Acquired

The Walt Disney Company is the most successful enterprise ever created for monetizing human nostalgia. Today it’s the king of global entertainment, holding the intellectual property rights to the childhood memories of billions of people (including, likely, all of you) and is a reliable, predictable profitable business. But it didn’t start that way. During Walt’s era, Disney operated like an unhinged moonshot factory, blowing its finances on one seemingly crazy project after another, like the very first feature-length animated film or a theme park inspired by Walt's fascination with model trains (spoiler: Disneyland). Walt’s relentless ambition to bet the company over and over again not only created some of the most monumental artistic achievements of the 20th century (Snow White, Fantasia, Disney Imagineering), but also resulted in the accidental invention of the modern “flywheel” business model. In this episode, we tell the story of the ultimate marriage of art, commerce, and engineering — The Walt Disney Company: Walt's Era. Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Spring '26 Season partners: J.P. MorganWeAreDevelopers event Vercel ServiceNow Statsig Links: Sign up for email updates, get our takeaways and research photos from each episode, and vote on future topics! The Acquired Disney Companion PDF Our Disney column in WSJ The original 1958 WSJ “Flywheel” article" Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler The Animated Man by Michael Barrier Walt Disney: An American Original by Bob Thomas Building a Company: Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empires by Bob Thomas The Disney Version by Richard Schickel PBS American Experience: Walt Disney Disneyland Handcrafted Walt's 1966 EPCOT pitch video Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Disney Study The Walt Disney Family Museum All episode sources Carve Outs: Brooks Vanguard sneakers Defunctland YouTube Channel Animagraffs YouTube Channel Volvo EX30 The San Francisco Symphony More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! 00:00 Start 01:10 Intro 06:03 Walt's Early Life & Artistic Calling (1901-1919) 12:22 From Commercial Art to Laugh-o-grams (1919-1923) 23:05 Hollywood, The Alice Comedies & Oswald's Loss (1923-1928) 43:27 Mickey Mouse & The Synchronized Sound Breakthrough (1928) 01:01:21 The IP Flywheel & Mickey Merch Explosion (1929-1933) 01:09:57 Flywheel Terminology Unpacked 01:18:53 Snow White: Walt's $1.5M Folly (1934-1937) 01:52:01 The Burbank Studio, Debt & Strike (1938-1941) 02:04:28 The Animators' Strike & Walt's Disillusionment (1941) 02:15:43 WWII, The Vault & Creative Slump (1941-1950) 02:24:27 Post-War Slump to Cinderella's Comeback (1945-1950) 02:33:48 Walt's Obsession: Model Trains to Disneyland (1950-1952) 02:38:44 Financing Disneyland: ABC, SRI & Davy Crockett (1953-1955) 03:17:05 Disneyland's Grand Opening & The Evolving Flywheel (1955-1958) 03:41:55 The Florida Project & Walt's Last Dream (1961-1966) 03:54:26 Walt's Untimely Death & Roy's Legacy (1966-1971) 03:57:57 Roy Finishes Walt Disney World (1966-1971) 04:01:09 The Post-Walt Slump & Corporate Raiders (1970s-1984) 04:09:44 Analysis: Why No Other Disney Flywheels? 04:17:15 7 Powers 04:20:45 Quintessence 04:23:50 Carve-Outs + Outro ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Vanguard is the most effective vehicle ever created for participating in the fruits of American capitalism. Today it’s the single largest equity owner of the majority of corporations in the S&P 500, on behalf of 50 million clients (including, likely, many of you). And yet Vanguard itself is essentially a communist organization — it has no shareholders, makes no profits, and operates more like REI than Fidelity. If you own a Vanguard fund, you own a piece of the firm itself. Any excess margin instead gets returned to clients in the form of lower fees, which since 1975 have added up to roughly five hundred billion dollars transferred out of Wall Street managers’ pockets and into retail investors’ savings accounts. And oh yeah, it all started as a cockamamie revenge plot by a guy who’d just been fired by his partners. Today we tell the story of communist capitalism at its finest — Vanguard. Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Spring '26 Season partners: J.P. MorganWeAreDevelopers event ServiceNow Vercel Statsig Links: Sign up for email updates, get our takeaways and research photos from each episode, and vote on future topics! Our Vanguard "episode preview" in WSJ Stay the Course: The Story of Vanguard and the Index Revolution by John C. Bogle The Bogle Effect by Eric Balchunas Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Vanguard Study Worldly Partners' Article Generational Investing: The Discipline Behind 100+x Outcomes All episode sources Carve Outs: Our WSJ pieces on Ferrari and Vanguard MacBook Pro M5 Max Michael MacKelvie on YouTube The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Brooks Vanguard sneakers More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! 