• The Disney flywheel:  https://kottke.org/15/06/walt-disneys-corporate-strategy-chart 
• 
  

Sources: 

• The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger:  https://www.amazon.com/Ride-Lifetime-Lessons-Learned-Company-ebook/dp/B07PF6XTD8
•  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/style/disney-bob-iger-book.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Iger
•  https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/bob-iger-bets-company-hollywood-s-future-streaming-1247663 
•  https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-kevin-mayer-deliver-the-future-of-disney-11573272027 
•  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-11-07/inside-disney-bob-iger-on-star-wars-pixar-and-more 
•  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bob-iger-the-ride-of-a-lifetime/id1264843400?i=1000451721143  

Carveouts: 

• David: The Ride of a Lifetime
• Ben: The Imagineering Story on Disney+:  https://www.disneyplus.com/series/the-imagineering-story/6ryoXv1e1rWW

It’s an IPO, it’s a bailout, it’s an... acquisition? We’re joined by the one and only Dan Primack from Axios to recount the epic saga of the We Company in all its tragic glory. How did this business somehow go from chopping up commercial real estate to elevating global consciousness to rewarding its ousted CEO with a $1.7B “platinum parachute”, all while the company can’t afford severance for thousands of soon-to-be laid-off employees? Where did it all go wrong? And most importantly, who gets the Gulfstream G650??

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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We’re joined by the legendary Nolan Bushnell, founder not only of Atari, but also the only person ever to hire Steve Jobs, the recipient of Sequoia Capital’s first-ever investment, and the creator of Chuck E. Cheese, the canonical GPS navigation arrow, and a little project that would go on to become Pixar. We cover it all in this special episode!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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• Spacewar!, the first video game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar! 
• The meaning of Atari: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/atari
• Nolan’s current project, St. Noire:  https://www.amazon.com/St-Noire-Hosted-Cinematic-Exclusive/dp/B07P693BG1

Acquired dives into the history behind storied venture firm Sequoia Capital and its legendary founder, Don Valentine. Part 1 tells Don’s story, starting from humble beginnings born to uneducated parents in Yonkers, NY, through shaping the fabric of Silicon Valley first as head of Sales & Marketing at both Fairchild and National Semiconductor, and then for generations to come via his pioneering concept of “company building” at Sequoia Capital. No matter where you sit in the ecosystem today, Don and the companies he helped build laid the foundation for nearly everything technology has become over the past 60 years.

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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Links:

• Silicon Valley’s “Traitorous Eight”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traitorous_eight
• Don Valentine’s lecture at Stanford GSB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKN-abRJMEw&t=2555s
• Berkeley’s oral history with Don:  http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/valentine_donald.pdf

Carve Outs:

• Ben: The Business Roundtable on The Daily:  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/podcasts/the-daily/business-roundtable-corporate-responsibility.html
• David: Amazon Music on 25 years of “Ready to Die”: https://youtu.be/Dsna1nIZzB4

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traitorous_eight
•  https://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Silicon-Valley-Shockley-racist-semiconductor-lab-13164228.php
• https://signallake.com/innovation/Valentine101409.pdf
•  http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/roho/ucb/text/valentine_donald.pdf
•  https://www.amazon.com/dp/0875849385/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_ZB8IDb7NNAFAH
•  https://www.amazon.com/Troublemakers-Silicon-Valleys-Coming-Age-ebook/dp/B06ZZ1YDTX/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
• https://www.scaruffi.com/svhistory/arun3.html
• http://www.ianhathaway.org/blog/2019/7/31/vc-an-american-history
•  https://www.axios.com/sequoia-capital-shakes-up-leadership-1513300220-7d255e34-f4bf-4178-af62-ec68023726e3.html
•  https://www.slideshare.net/lebret/a-history-of-venture-capital-lebret-vers-11
• https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=47240
• https://www.inc.com/magazine/19850501/7289_pagen_5.html
•  https://www.amazon.com/VC-American-History-Tom-Nicholas-ebook/dp/B07QV2YM3X/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKN-abRJMEw&t=2555s

Ben and David cover the series of three 2004 Google acquisitions that formed the core of Google Maps as we know and love it today: Where 2 Technologies, Keyhole and ZipDash. From nearly zero adoption between the three companies at the time of acquisition to well over 1 billion users today, does Google Maps merit admission to the hallowed Acquired A+ pantheon? Tune in to find out!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

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Links:

• Bret Taylor on “Satellite Mode”: https://twitter.com/btaylor/status/1099370126678253569?lang=en 
• Justin O’Beirne’s great pieces on Apple vs Google maps: https://www.justinobeirne.com  

Carve Outs:

• Ben: Marc Andreessen on The Moment with Brian Koppelman: https://overcast.fm/+BgXAjz54o
• David: The Expanse books: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077L6GJWW/

Ben and David head north of the border to Ottawa, Canada to cover perhaps one of the greatest IPO success stories of the past 5 years, Shopify. From humble beginnings as a “lifestyle business” hawking hipster snowboard gear online to now routinely mentioned in the same breath as Amazon, the tale of Shopify and its incredible CEO Tobi Lütke’s ascent is not one to miss!

