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For the final act of the Arena Show, we’re joined by Brooks CEO Jim Weber to tell the amazing story of how he transformed the company from a 3rd tier, deeply cashflow negative “also-ran” into one of the world’s premiere fitness brands and a crown jewel of the Berkshire Hathaway empire — with compounding revenue and cashflow growth that rivals even the legendary Mrs. See’s Candies! If you want more Acquired, you can follow our newly public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!). Links: Jim's book, "Running with Purpose" Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 10, Vanta! Vanta is the leader in automated security compliance – making SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and more a breeze for startups and organizations of all sizes. You might say they’re like the “AWS of security and compliance”. Everyone in the Acquired community can get 10% off using this link. Thank you as well to Vouch and to SoftBank Latin America! ‍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 did an Arena Show!! This evening was so big and so special, we had to split it into two episodes for the podcast feed. First up is the Idea Dinner with our best internet buddies, Packy McCormick and Mario Gabriele (and special guest judge Shu Nyatta), followed by the story of YC Continuity with managing partner Anu Hariharan. Huge, huge thank you to PitchBook for making this night possible. Stay tuned for Part II! If you want more Acquired, you can follow our newly public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!). Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 10, Vanta! Vanta is the leader in automated security compliance – making SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and more a breeze for startups and organizations of all sizes. You might say they’re like the “AWS of security and compliance”. Everyone in the Acquired community can get 10% off using this link. Thank you as well to Vouch and to SoftBank Latin America! ‍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.

By 2012, NVIDIA was on a decade-long road to nowhere. Or so most rational observers of the company thought. CEO Jensen Huang was plowing all the cash from the company’s gaming business into building a highly speculative platform with few clear use cases and no obviously large market opportunity. And then... a miracle happened. A miracle that led not only to Nvidia becoming the 8th largest market cap company in the world, but also nearly every internet and technology innovation that’s happened in the decade since. Machines learned how to learn. And they learned it... on Nvidia. PSA: We’re doing an ARENA SHOW!! May 4th, 2022 in Seattle (Star Wars day). All proceeds go to charity. We’d love to see you there! If you want more Acquired, you can follow our newly public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!). Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 10, Vanta! Vanta is the leader in automated security compliance – making SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and more a breeze for startups and organizations of all sizes. You might say they’re like the “AWS of security and compliance”. Everyone in the Acquired community can get 10% off using this link. Thank you as well to Vouch and to SoftBank Latin America! Links: Ben Thompson’s great Stratechery interview with Jensen Linus Tech Tips tests an Nvidia A100 Episode sources Carve Outs: The Expanse short story collection, Memory's Legion Sony RX100 point-and-shoot camera ‍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 once again with one of the world’s very best strategy thinkers, 7 Powers author Hamilton Helmer — this time joined by his impressive Strategy Capital colleague Chenyi Shi — to discuss platform businesses, and how the Power framework applies to them. If you’re building, investing in, or just curious about the dynamics of platforms, this episode is a must-listen. We owe a huge thanks to Hamilton and Chenyi for sharing their work-in-progress insights on this very special category of companies. Tune in! This episode has video! You can watch it on Spotify (right in the main podcast interface) or on YouTube. Also -- JOIN US FOR THE ACQUIRED ARENA SHOW!!  May 4th, at 5 PM in Seattle! You can RSVP at https://acquired.fm/arenashow. Hope to see you there!   Sponsors: Thanks to the Solana Foundation for being our presenting sponsor for this special episode. Solana is the world’s most performant blockchain, the BEST place for developers to build Web3 applications, and of course very near & dear to the Acquired community’s heart. You get in touch with them here, and learn more about Stake Pools here , and just tell them them at Ben and David sent you! Thank you as well to Modern Treasury and to Mystery. ‍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.