00:00:00 Start 00:00:41 Intro 00:05:30 Jack Bogle's Early Life & Family Ruin (1929) 00:12:34 Princeton Thesis & Mutual Funds Emerge (1949-1951) 00:27:20 Joining Wellington Management (1951) 00:30:38 The Go-Go Years & Fidelity's Ascent (1958-1965) 00:40:36 Jack Takes the Reins & The Ivest Merger (1965) 00:46:04 The Go-Go Bust & Jack's Crisis of Conscience (1970-1973) 00:53:28 Jack is Fired: The Genesis of Vanguard (1974) 01:13:03 The Journal Article That Inspired It All (1974-1976) 01:35:02 Building the Fund & Early Struggles (1976-1981) 01:44:32 The Rise of Indexing & Vanguard's Growth (1988-1992) 01:49:06 Jack's Health & The CEO Transition (1995-1996) 02:00:06 The ETF Debate & Jack's Second Firing (1999) 02:24:18 The 2008 Financial Crisis: Vanguard's Moment 02:30:46 The Warren Buffett Bet (2008-2019) 02:41:28 Fidelity & BlackRock's Resurgence (Post-2008) 02:52:04 Salim Ramji: Vanguard's First Outside CEO 03:04:43 Wellington's Comeback & Mutual Ownership 03:08:23 Analysis 03:30:58 Quintessence 03:39:35 Carve-Outs + Outro ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Ferrari is the pinnacle of luxury scarcity — across its entire 79-year history, the company has sold just 330,000 cars at an average price today of $500,000. For context, Hermès sells that many Birkins and Kellys roughly every 2 years, and Rolex moves that many watches every 3 months. And yet this ultimate luxury product also lives under the same roof with a widely beloved professional sports team… one with 400 million rabid fans from all walks of life who live and die by the Scuderia’s performance every F1 race weekend! How is it possible that these two seemingly contradictory customer bases can coexist within the same company? And far from destroying each other’s value, only reinforce it? The answer, it turns out, is a beautiful, bloody, tragic and romantic opera that spans two families and three generations — and just might be one of the best tales we’ve ever told on Acquired. Buckle up for the story of Ferrari. Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Spring '26 Season partners: J.P. Morgan Payments Vercel ServiceNow Statsig Links: Sign up for email updates, get out takeaways and research photos from each episode, and vote on future topics! Our Ferrari "episode preview" in WSJ Enzo Ferrari by Luca Dal Monte Seeing Red on IMDb Go Like Hell by A.J. Baime Stephen Wilmot's great WSJ piece on Ferrari Ferrari factory tour Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Ferrari Study All episode sources Carve Outs: Ford v Ferrari Maison Wheat sweaters Craighill scissors Amazon grocery service Travelpro Altitude backpack More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! 00:00:00 Start 00:01:08 Intro 00:06:11 Enzo Ferrari's Early Life & Tragedies (1898-1919) 00:12:39 Scuderia Ferrari: Enzo's Racing Dream (1920-1933) 00:25:08 The Prancing Horse & Ferrari's Branding 00:35:41 First Ferrari Road Cars & Le Mans Victory (1947-1949) 00:51:31 F1 & The Tragedies of Enzo's Life (1950s) 01:14:03 Ford vs. Ferrari: The Le Mans Rivalry (1963-1966) 01:21:24 Enzo Sells 50% to Fiat (1969) 01:29:10 Luca di Montezemolo's Return to F1 Glory (1971-1976) 01:52:40 Ferrari's "Pepsi Challenge" and how Luca rescued the company (1991) 02:27:41 Post-IPO Ferrari: New Models & Growth (2015-Present) 02:48:24 The FUV Purosangue & Model Range 03:07:16 Ferrari Luce: The EV Future with Jony Ive 03:12:37 Ferrari Today by the Numbers 03:29:39 Analysis 03:50:04 Carve-Outs + Thank Yous ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Formula 1 is three competitions in one: a 200mph battle of the world's best race car drivers, the world cup of engineering where thousand-person teams spend hundreds of millions designing cars from scratch, and — as one of our listeners perfectly put it — the “Real Housewives of the Garage”, a soap opera of billionaire egos, team politics, and paddock drama that makes for incredible reality television. It's also the world's most popular annual sporting series with over 827 million fans globally — a fact that would shock most Americans, who until a recent viral Netflix series had barely heard of it. Today we tell the story of how a chaotic, deadly, and gloriously dysfunctional European racing series became one of the greatest business stories in sports. For decades, brilliant engineers and daredevil drivers dedicated their lives (and too often lost them) to a league controlled for 45 years by a single man: a former London car dealer named Bernie Ecclestone, who centralized power and extracted billions, while also undeniably single-handedly making the sport successful. Then, in a move no one saw coming, the American company Liberty Media bought the whole thing in 2017, installed a team of Fox Sports and ESPN veterans, and did what Bernie never would — professionalized it. All of a sudden famously money-losing F1 teams turned into real businesses, with the average team valuation today clocking in at an astounding $3.6 billion. Buckle up for one of our most-requested episodes: the wild story of Formula 1. Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Spring '26 Season partners: J.P. Morgan Payments ServiceNow Vercel Statsig Links: Sign up for email updates and vote on future episodes! The Formula by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg Drive to Survive on Netflix F1 The Movie on Apple TV Adrian Newey, How to Build a Car Senna documentary Worldly Partners' Multi-Decade Formula One Study All episode sources Carve Outs: Cirque du Soleil Echo Super Bowl LX Mic'd Up Tonal Princess Peach: Showtime! on Nintendo Switch Daloopa for historical financial data More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! 00:00:00 Start 00:00:37 Intro 00:05:52 Origins of F1: Britain, Italy, and Monaco 00:30:43 Bernie's Entrance 00:37:42 Bernie Consolidates Power 00:50:33 F1 as a Global TV Sport (Except America) 01:08:08 F1's Incredible Engineering Achievements 01:19:34 Senna's Crash and a New Era for Safety 01:33:18 The Many Owners of F1, and Bernie's Liquidity Drama 01:57:48 FOTA: The attempted breakaway series 02:05:07 RedBull, Mercedes, and Reinventing the Sport 02:42:33 Liberty Media buys F1 and Brings it to the Modern Era 03:05:03 Drive to Survive 03:26:45 Apple, TV Rights, and Success in America 03:41:52 F1: The Business Today 03:56:23 Analysis: Why Did F1 Work… and Was Bernie Necessary? 04:05:40 7 Powers 04:08:23 Bear vs. Bull Cases 04:16:32 Quintessence 04:20:08 Carve-Outs + Outro ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