Editor's note: Shopify actually powered $41b of sales, not $14b, in 2018, as discussed toward the end of the episode. $14b was the fourth-quarter number. While this changes the analysis of value captured at the end of the episode (Shopify only captures 2.5% of merchant sales as their own revenue, not 7%, which is admittedly very different), it doesn’t change overall sentiment on the company discussed in the episode.

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

Links:

• https://www.snowdevil.ca
• https://www.jadedpixel.com
• Citron’s “research” report:  https://citronresearch.com/citron-exposes-the-dark-side-of-shopify/

Carve Outs:

• Ben: Moment smartphone camera lenses: https://www.shopmoment.com
• David: Quoteapro engineering and head of product roles, Bill Gurley on Invest like the Best: http://investorfieldguide.com/gurley/

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For our first episode of Season 5, Acquired returns to Shenzhen to cover another Chinese technology giant, this one slightly... different from our past subjects: Huawei. From a backwater importer of PBX switches to the world’s second largest handset manufacturer and near-undisputed leader in 5G infrastructure technology, Huawei’s ascent over the past 30 years has been nothing short of spectacular, equaled only by the spectacular fireworks of recent events surrounding the company. What’s the story behind this global telecom giant, and what does its future portend for global tech and US - China relations? We dive in.

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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• Ren Zhengfei on Bloomberg TV:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-26/billionaire-huawei-founder-defiant-in-face-of-existential-threat
• Who owns Huawei?  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3372669

Carve Outs

• Ben: Billions: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4270492/
• David: Dune by Frank Herbert:  https://www.amazon.com/Dune-Frank-Herbert-ebook/dp/B00B7NPRY8/ref=nodl

We wrap up Season 4 with a very special (and accidental!) episode, a conversation with the CEO of Superhuman, the red hot email productivity app which just announced their $33m Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz. While originally intended as a limited release episode, we felt Superhuman would provide the perfect bookend to our “modern enterprise productivity trilogy” following our Zoom and Slack episodes. We hope you enjoy the conversation with Rahul as much as we did, and we’ll see you later this summer for Season 5!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

• New York Times article announcing the fundraise:  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/27/technology/superhuman-email.html 
• Rahul’s Medium post on acquisitions:  https://medium.com/swlh/rip-mailbox-or-founders-how-to-stop-worrying-and-love-being-acquired-261da4f6d566
• Rahul on finding product-market fit on First Round Review:  https://firstround.com/review/how-superhuman-built-an-engine-to-find-product-market-fit/

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an... enterprise software company? We give the full Acquired treatment to newly-public Slack, one of the most extreme and successful pivots of all-time. From a log cabin in Canada to a never-ending game and back again, Slack’s journey has more twists and turns than a Hobbit’s tale. Tune in for one APLUSS story you don’t want to miss!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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• Kara Swisher’s Flipcam interview with Glitch:  https://www.wsj.com/video/tiny-speck-stewart-butterfield-speaks/C51EAD27-FE8E-46AE-B785-6ECF1A9798B0.html
• Marc Andreessen on “all will still end well...” https://twitter.com/patphelan/status/1142733251691405312
• The Glitch public domain archive: https://www.glitchthegame.com
• Naming Slack: https://twitter.com/stewart/status/780906639301812225?s=21

Carve Outs

• Ben: The Expanse on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/The-Expanse-Season-1/dp/B018BZ3SCM
• David: Give to any non-profit on Alma: https://alma.app/blog/1-4-million-reasons-to-love-alma-search

Zoom board member (and general partner at Emergence Capital) Santi Subotovsky joins us to tell the true underdog story behind the hottest IPO of 2019. Together we trace founder Eric Yuan’s incredible journey from immigrant software developer, who didn’t speak any English upon arriving in Silicon Valley in 1997, to Glassdoor’s #1 rated CEO in America in 2018. In an age where border walls have replaced open doors in Washington, and burn rates and privacy scandals have sidelined Silicon Valley’s pretense of making the world a better place, there is no better reminder than Zoom of everything that can be great about our country and our industry.

