Episode 34: The Starbucks IPO with Dan Levitan
Ben & David "pour over" the 1992 IPO of the legendary Seattle coffee company with the help of Dan Levitan, who served as lead investment banker on the IPO and who would later co-found the venture capital firm Maveron with Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz. Sponsors: Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25 Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry WorkOS: https://acquired.fm/unpluggedPlaying Cards: https://bit.ly/workOSshop (Code: ACQDECK) 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 Topics covered include: The original Starbucks’ founding as a coffee bean roaster, started by three disciples of the legendary coffee roaster Alfred Peet Howard Schultz’s introduction to Starbucks, his joining the team as director of marketing, and inspiration behind his “third place” coffee shop vision Howard’s departure from the original Starbucks, founding of Il Giornale, and subsequent of acquisition the Seattle Starbucks stores Starbucks’ incredible growth following the acquisition and expansion beyond Seattle The state of raising private capital in the 1980’s/90’s, and the decision to go public (link to the S-1) Howard’s ambitious goals for the roadshow and investor participation, and subsequent stock performance after the IPO The narrative and evolution of Starbucks as a technology company, or a consumer company that leverages technology very effectively The Carve Out: Ben: Dan Primack’s new daily newsletter, Pro Rata David: The Wizard and the Bruiser podcast Dan: The Man in the Glass