The NFL is nearly synonymous with America today. Practically nothing is more quintessentially and universally American than tuning in every Sunday (and Monday, and Thursday… and sometimes Saturdays and holidays too) to watch the world’s most beautiful ballet of violence. It generates the most revenue of any sports league globally and sets new records for team valuations each year. But it wasn’t always this way. The history of the NFL mirrors America’s own development: scrappy small-town teams rode the successive growth waves of the automobile, TV, the Internet and social media to grow larger than the even the founders’ wildest dreams. Whether you watch football or not, the NFL is one incredible business story, and one that we’ve taken more lessons from over the years for Acquired itself than perhaps any other episode we’ve made. Note: This is a remastered release of our original January 2023 episode, updated to today's Acquired production standards. It also features a full hour+ followup section at the end covering the seismic shifts in the NFL’s business since the original episode’s release. Much has happened in those three years: Taylor Swift entered the league (via merger 🙂), streaming went mainstream (and took over Thanksgiving and Christmas), sports gambling exploded from 46 million to 76 million bettors, and — in perhaps the most surprising development — private equity finally stormed the gates of the NFL. Oh, and average franchise valuations grew by 60% from $4.5 billion to over $7 billion. Communist capitalism is alive and well! We're also releasing this episode in advance of Super Bowl LX here in San Francisco, where Acquired is hosting the NFL’s inaugural Super Bowl Innovation Summit! Sponsors: Many thanks to our partners: Vanta Sierra Crusoe Sentry (+ join the list for Sentry & Vercel’s Super Bowl Fan Zone party) Links: Innovation Summit details and all Super Bowl LX Week events in San Francisco (note content from the Innovation Summit will be posted publicly the week after the Super Bowl — we’ll update this page with links when available) America’s Game Sports Illustrated’s oral history of the famous Joe Namath “pool photo” All episode sources Carve Outs: The Menu Peyton’s Places More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! 00:00:00 Start 00:00:37 Intro - Welcome to the Remastered NFL Episode 00:06:05 Origins of Football & the Forward Pass (1869-1905) 00:14:34 The Founding of the NFL (1920) 00:41:52 Bert Bell's "Any Given Sunday" Philosophy (1946) 01:03:28 Pete Rozelle Transforms the League (1960) 01:56:34 The Creation of the Super Bowl (1966) 02:09:47 Monday Night Football Invents Modern Sports TV (1970) 02:37:19 The NFL's Business Model Explained 02:39:28 CTE & the Kaepernick Controversy (2016) 02:48:36 Analysis: Playbook & 7 Powers Analysis 03:21:04 2026 UPDATE: Netflix, Youtube, Amazon Streaming, T-Swift, Gambling & New TV Deals 03:57:11 Private Equity Enters the NFL (2024) 04:14:08 Conclusion & Thank Yous ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Rolex is a series of paradoxes. They sell obsolete and objectively inferior mechanical devices for 10-1000x the price of their superior digital successors… and demand is stronger than ever in history! Their products are comparable to a Hermès Birkin bag in price, luxury status and waitlist times… yet they produce over 1m units / year (roughly 10x annual Birkin production). They make the most universally recognized and desired Swiss watches… yet their founder wasn’t Swiss and didn’t start the company in Switzerland! If Rolex were publicly traded, they’d almost certainly be among the top 50 market cap companies in the world… yet they’re 100% owned by a charitable foundation in Geneva that (among other things) literally just gives away money to local people in the city. Tune in for one of the most fascinating and admirable companies we’ve ever covered on Acquired. We had an absolute blast making the episode, and hope you enjoy it as much as we did! This episode was released on February 23, 2025. 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 Links: The Renaissance of the Swiss Watch Industry - Marc Bridge HODINKEE - Inside All Four Rolex Manufacturing Facilities “If you were…” campaign Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Rolex Study Episode sources Carve Outs: Bluey Acquired on Armchair Expert Eleven Reader 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Costco is not only Charlie Munger’s favorite company of all time (plus he’s on the board, natch), it’s an absolutely fascinating study in how seemingly opposite characteristics can combine to create incredible company value. For instance: Costco has the cheapest prices of any major retailer in America — and also the wealthiest customer base. They pay their hourly workers 30% above the industry norm (and give them excellent healthcare + 401k benefits) — and are almost 3x more profitable on labor than Walmart. Speaking of Walmart, Costco stocks 40x fewer SKUs than their Bentonville-based rivals — yet sells an average of 15x more volume of each. And oh yeah, practically all of Costco’s C-Suite started their careers as baggers and checkout clerks! Tune in for a mind-bending exploration of one of the world’s most iconic — and iconically unique — companies. This episode was released on August 20, 2023. Links: The Science of Hitting Warren Buffett’s Costco joke Episode sources Carve Outs: Tifosi sunglasses Dwells “take off everything” Jeremy Giffon on Invest Like the Best Dogpatch David Lidsky’s great piece on Acquired in Fast Company 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Why has Acquired — seemingly against all odds — “worked”? It's a puzzling question: episodes are four hours long, they come out infrequently, and they usually don’t have guests or video. Hardly the standard-issue playbook for podcasting success! And yet well over a million smart, curious and exceedingly busy humans share their (your!) valuable time with us every month. Why? This is the exact paradox that has been rolling around in the head of Michael Lewis (yes, that Michael Lewis) since he found the show earlier this year. So we asked Michael to be our guest "interlocutor" and share what he thinks is going on here, while we share ten lessons we've stolen (graciously) from companies we've studied and brought into Acquired itself. He takes us through the entire Acquired journey: how we started, why we've never hired anyone or raised money, how we pick episodes, what our business model actually is, why we focus on quality and enjoyment over maximizing enterprise value, and ultimately why we’re all — you, him, us — kindred spirits together. Oh, and just for fun, we recorded this episode where another special journey began — the garage where Google was founded. Thank you for an incredible decade together… here's to the next one! Sponsors: Many thanks to our fantastic Fall ‘25 Season partners: J.P. Morgan Payments (you can watch our full show with them at AWS re:Invent here!) WorkOS Sentry Shopify Thank-yous: First, to Google for loaning us the garage. The sawhorse table desk, PC and CRT monitor on display in the background were all Google originals courtesy of the Google Founders Collection at the Computer History Museum. So cool! Second, to our friends at Shep Films for helping us seriously up our game on production quality this episode! Our Favorite Michael Lewis Books: Home Game Moneyball Liar’s Poker The Blind Side The Undoing Project (as referenced by Michael in the beginning, about Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky) Carve Outs: Books: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss Science, the Endless Frontier by Vannevar Bush Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase by Duff McDonald The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel Emperors of Chocolate by Joel Glenn Brenner Morris Chang's Autobiography Podcasts: Against the Rules Revisionist History SmartLess The Daily The Bill Simmons Podcast Graham Duncan on Invest Like the Best Glue Guys Video: Jay Kelly The Rehearsal Doug DeMuro Tires F1 The Movie Andor Fallout Severance Silo Video Games: Sea of Stars Kirby and the Forgotten Land Products: ARTEZA Rollerball Pen 0.7mm Fine Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencil Fujifilm X100VI Uniqlo Socks! On Running Shoes Rimowa Luggage Parenting: Guided Access on iPad Toy Story SlumberPod Bluey Experience in NYC More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Michael Lewis