He wears signature leather jackets. He can bench press more than you. He makes cars that drive themselves. He’s cheated death — both corporate and personal — too many times to count, and he runs the 8th most valuable company in the world. Nope, he's not Elon Musk, he’s Jensen Huang — the most badass CEO in semiconductor history. Today we tell the first chapter of his and Nvidia’s incredible story. You’ll want to buckle up for this one! This episode has video! You can watch it on Spotify (right in the main podcast interface) or on YouTube. PSA: if you want more Acquired, you can follow our newly public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!). Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 10, Vanta! Vanta is the leader in automated security compliance – making SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and more a breeze for startups and organizations of all sizes. You might say they’re like the “AWS of security and compliance”. ️ Everyone in the Acquired community can get 10% off using this link: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta Thank you as well to Vouch and to SoftBank Latin America. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquired-vouch https://bit.ly/acquiredsoftbanklatam Links: Shoot to Kill: https://www.forbes.com/global/2008/0107/070.html?sh=261e2068d077 Episode sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wt5jSpqjsRuYU00pq_ABWTM0iJ68hjMceF9XrreYPko/edit?usp=sharing Carve Outs: Starting Strength: https://startingstrength.com Elden Ring: https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/elden-ring/elden-ring ‍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 hear a lot these days about hedge funds becoming venture firms, and venture firms becoming hedge funds. But a decade before either of those approaches became mainstream, a tiny $3m fund in Boston named Altimeter Capital set out simply to invest in a concentrated portfolio of America’s very best technology companies, regardless if they were public or private. Today that tiny firm has grown to nearly $15B under management and become a premier “capital partner” to founders at all but the very earliest stages — companies like Snowflake, Facebook, Roblox, Plaid, Grab and Acquired fan-favorite Modern Treasury. We sit down with founder & CEO Brad Gerstner to dive into the story behind Altimeter’s meteoric rise. This episode has video! You can watch it on Spotify (right in the main podcast interface) or on YouTube. PSA: if you want more Acquired, you can follow our newly public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!). Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 10, Vanta! Vanta is the leader in automated security compliance – making SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and more a breeze for startups and organizations of all sizes. You might say they’re like the “AWS of security and compliance”. Everyone in the Acquired community can get 10% off using this link: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta Thank you as well to Vouch and to SoftBank Latin America. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquired-vouch https://bit.ly/acquiredsoftbanklatam Carve Outs: Brad’s Twitter thread on Invest America: https://twitter.com/altcap/status/1347454947583950849?s=20&t=gM5zJMcq9p96GcjEHZw56w ‍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.

Born in the unlikeliest of places — the terrible, wasteland-like aftermath of post WWII Japan — Sony rose to capture the imaginations (and wallets) of consumers and engineers around the world. The company produced hit after hit after hit: portable transistor radios, CDs, the Walkman, the PlayStation, DVDs, life insurance(!!)... and yet ultimately fell behind its greatest American admirer, Steve Jobs and Apple. This is the incredible story of Sony’s human and technological optimism in the face of overwhelming odds — a story that, given recent world events, remains as relevant today as ever. This episode has video! You can watch it on Spotify (right in the main podcast interface) or on YouTube. PSA: if you want more Acquired, you can follow our newly public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!). Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 10, Vanta! Vanta is the leader in automated security compliance – making SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and more a breeze for startups and organizations of all sizes. You might say they’re like the “AWS of security and compliance”. ️ Everyone in the Acquired community can get 10% off using this link: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta Thank you as well to Vouch and to SoftBank Latin America. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquired-vouch https://bit.ly/acquiredsoftbanklatam Links: Steve Jobs’ Tribute to Akio Morita: https://youtu.be/Drwkvf76Cls Planet Money on Sony and Spider-Man: https://www.npr.org/2022/01/28/1076531156/the-spider-man-problem Episode sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LpnPSju5xSPcuaRVd1TYXnL1oGBr4Qs5bRS7owbxoEc/edit?usp=sharing Carve Outs: How This All Happened by Morgan Housel: https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/how-this-all-happened/ The Model 3 is AWESOME: https://www.tesla.com/model3 ‍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.