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

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• Walt Mossberg’s review of Zoom in 2012:  http://allthingsd.com/20120821/a-chance-to-call-15-friends-to-video-chat-in-high-def/

Carve Outs

• Ben: General Magic https://www.generalmagicthemovie.com
• David: Dissect Season 4 https://dissectpodcast.com/subscribe-to-the-podcast/

Acquired looks back at a monumental IPO from a *much* different era: Electronic Arts. We’re joined by EA’s founder Trip Hawkins to tell the incredible story of how he built the company that made video games mainstream. Starting from his high school years as both a geek and a jock, to then working for Steve Jobs as one of Apple Computer’s first employees and later completely changing the world of sports with John Madden Football, Trip always had a clear vision for what EA could become and what magic could happen at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts.

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Welcome to the big one. On the day of its IPO, we tell the story of Uber. It’s a story whose roots stretch back 130 years, but whose impact reverberates perhaps more powerfully on our current world than any other. A story that, in all of its greatness and in all of its ugliness, may just be the story of our time.

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

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Links:

• Austin Geidt’s incredible journey: https://youtu.be/-NjaqDMYNVs
• Travis’s self-introduction as “the Wolf from Pulp Fiction”: https://youtu.be/VMvdvP02f-Y
• Travis interview on TWiST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=550X5OZVk7Y  

In the second episode of our APLUSS(Z!) IPO saga, we dive into the history behind the planet’s largest non-social social network, Pinterest. From The Pirates of Silicon Valley to the bloggers of Salt Lake City, the creation story behind this “productivity tool for planning your dreams” is far from your typical unicorn journey. Once labelled as the “next Facebook” by investors and press, ten years later both Pinterest-the-product and Pinterest-the-company are in fact anything but. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing… tune in to find out!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Links

• Pinterest’s S-1:  https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1506293/000119312519083544/d674330ds1.htm
• Fun photos of the Pinterest early days from Leslie Kincaid:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/azy9xtxtq5l6r3y/AAC68OhprmVbauZreHPyLbn5a?dl=0
• Pinterest financial summary on Seeking Alpha: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4255230-know-pinterest-ipo

Carve Outs

• Ben: Eugene Wei on the Invest Like The Best Podcast: http://investorfieldguide.com/wei/
• David: A-Rod interviews George Springer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOqgxmG4yc8

Call it the playoffs. Call it the Olympics. Call it March Madness. No matter which sports analogy you borrow, it falls short of capturing what Lyft's IPO yesterday kicked off in the tech world. A generational changing of the guard from the FAANG to the APLUSS (Airbnb, Pinterest, Lyft, Uber, Slack, Stripe). A breaking of the liquidity dam that's kept capital, technology and talent locked up in a small number of Silicon Valley winners for longer than ever in history. And most importantly, a public market avenue for investing in the largest single market created since the advent of the internet. Acquired is live on the scene recounting and analyzing the history of Lyft (and ridesharing broadly) in every exquisite detail!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

More Acquired!

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
• Join the Slack
• Subscribe to ACQ2
• Merch Store!

© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

Links:

• Lyft’s S-1:  https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1759509/000119312519059849/d633517ds1.htm
• Donate to Homobiles: http://bit.ly/2TM40nAÂ

Carve Outs:

• Ben: Bill Gurley on "Runnin' Down a Dream" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmYekD6-PZ8
• David: "Cricket Fever" on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80222770

We enter the wayback machine and revisit the subject of Acquired’s second ever episode, Facebook’s bombshell 2012 acquisition of Instagram — this time with the help of then-Facebook executive Emily White, who moved over post-acquisition to become Instagram’s first business head. Together with Kevin and Mike, Emily helped build Instagram's business model, which today accounts for nearly 1/4 of all of Facebook’s revenue. Is this still Acquired’s canonical A+ with an extra 3.5 years of hindsight? Spoiler alert: yes.

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• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
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• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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• Ben: Sam Harris on the Joe Rogan Experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ5_hAEsLkU
• David: Boom Town by Sam Anderson:  https://www.amazon.com/Boom-Town-Fantastical-Basketball-World-class-ebook/dp/B077RHYC4G

Spotify + Gimlet/Anchor Quick Take!