Author

A(Against the Rules (podcast)M(Michael Lewis (author)

Coca-Cola is… sugar water. And somehow it’s also America, Christmas, summertime, friendship and happiness. Today we tell the story of how The Coca-Cola Company amazingly transmogrified a beverage into emotion in all of our collective psyches, and ALSO built one of the most incredible scale economy businesses of all-time. And oh yeah, there’s also cocaine, WW2, Mad Men, Warren Buffett, James Dean, Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, Michael Ovitz, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, McDonald’s and Monsanto. So cozy up to the fire with your favorite images of Santa Claus and Polar Bears and enjoy an ice-cold episode of Acquired — always delicious, always refreshing. 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 Links: Sign up for email updates and vote on future episodes! The Hilltop ad / Mad Men finale Pepsi Challenge commercials Pepsi’s Michael Jackson commercials Coke’s Bill Cosby commercials Two liter bottles inflating Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Coca-Cola Study For God, Country, and Coca-Cola Secret Formula All episode sources Carve Outs: SkiErg Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Claude Nike Vomero Plus Hermanos Gutiérrez 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 (00:00) - Start (00:41) - Intro (05:52) - Patent Medicines & the Birth of an Industry (12:13) - Dr. John Pemberton & the "Miracle Drug" Cocaine (16:40) - Creating the Secret Formula (1886) (22:14) - Frank Robinson's Genius & the First Coupon (32:18) - Asa Candler & Building a National Brand (1890s) (41:28) - The $1 Bottling Deal: A Fortuitous Mistake (54:00) - Protecting the "Real Thing": Lawsuits & the Contour Bottle (01:07:10) - Robert Woodruff: The Boss Takes Over (1923) (01:15:52) - Creating Lifestyle Advertising & Santa Claus (01:27:44) - Standardization, Gas Stations & Early Global Growth (01:36:25) - Pepsi: The First Real Competitor Emerges (01:44:27) - World War II: The Greatest Sampling Program in History (01:55:05) - The Cola Wars Begin & the McDonald's Partnership (1950s) (02:21:50) - The Pepsi Challenge (1975) (02:39:49) - New Coke: The Worst Marketing Blunder Ever (1985) (03:06:52) - Buffett's Investment & the "Total Beverage Company" (03:35:42) - Analysis: Why Did Coca-Cola Work? (03:41:10) - 7 Powers (03:48:01) - Quintessence (03:56:07) - Carve-Outs + Outro ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Trader Joe's breaks every rule of modern retail. They don't do e-commerce. They don't do delivery. No sales, coupons, or loyalty programs. They only stock 4,000 SKUs versus 50,000+ at normal supermarkets. Their parking lots are famously terrible and they're constantly out of your favorite items. Shoppers brave long lines and cramped aisles while overly-friendly employees in Hawaiian shirts try to chat them up. Everything about the Trader Joe's experience seems designed to drive modern consumers away. And yet they generate $2,000+ per square foot in sales — double their nearest competitor in Whole Foods and nearly 4x the industry average — and Americans are obsessed with them. How on earth did a company that so steadfastly refuses to participate in the 21st century build the most beloved grocery chain in America? Today we tell the full story: how “Trader” Joe Coulombe started out cloning 7-Elevens in 1960s Los Angeles, pivoted to slinging hard liquor, discovered the enormous market opportunities for California wine and health food before anyone else, and ultimately built perhaps the most counter-positioned business we’ve ever studied on Acquired by doing almost everything differently than the supermarket-CPG industrial complex. Tune in for a wild voyage on the high seas of grocery retail! 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 Links: Sign up for email updates and vote on future episodes! Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Trader Joe’s Study Becoming Trader Joe The Secret Life of Groceries Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's All episode sources Carve Outs: AirPods Pro 3 Mario Kart 8 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Google faces the greatest innovator's dilemma in history. They invented the Transformer — the breakthrough technology powering every modern AI system from ChatGPT to Claude (and, of course, Gemini). They employed nearly all the top AI talent: Ilya Sutskever, Geoff Hinton, Demis Hassabis, Dario Amodei — more or less everyone who leads modern AI worked at Google circa 2014. They built the best dedicated AI infrastructure (TPUs!) and deployed AI at massive scale years before anyone else. And yet... the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 caught them completely flat-footed. How on earth did the greatest business in history wind up playing catch-up to a nonprofit-turned-startup? Today we tell the complete story of Google's 20+ year AI journey: from their first tiny language model in 2001 through the creation Google Brain, the birth of the transformer, the talent exodus to OpenAI (sparked by Elon Musk's fury over Google’s DeepMind acquisition), and their current all-hands-on-deck response with Gemini. And oh yeah — a little business called Waymo that went from crazy moonshot idea to doing more rides than Lyft in San Francisco, potentially building another Google-sized business within Google. This is the story of how the world's greatest business faces its greatest test: can they disrupt themselves without losing their $140B annual profit-generating machine in Search? 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 Links: Sign up for email updates and vote on future episodes! Geoff Hinton’s 2007 Tech Talk at Google Our recent ACQ2 episode with Tobi Lutke Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Alphabet Study In the Plex Supremecy Genius Makers All episode sources Carve Outs: We’re hosting the Super Bowl Innovation Summit! F1: The Movie Travelpro suitcases Glue Guys Podcast Sea of Stars Stepchange Podcast 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