Like so many, we’ve been both heartbroken and inspired by what’s happening Ukraine. Our friends at Solana and FTX are announcing today that they’ve helped Everstake — a Ukrainian company and the largest Solana validator in the world — set up a DAO called Aid for Ukraine that can 1) accept crypto donations, and 2) directly offramp them into the Ukrainian central bank (in fiat currency) via FTX’s rails. This is — as far as we know — the first project of its kind anywhere in the world, and an incredibly ambitious response to a terrible human crisis. We recorded a brief conversation with Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakavenko and Everstake CEO Sergey Vasylchuk, who has spearheaded this project and who as you’ll hear is currently on the ground in Ukraine amidst fighting and bombing. You can follow and donate to Aid for Ukraine, and/or other non-cypto projects via the links below: Links: Aid for Ukraine: https://nation.io/dao/ukraine Aid for Ukraine’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/_AidForUkraine Sergey’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sergattic Packy’s piece and resources: https://www.notboring.co/p/ukraine-fc5? Come Back Alive: https://savelife.in.ua/en/donate/ Direct link to the Ukrainian Central Bank (in Ukrainian): https://bank.gov.ua/ua/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-spetsrahunok-dlya-zboru-koshtiv-na-potrebi-armiyi

We sit down with two of the most talented and respected people in Hollywood — Brian Koppelman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt — to talk about the process of adapting Mike Issac’s story of Uber, “Super Pumped”, into their new Showtime series. To say this was a thrill for us is a MASSIVE understatement. Huge thank yous to Brian, Joe and Showtime for making it happen! This episode has video! You can watch it on Spotify (right in the main podcast interface) or on YouTube. PSA: if you want more Acquired, you can follow our newly public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice. Sponsors: Thanks to the Solana Foundation for being our presenting sponsor for this special episode. Solana is the world’s most performant blockchain, the BEST place for developers to build Web3 applications, and of course very near & dear to the Acquired community’s heart. You get in touch with them at https://bit.ly/acquiredsolana , and with Phantom at https://phantom.app , and just tell them that Ben and David sent you! Thank you as well to Modern Treasury and to Mystery. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredmoderntreasury https://bit.ly/acquiredmystery Links: Super Pumped (the series): https://www.sho.com/super-pumped Super Pumped (the book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PZ2B85Y/ Carve Outs: Joe performing Katy Perry in the style of The Cure on Jimmy Fallon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2lGEZOOHwI Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker companion podcast: https://www.pushkin.fm/show/against-the-rules-with-michael-lewis/ Stevie Van Zandt’s Unrequited Infatuations: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R56XNMQ/ Your Undivided Attention: https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/a-problem-well-stated-is-half-solved Jakob Dylan on The Moment: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5xNbG6XBjoVLDvpOUbZSIr?si=engSyJ9IQlePpqDOw7rSjw Joe’s Don Jon: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2229499/ HitRecord: https://hitrecord.org ‍ 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 perhaps the only person besides Marc Andreessen who’s had a major influence on each of the Web 1, 2 and 3 eras: Brave Browser CEO (and former Netscape + Mozilla Chief Architect) Brendan Eich. In true Acquired fashion we cover both a huge amount of both internet history AND internet future in one awesome conversation. Big thank you to Brendan for making this so special — tune in! This episode has video! You can watch it on Spotify (right in the main podcast interface) or on YouTube. PSA: if you want more Acquired, you can follow our newly public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!). Sponsors: Thanks to the Solana Foundation for being our presenting sponsor for this special episode. Solana is the world’s most performant blockchain, the BEST place for developers to build Web3 applications, and of course very near & dear to the Acquired community’s heart. You get in touch with Solana at https://bit.ly/acquiredsolana, and with Project Serum at https://www.projectserum.com, and just tell them that Ben and David sent you! Thank you as well to Modern Treasury and to Mystery. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredmoderntreasury https://bit.ly/acquiredmystery Links: Brave: https://brave.com Carve Outs: Project Hail Mary: https://www.amazon.com/Project-Hail-Mary-Andy-Weir-ebook/dp/B08FHBV4ZX Open: https://www.amazon.com/Open-Andre-Agassi-ebook/dp/B003062GEE/ San Fransicko: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SMFSL5M/ Dynamic Economics: ****https://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Economics-Burton-H-Klein/dp/0674218663 ‍ 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 Peloton journey has been one seriously wild ride. From can’t raise money to one of Tiger Global’s first venture investments, to pandemic darling to the stock being down 85% in 6 months... there’s never a dull moment in this company’s history. And guess who’s leading the pack for its next chapter: that’s right, THREE-TIME ACQUIRED SUPERHERO, the one and only Barry McCarthy. We had to tell this story. This episode has video! You can watch it on Spotify (right in the main podcast interface) or on YouTube. PSA: if you want more Acquired, you can follow our newly public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!). Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 10, Vanta! Vanta is the leader in automated security compliance – making SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and more a breeze for startups and organizations of all sizes. You might say they’re like the “AWS of security and compliance”. Everyone in the Acquired community can get 10% off using this link: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta Thank you as well to Vouch and to SoftBank Latin America. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquired-vouch https://bit.ly/acquiredsoftbanklatam Links: Barry’s Hill School interview on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uwcSbe6YoE Episode sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qs4DwVFBTMCyEt7Xxlby6iRCpOs0aRTOWPLjrbFQO8Q/edit?usp=sharing Carve Outs: Barry’s planning framework from the Hill School interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uwcSbe6YoE Switched On Pop on James Bond’s Spycraft Sound: https://switchedonpop.com/episodes/james-bond-spycraft-sound-billie-eilish-hans-zimmer-daniel-craig ‍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.

Not only is Taylor Swift the biggest music artist of our generation by nearly every metric (it’s not even close!), with the re-recording of her original albums she’s in the process of reshaping the entire music industry in a way no band or artist ever has before. And oh yeah — she’s still only thirty-two. We dive into the incredible business story behind perhaps the new "last great American dynasty"... the TSwift empire. PSA: if you want more Acquired, you can follow our newly public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!). Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 10, Vanta! Vanta is the leader in automated security compliance – making SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and more a breeze for startups and organizations of all sizes. You might say they’re like the "AWS of security and compliance". Everyone in the Acquired community can get 10% off using this link: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta Thank you as well to Vouch and to SoftBank Latin America. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquired-vouch https://bit.ly/acquiredsoftbanklatam Links: Taylor Swift The Brightest Star: https://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Swift-Loves-Global-Sensation/dp/1912587556/ All You Need to Know About the Music Business: https://www.amazon.com/Need-Know-About-Music-Business/dp/1501122185/ Switched On Pop: https://switchedonpop.com/episodes/deja-vu-olivia-rodrigo-copyright-decoder-good-4-u-paramore Joni (Blue) vs. Taylor (Red) Album Art: https://gaylorlyrics.tumblr.com/post/624477640229863424/we-3-some-joni-mitchell-parallels Kelly Clarkson’s suggestion to re-record Taylor’s Big Machine albums: https://twitter.com/kellyclarkson/status/1150168164853882880?s=20 Episode sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YKvfZuBrMB_BawZzt5c6ap8b2KdNg7n5Ko2tqF5AkCE/edit?usp=sharing Carve Outs: The Beatles: Get Back: https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/series/the-beatles-get-back/7DcWEeWVqrkE Italic: https://italic.com ‍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.