We continue to experiment on Acquired, this time with a quick-take on Spotify’s bombshell dual-acquisition of Anchor and Gimlet Media. While we may give these deals the full Acquired treatment in the future, we wanted to share our quick thoughts with you all sooner rather than later while the Acquired research department (aka Ben & David’s free time) works through the current episode backlog. Let us know if you like this format and we’ll do more in the future!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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We dive into the crazy, little-known story of how this small, former PC-maker in Cambridge, England dethroned Intel, saved Apple from bankruptcy, became the blueprint for the largest investment fund in history, and of course now powers just about every device you use today. From Issac Newton to the Apple Newton, the Vision Fund and beyond, ARM has had an impact on the technology industry that cannot be overstated!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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Links:

• The Nokia 6110: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_6110
• Fast Company on SoftBank and how the ARM acquisition happened:  https://www.fastcompany.com/90285552/the-most-powerful-person-in-silicon-valley

Booyah! Acquired, the worldwide leader in acquisitions and IPOs, kicks off Season 4 with a classic: ESPN. How did a failed former TV weatherman end up building the world’s most valuable media company on top of a dump (quite literally) in Bristol, Connecticut? We follow the incredible entrepreneurial journey from Getty Oil diversification strategy to Berkshire Hathaway home run to Disney crown jewel. This Is Awesome, Baby!!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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Links:

• ESPN’s first moments on air: https://www.espnfrontrow.com/2018/12/espn-remembers-lee-leonard/
• The Outsiders Book:  https://www.amazon.com/Outsiders-Unconventional-Radically-Rational-Blueprint-ebook/dp/B009G1T74O/

Carve Outs:

• Ben: Numbers Geek with Steve Ballmer: The Basketball Box Score Mystery  https://www.geekwire.com/2019/numbers-geek-steve-ballmer-basketball-box-score-mystery/
• David: Fast Company on Masa, “The most powerful person in Silicon Valley”  https://www.fastcompany.com/90285552/the-most-powerful-person-in-silicon-valley

We close out Season 3 and our China mini-series with a monster episode on Tencent, the Shenzhen-based social networking and entertainment powerhouse. We dive deep into the story of Pony Ma and his cofounders’ incredible journey from making software for pagers(!) to QQ, WeChat, League of Legends, Fortnite, Snapchat and even Tesla. This is one finale you don’t want to miss!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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Carve Outs:

• Ben: President Obama’s OG podcast! https://bit.ly/2BqXxHJ
• David: Kara Swisher’s interview with the Google Walkout organizers: https://bit.ly/2RwuskZ
• David (bonus!): Allen Iverson on the Players’ Tribune: https://bit.ly/2EkrRHQ

We complete our two-part Netflix special with the company’s bold transition to streaming, including of course the most (in)famous spin-out in business history. Rising from the ashes of Qwikster, we chronicle Netflix’s rebirth as a media company and long journey back to the top of the FAANG mountaintop!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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• Netflix’s Qwikster apology video: https://youtu.be/c8Tn8n5CIPk
• SNL parody of the apology video: https://bit.ly/2PWEyyZ
• Evolution of Netflix home page: https://read.bi/2KvHdte
• The Chaos Monkey: https://bit.ly/1qkqDxZ 
• Benedict Evans’ chart of FAANG stocks: https://bit.ly/2r3D72A 

Carve Outs:

• Ben: Kevin Rose interviews Matthew Walker on sleep: https://bit.ly/2LpIl5v
• David: Justin O’Beirne on Apple’s new Maps: https://bit.ly/2zrQ76Z

In a world ravaged by late fees and lack of rewinding, one man two men from a sleepy California beach town make a stand against tyranny, daringly dethrone an evil empire and… oh who are we kidding, they just copied Amazon’s business plan for books and applied it to movie rentals. But as always there is much more to the story than that! We dive into the fascinating, true, and oft-untold history of Netflix in our first two-part special on Acquired. Part 1 covers Netflix’s original DVD rental business from founding to 2009, and next time on Part 2 we’ll cover the (rocky) transition to streaming from 2010 to present. Buckle up for a wild ride!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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•  Netflix’s original logo

Carve Outs:

• Ben: The Good Place on… Netflix!
• David:  The Broken Earth Series by N. K. Jemisin

Ben & David are joined by special guest and Venmo cofounder Andrew Kortina for our first-ever SF live show! In front of a packed house we chronicle the journey of how two freshman-year roommates from Penn turned a healthy obsession with Craigslist and a fake podcast into an app that facilitated $17B of payments last quarter alone, producing not one but two landmark acquisitions along the way!

Note: the audio quality is a little rough due to some A/V issues at the live show. We apologize!

Sponsors:

• Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
• ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredservicenow26
• Legora: https://bit.ly/acquiredlegora
• Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig26

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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC

• Kortina: The Myth Of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
• David:  Startup by Jerry Kaplan
• Ben:  Halide on the new iPhone XS camera and computational photography