It’s finally here! Today we are releasing Acquired’s first “concert film” — the full video recording of our Radio City live show from this summer with Jamie Dimon, Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien, Barry Diller, and cameos from around the Acquired Cinematic Universe including Christina Cacioppo, Ben Clymer, and Howard Schultz. To watch the full production on any device, please head over to Spotify where you’ll find it available for free in the Acquired feed right alongside all our other episodes: https://open.spotify.com/episode/77Kl3BsiEQLpli2Q2ozZuf?si=4f4609e343504fd0 Sponsors: Live Show Presented By: J.P. Morgan Shopify ServiceNow More Acquired: Get email updates and vote on future episodes! Join the Slack Subscribe to ACQ2 Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store! ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Jamie Dimon

Chairman & CEO, JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase

Meredith Kopit Levien

President & CEO, The New York Times

The New York Times

Barry Diller

Chairman, IAC

IACExpedia Group

Christina Cacioppo

CEO

Vanta

Howard Schultz

Former CEO

Starbucks

In its first six years from 1998 to 2004, Google built one of the greatest products of all time (and certainly the greatest business of all time) with Search. Then in its next six years from 2005 to 2011, Google built seven (!) more billion+ user products: Gmail, Maps, Drive and Docs, YouTube, Chrome, Android, and Photos — all either started from scratch internally or acquired as startups that were still in their infancy. This six-year period of wild innovation STILL stands unmatched in technology history… no other tech company counts more than four billion+ user products in its portfolio total. And of course, this “Google 2.0” era culminated in the transformation of the very company itself into Alphabet. So the question we answer today is… how did they do it?? And why? What was the strategy that led a once “pure play” search company into such far flung fields as email, mapping, funny cat videos and operating systems? We unpack the brilliant (and sometimes accidental) strategies behind each product, the simultaneous three-front war Google fought against Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook, and the spectacular failure of Google Plus that nearly destroyed the company's culture — before ultimately setting the stage for both Alphabet and the AI revolution to come. Update: when you finish, check out our Google Part III episode, "The AI Company"! 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 Links: Sign up for email updates and vote on Fall Season episodes! Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat New Yorker article Eric Schmidt on stage at the iPhone keynote (!) Bill Gurley’s classic “Less than Free” Android post Our recent ACQ2 episode with Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Alphabet Study Episode sources Carve Outs: Bluey x Camp in NYC Steam Deck vs Switch 2 (Part 2) Claude Sony RX100 VII Carissimi clothing 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

We sit down with Jamie Dimon for a live conversation at Radio City Music Hall, covering the incredible journey from his 1998 firing at Citgroup (where he was widely expected to become CEO) to building the most powerful bank in the world. Today JPMorgan Chase is a juggernaut — the most systemically important non-governmental financial institution in the world, with over twice the market capitalization of its nearest competitor. But it certainly wasn’t always this way! Jamie takes us from his career restart at the struggling Chicago-based Bank One through how he transformed that platform into the foundation for the modern JPMorgan Chase. We dive into the “fortress balance sheet” strategy that has defined his tenure, and cover blow-by-blow Jamie’s approach to the Great Financial Crisis, Bear Stearns, WaMu, First Republic and more. Tune in for an incredible conversation, live from New York City’s most iconic venue! 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 Episode image photo credit: Rockefeller Center 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Jamie Dimon