Season 9 ends at the beginning — with the man who changed Hollywood forever and wrote the blueprint for A16Z’s upending of Silicon Valley a generation later, Michael Ovitz and his “Dream Factory”, Creative Artists Agency. From Jurassic Park to Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Goodfellas, Rain Man, ER, and even the Coca-Cola polar bears... almost nothing in 80s and 90s pop culture didn’t have CAA’s stamp on it. Speaking of dreams, this episode was totally one for us, and we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did making it!! Big news!! All back catalog LP Show episodes are now free and available to anyone! You can follow our new public LP Show feed here. It's already chock-full of 60+ great episodes like our VC Fundamentals series, interviews with founders of top early-stage startups, and master classes on pricing, marketplaces, SaaS investing and many more topics. Happy listening and happy holidays to everyone!! Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 9, Pilot.com! Pilot takes care of startups' bookkeeping, tax and CFO services so busy founders can focus on what matters. To paraphrase Jeff Bezos's AWS analogy: bookkeeping and tax don't make your product any better — so you should let Pilot handle them for you. Pilot is in fact backed by Bezos himself, along with other all-star investors including Sequoia, Index, and Stripe. They are truly the gold standard for startup bookkeeping, and many of the companies we work with run on them. You can get in touch with Pilot here: https://bit.ly/acquiredfmpilot , and Acquired listeners get 20% off their first 6 months! (use the link above) Thank you as well to PitchBook and to Nord Security. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredpitchbook https://bit.ly/acquirednord Links: Michael’s (truly excellent) book, Who Is Michael Ovitz?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B2HS77M/ ‍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 tell the definitive (audio!) story behind FTX's "speed run" — how this upstart crypto exchange became the fastest company in history to reach a $25B valuation, just two years after founding. And to do so we're joined by not one but TWO of the very best people in the world to help: FTX's wunderkind CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, and special guest host Mario Gabriele from The Generalist, who Sam gave extensive access to FTX's internal data, employees, and investors for his canonical 36,000 word trilogy on the company this past summer. We cover it all — from the "$20m/day" trade that started everything, to Tom Brady & Gisele, to Sam testifying last week in front of Congress. Don't blink or you might miss it! Big news!! All back catalog LP Show episodes are now free and available to anyone!! You can follow our new public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice. It's already chock-full of 60+ great episodes like our VC Fundamentals series, interviews with founders of top early-stage startups, and master classes on pricing, marketplaces, SaaS investing and many more topics. Happy listening and happy holidays to everyone!! Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 9, Pilot.com! Pilot takes care of startups' bookkeeping, tax and CFO services so busy founders can focus on what matters. To paraphrase Jeff Bezos's AWS analogy: bookkeeping and tax don't make your product any better — so you should let Pilot handle them for you. Pilot is in fact backed by Bezos himself, along with other all-star investors including Sequoia, Index, and Stripe. They are truly the gold standard for startup bookkeeping, and many of the companies we work with run on them. You can get in touch with Pilot here: https://bit.ly/acquiredfmpilot , and Acquired listeners get 20% off their first 6 months! (use the link above) Thank you as well to PitchBook and to Nord Security. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredpitchbook https://bit.ly/acquirednord Links: The Generalist's FTX Trilogy: https://www.readthegeneralist.com/briefing/ftx-1 FTX: https://ftx.com FTX US: https://ftx.us Sam's Twitter: https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX ‍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.

You've heard us talk about him every episode for the past two years... but until now most of you have never actually heard us talk to him! To celebrate the LP Show going public, we've remastered our first, canonical interview with Hamilton Helmer, originally released as an LP episode in March 2020. Hamilton’s 7 Powers framework gives a deep, academic investigation to the question, “what creates an enduring company?” This episode is an absolute must-listen for anyone working or investing in tech (and beyond), and we're so excited to finally make it available to everyone. And if you want more episodes like this, we have good news... all back catalog LP Show episodes are now free and available to anyone! You can follow our new public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice. It's already chock-full of 60+ great episodes like our VC Fundamentals series, interviews with founders of top early-stage startups, and master classes on pricing, marketplaces, SaaS investing and many more topics. Happy listening and happy holidays to everyone!   