Chairman & CEO, JPMorgan Chase

JPMorgan Chase

We tell the story of the single greatest business ever created: Google search. From its origins as a Stanford research project called BackRub, Google became the front door to the internet. Today it’s an essential service for over half the world, and one that generates more profit than ANY other US company — more than Apple, Microsoft, or Berkshire Hathaway. But it wasn’t always so obvious. When Larry and Sergey began working on BackRub in 1996, search was a backwater industry in silicon valley. Existing search companies were eking out a living as vendors to the then-dominant “portals” like AOL and Yahoo. Google’s come-from-behind success was the result of three massive step-function leaps forward in algorithms, infrastructure and business model… some invented by Google and some borrowed (and perfected!) by them. Today, things are not so obvious once again for Google. Despite earning more profits than all of its big tech peers, its stock trades at significantly lower multiples — a $1 trillion or more discount to Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia. Investors are concerned that AI will render Google’s beautiful business model obsolete, even though Google also basically invented modern AI and continues to lead on many dimensions. This episode begins a multi-part series where we dive into the full history that led us to this point. Tune in and enjoy! Update: when you finish, check out our Google Part II episode, "Alphabet, Inc."! 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 Links: BackRub recreation Original Google logo Jeff Dean’s resume Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Alphabet Study Episode sources Carve Outs: The Rehearsal with Nathan Fielder (Season 2) Your Friends and Neighbors Andor Season 2 Gamecraft Season 3 Steam Deck vs Switch 2 dilemma 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

We sit down with Steve Ballmer, the legendary former Microsoft CEO and owner of the LA Clippers, for an epic conversation covering his 34 years at Microsoft. Steve listened to our Microsoft episodes and had some thoughts to share — and boy, did he deliver. Steve takes us point-by-point through the original IBM DOS deal that started everything, how he built Microsoft's enterprise business from scratch, and offers his candid reflections on missing mobile and search. We also cover the story behind “developers, developers, developers”, the complexities of his relationship with Bill Gates (including a year where they didn't speak), and why he ultimately decided to step down as CEO. Plus, we learn why Steve has held onto his Microsoft stock through it all — giving him arguably the best investment track record in the world over the last 10 years with his net worth growing from $20B to $130B since leaving. And of course, we couldn't resist also talking about his other passion: the Clippers and Intuit Dome. Hit play and get ready to experience the patented Steve Ballmer energy and fun on full display! 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 Links: Steve's PowerPoint Slides Join us July 15 at Radio City! 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Steve Ballmer

Former CEO

MicrosoftUSAFacts

What if we told you that the most important company in US healthcare was run from a farm in rural Wisconsin? And that farm contained the world’s largest subterranean auditorium, as well as Disneyland—style replicas of Hogwarts and the Emerald City? What if we told you that the person who started, runs and owns this establishment has legally ensured that it will never be sold, never go public and never acquire another company? And that this person, Judy Faulkner, is also likely the wealthiest and most successful self-made woman in history? Welcome to the story of Epic Systems, the software company that underpins the majority of the American healthcare system today. Epic isn’t “just” an electronic medical record (the category it’s usually lumped into), or an online patient portal (which is how most of the US population interacts with it via its MyChart application). It’s more akin to a central nervous system for hospitals and health clinics. Almost everything in a hospital — from patient interactions to billing, staffing, scheduling, prescriptions and even research — happens on Epic’s platform, and over 90% of American medical schools’ graduating doctors, nurses and health administrative staff are trained on it during their educations. Tune in as we dive into the almost-unbelievable story of how this epic company came to be! 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 Links: Save the date, July 15 in NYC! Epic’s Verona campus Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Epic Systems Study Episode sources Carve Outs: Ken Block in San Francisco Nintendo Switch 2 Knives Out Brat by Charli xcx Music To Refine To: A Remix Companion to Severance by ODESZA 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

When you saw this episode pop up in your feed, you either jumped for joy and hit play immediately (in which case you’re not reading this), or you said “Huh. That’s a surprising episode.” Well, if you’re in group two, boy do we have a treat for you! IPL is the fastest-growing, most dynamic and most disruptive force in the sports industry today… and this may come as a shock to many Americans, but it might just be on track to surpass the NFL as the world’s most valuable sports league. The IPL is currently valued at $16B, with a TV rights deal that’s higher in per-match dollars than the NBA and the English Premier League. And all this for a league that’s right now just 10 teams who collectively only play 74 total games per season… and oh yeah, the whole thing is only 17 years old! Tune in for an absolutely amazing story, filled with genius, drama (Rupert Murdoch! Disney! Bollywood!) and a perfect encapsulation of the rise of modern India. 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 Links: Save the date, July 15 in NYC! Ed Cowan’s Business Breakdowns of IPL Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade IPL Study Episode sources Carve Outs: Severance Stratechery 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

We flew to Taiwan to interview TSMC Founder Morris Chang in a rare English interview. In fact, the last long-form video interview we could find was 17 years ago at the Computer History Museum… conducted by the one-and-only Jensen Huang! This episode came about after asking ourselves a version of the Jeff Bezos “regret minimization” question: what conversations would we most regret not having if the chance passed Acquired by? Dr. Chang was number one on our list, and thanks to a little help from Jensen himself, we’re so happy to make it happen. Dr. Chang shares the stories of a few crucial moments from TSMC’s history which have only been written about in his (currently Chinese-only) memoirs, including how TSMC won Apple’s iPhone and Mac chip business and a 2009 discrepancy with NVIDIA that almost jeopardized their relationship, and the lessons he took from them. We can’t think of a better way to kick off 2025. Please enjoy! 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 Links: Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade TSMC Study Karina Bao’s writing Carve Outs: AAA Defunctland Everything Everywhere all at Once Asianometry 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 Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Morris Chang

Founder

TSMC

M&M’s, Snickers, Milky Way, Double Mint, Ben’s Rice, Pedigree, Whiskas, VCA, Banfield… all the brands you know, owned by the company you know nothing about: Mars, Incorporated. And Mars itself is 100% owned and deeply intertwined with the Mars family, who are currently the second wealthiest (and perhaps first most secretive!) family in the United States. Tune in for one of the 20th century’s most incredible entrepreneurial stories across candy and pet care, and one that’s all the more incredible because it’s so little-known! 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 Links: Hershey’s M&M response: Hershey-ets Our past episodes on Berkshire Hathaway, LVMH, and Novo Nordisk Worldly Partners Multi-Decade Mars Study Episode sources Carve Outs: Dandelion Chocolate and the Dandelion Advent Calendar Tesla Model Y + repair service Silo Home Alone 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

IKEA may be the most singular company we’ve ever studied on Acquired. They’re a globally scaled, $50B annual revenue company with no direct competitors — yet have only ~5% market share. They’re one of the largest retailers in the world — yet sell only their own products. They generate a few billion in free cash flow every year — yet have no shareholders. And oh yeah, they also sell hot dogs cheaper than Costco! (Sort of.) Tune in for an episode flat-packed with counterintuitive lessons about how this folksy mail order business from the Swedish countryside came into your living rooms (and bedrooms and dining rooms and kitchens and bathrooms and patios and garages and backyards) all over the globe! 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 Links: Please take our 2024 Acquired Survey if you have a minute. It'd mean the world to us! The Testament of a Furniture Dealer Our past episodes on Costco, Walmart, Amazon, LVMH and Hermès Worldly Partners Multi-Decade IKEA Study Episode sources Carve Outs: Detroiters The 11-inch iPad Pro The QB School Ice Cube at the World Series 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Meta is a company everyone knows (literally, everyone). But, somehow, it’s also a company that few people feel they actually understand. Their products are used by more humans than any other’s in history — almost half of the entire world’s population daily. But… what is Meta? Why do they do what they do? How do they do what they do? Ask ten people and you’ll likely get ten very different sets of answers. Today, we dive deeper than we’ve ever gone trying to find Acquired’s answers to those questions. And after months of research and 6+ hours of incredible stories about how they (and really “they” being Mark himself) bet it all and win time and time again in the face of overwhelming odds, we arrive at our answers. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, AI, Oculus, Orion, it’s all here. Tune in for one of the greatest corporate stories of all time: Meta, a Mark Zuckerberg Production. 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 Links: Please take our 2024 Acquired Survey if you have a minute. It'd mean the world to us! https://acquired.fm/survey Our past episodes on Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, Snapchat, the Snap IPO, TikTok, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and the Mark Zuckerberg Interview Worldly Partners: Meta multi-decade study Episode sources Carve Outs: Ben Cohen’s piece on NotebookLM Mr. McMahon The Dwarkesh Podcast   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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Here it is: the complete video of the most unbelievable night of Acquired’s nine-year life… our sold out live show at the Chase Center in San Francisco. We joked during the months (months!) of preparation leading up to this event that it was like planning a wedding for 6,000 Acquired fans, and the guest list included Jamie Dimon, Daniel Ek, Emily Chang, Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg… no pressure! But thanks to our amazing partnership with J.P. Morgan Payments, together we were able to make something incredible. Tune in and enjoy the celebration! 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 Links: Mike Taylor, the truly incomparable performer of Who Got the Truth? Mike Amiri (who designed Mark’s shirt) 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 Photo Credit: Mark Zuckerberg by Jeff Sainlar / Meta © Copyright 2024 ACQ, LLC ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Daniel Ek

CEO and Co-Founder

Spotify

Jensen Huang

Co-founder & CEO, NVIDIA

NVIDIA

Mark Zuckerberg

Co-founder and CEO

MetaChan Zuckerberg InitiativeFacebookChan Zuckerberg Biohub

Mark is the iconic founder CEO of our time. At Chase Center on September 10, 2024, he did an unprecedented thing: a live conversation in front of 6,000 people on Meta’s company strategy, sharing stories from early Facebook history, and his thoughts on the future of AI, VR, and AR. Mark was remarkably candid in our discussion, and gave us a window into his real and intense daily demeanor leading Meta. (And his other life endeavors!) We can't wait to release the complete video of the whole night, including our surprise conversations with Daniel Ek, Emily Chang, and cameo appearances from Jensen Huang and Mike Taylor (the incredible singer of “Who Got the Truth?”). That’s coming in a couple weeks, but for now: enjoy this conversation with Mark Zuckerberg. 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 Links: Mike Amiri (who designed Mark’s shirt!) 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 Photo Credit: Mark Zuckerberg by Jeff Sainlar / Meta © Copyright 2024 ACQ, LLC ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Mark Zuckerberg

Co-founder and CEO

MetaChan Zuckerberg InitiativeFacebookChan Zuckerberg Biohub

Summer greetings from Acquired! Two items for this “mini-episode”: Tickets are now available for our live show at Chase Center in San Francisco, with special guests including Mark Zuckerberg (!). The show is Tuesday, September 10th, with doors opening at 5 PM for an hour of mingling with other listeners before the show starts at 6 PM. Huge thank you to the J.P. Morgan Payments team for being our incredible partner in making this happen. Tickets are almost gone so make sure you grab one ASAP — you don’t want to miss this night! https://acquired.fm/sf We also figured this is a good excuse to update you all on the state of Acquired — after an incredible first half of the year (including WSJ’s profile of the show) we are taking the rest of the summer off to recharge, parent our young children, and prepare for the big night in September. We hope you’re having a great summer, and we’ll see you live in the fall! Carve Outs: Thule Urban Glide 3 Disney’s Aulani Resort Meller sunglasses Quarterback and Receiver on Netflix More Acquired: Subscribe to ACQ2 Join the Slack: https://acquired.fm/slack © Copyright 2024 ACQ, LLC ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

In 1999, Microsoft became the most valuable company in the world. And in 2019, Microsoft became the most valuable company in the world, again. But… what happened in the twenty years in between? The answer, as we discovered in our research, is probably not what you think. In this episode we explore and analyze the browser wars and the DOJ case, Windows XP through 8, Surface, Xbox, search, Yahoo!, Bing, the iPhone, Nokia, mobile, social, Facebook… and oh yeah, a little thing called Azure and the enterprise — which ended up becoming so big that no failures mattered. Tune in for Microsoft, Volume II. 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 Links: Bill Gurley on Android’s “Less Than Free” business model All episode sources Carve Outs: Meta Ray-Bans Ozlo Sleepbuds M3 Macbook Air Model Y 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Starbucks. You’d be hard pressed to name any brand that’s more ubiquitous in the world today. With nearly half a billion global customer purchases per week across its stores and 3rd party retail channels, a significant portion of the human population gets their daily fix in the green and white paper cup. (Including our own Ben Gilbert who famously enjoys his daily spinach feta wrap. :) But it wasn’t always this way. Long before the frappuccinos and the PSLs and the cake pops, Starbucks was just a small-time Seattle roaster that only sold beans — and was started not by Howard Schultz but rather the guys who later ran Peet’s (!). Starting from six tiny stores when Howard took over in 1987, this quirky coffee company named after a character from Moby Dick has scaled to nearly 40,000 locations worldwide. Today, in a first for Acquired, the protagonist himself joins us as a third cohost to tell the whole story of Starbucks. And Howard is in the perfect moment to do this — after three separate stints as CEO he’s now retired, off the board of directors, and in his own words “not coming back.” So place a mobile order (or not! as you’ll hear Howard speak about), sit back with your own favorite Starbucks items, and enjoy. 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 The Biggest Thing We’ve Ever Done: San Francisco. September 10, 2024. Mark your calendars. Links: Howard’s letter “The Soul of a Brand” Worldly Partners’ multi-decade Starbucks analysis Starbucks S-1 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 © Copyright 2024 ACQ, LLC ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Howard Schultz

Former CEO

Starbucks

Microsoft. After nearly a decade of Acquired episodes, we are finally ready to tackle the most valuable company ever created. The company that put a computer on every desk and in every home. The company that invented the software business model. The company that so thoroughly and completely dominated every conceivable competitor that the United States government intervened and kneecapped it… yet it’s STILL the most valuable company in the world today. This episode tells the story of Microsoft in its heyday, the PC Era. We cover its rise from a teenage dream to the most powerful business and technology force in history — the 20-year period from 1975 to 1995 that took Bill and Paul from the Lakeside high school computer room to launching Windows 95 alongside Jay Leno and the Rolling Stones. From BASIC to DOS, Windows, Office, Intel, IBM, Xerox PARC, Apple, Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer… it’s all here, and it’s all amazing. Tune in and enjoy… Microsoft. 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 Links: Congress changing copyright law in 1980 to include “computer programs” Acquired “classic” on Microsoft’s 1987 acquisition of Forethought / PowerPoint Quartr's charts on Microsoft's revenues, market cap, IBM comparison, and more All episode sources Carve Outs: LGR André 3000’s new album + GQ Interview Meta Ray-Bans Visual Designer Julia Rundberg Summer Health 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Renaissance Technologies is the best performing investment firm of all time. And yet no one at RenTec would consider themselves an “investor”, at least in any traditional sense of the word. It’d rather be more accurate to call them scientists — scientists who’ve discovered a system of math, computers and artificial intelligence that has evolved into the greatest money making machine the world has ever seen. And boy does it work: RenTec’s alchemic colossus has posted annual returns in the firm’s flagship Medallion Fund of 68% gross and 40% net over the past 34 years, while never once losing money. (For those keeping track at home, $1,000 invested in Medallion in 1988 would have compounded to $46.5B today… if you’d been allowed to keep it in.) Tune in for an incredible story of the small group of rebel mathematicians who didn’t just beat the market, but in the words of author Greg Zuckerman “solved it.” 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 Links: The Man Who Solved the Market The Quants Bloomberg’s 2016 RenTec profile Quartr's visualization of RenTec's returns All episode sources Carve Outs: Modern Treasury’s Transfer Conference Registration The New Look Cole Haan x Acquired! Class of Palm Beach (and the Mini Kelly inside the Birkin!!) 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 ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

In luxury, there’s Hermès… and there’s everyone else. Stewarded by one French family over six generations, Hermès sells the absolute pinnacle of the French luxury dream. Loyal clients will wait years simply for the opportunity to buy one of the company’s flagship Birkin or Kelly bags. Unlike every other luxury brand, Hermès: Doesn’t increase supply to meet demand (hence the waitlists) Doesn’t loudly brand their products (IYKYK) Doesn’t do celebrity endorsements (stars buy their bags just like everyone else) Doesn’t even have a marketing department! (they barely advertise at all) And yet everyone knows who they are and what they represent. But, despite all their iconoclasm, this is not a company that’s stood still for six generations. Unbeknownst to most, Hermès has completely reinvented itself at least three times in its 187-year history. Including most recently (and most dramatically) by the family’s current leaders, who responded to LVMH and Bernard Arnault’s 2010 takeover attempt by pursuing a radical strategy — scaling hand craftsmanship. And in the process they turned the company from a sleepy, ~$10B family enterprise into a $200B market cap European giant. Tune in for one incredible story! 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 Links: See our episode page for visuals! The saddle stitch (video) Inside the Saddlery at the Faubourg Hermès 2022 Annual Report Axel Dumas Interview All episode sources Carve Outs: Anker GaN Prime 100W charger Matter Perplexity The Score Takes Care of Itself ‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.