Sponsors: 7 Powers on Amazon Sponsors: Thanks to SoftBank Latin America for being our presenting sponsor for this special episode. If you are an entrepreneur, employee, other investor or simply someone who's interested in learning about the best young companies in LatAm right now, get in touch with them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredsoftbanklatam , and tell them that Ben and David sent you! You can find career opportunities at the portfolio companies here: https://www.latinamericafund.com/careers Thank you as well to Modern Treasury and to Fundrise. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredmoderntreasury (and you can find our reverse interview with them at https://www.moderntreasury.com/acquired ) https://bit.ly/acquiredfundrise ‍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 does a creator become a company? Who says that media companies — or venture firms — have to be organizations? How high is the ceiling on one person + the internet? Acquired has the answers and they are... Not Boring. 🙂 Big news!! All back catalog LP Show episodes are now free and available to anyone!! You can follow our new public LP Show feed here http://pod.link/acquiredlp in the podcast player of your choice. It's already chock-full of 60+ great episodes like our VC Fundamentals series, interviews with founders of top early-stage startups, and master classes on pricing, marketplaces, SaaS investing and many more topics. Happy listening and happy holidays to everyone!! Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 9, Pilot.com! Pilot takes care of startups' bookkeeping, tax and CFO services so busy founders can focus on what matters. To paraphrase Jeff Bezos's AWS analogy: bookkeeping and tax don't make your product any better — so you should let Pilot handle them for you. Pilot is in fact backed by Bezos himself, along with other all-star investors including Sequoia, Index, and Stripe. They are truly the gold standard for startup bookkeeping, and many of the companies we work with run on them. You can get in touch with Pilot here: https://bit.ly/acquiredfmpilot , and Acquired listeners get 20% off their first 6 months! (use the link above) Thank you as well to PitchBook and to Nord Security. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredpitchbook https://bit.ly/acquirednord Links: Not Boring: https://www.notboring.co/ Proto-Not Boring: https://www.packym.com/blog/nyc-debate-club Not Boring's first sponsor deck: https://projector.com/story/2cb6296d-e229-4774-839c-efbf86d7f69f?scene=7127c7a0 Jake Singer's Not Boring Flywheel: https://theflywheel.substack.com/p/not-boring-packy-m Proof Ben was famous even before Acquired: https://web.archive.org/web/20150814041757/https://www.seattletimes.com/business/high-octane-leader-drives-microsoftrsquos-innovation-garage/ Carve Outs: Velcro swaddles (dad life...): https://www.amazon.com/s?k=velcro+swaddle An Engineer's Hype-Free Observations on Web3: https://www.psl.com/feed-posts/web3-engineer-take Rabbits: https://www.amazon.com/Rabbits-Novel-Terry-Miles-ebook/dp/B08HY29VM2 ‍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.

Of our 65+ sources for the TSMC episode, one stood above the rest: a wonderful Knowledge Project episode with Brinton Johns and Jon Bathgate of NZS Capital laying out the state of the semiconductor market. When coincidentally we met Brinton a week later, we knew fate was telling us we had to dig deeper. It turns out NZS has a lot more to teach Acquired than just about semis! Here we dive into their fascinating philosophy of "complexity investing", which was born out of their interactions with the world-famous Santa Fe Institute (of W. Brian Arthur and Increasing Returns fame!)... and of course we also throw in some semiconductor shop-talk for good measure. :) If you love Acquired and want more, join our LP Community for access to over 50 LP-only episodes, monthly Zoom calls, and live access for big events like emergency pods and book club discussions with authors. We can't wait to see you there. Join here at: https://acquired.fm/lp/ Sponsors: Thanks to SoftBank Latin America for being our presenting sponsor for this special episode. If you are an entrepreneur, employee, other investor or simply someone who's interested in learning about the best young companies in LatAm right now, get in touch with them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredsoftbanklatam , and tell them that Ben and David sent you! You can get in touch with their portfolio company Banco Inter and their CEO João Vitor Menin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/joãovitormenin/ Thank you as well to Modern Treasury and to Fundrise. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredmoderntreasury (and you can find our reverse interview with them at https://www.moderntreasury.com/acquired ) https://bit.ly/acquiredfundrise Links: NZS Capital: https://www.nzscapital.com The Santa Fe Institute: https://www.santafe.edu NZS's white paper on Complexity Investing: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ca38f3216b6405d11e3d4b4/t/60131df6a8d27d63432ea5ff/1611865607574/Complexity_2021update-v9pt2.pdf Brinton & Jon on The Knowledge Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6NUO_bymuA Twitter: Brinton: https://twitter.com/bjohns3 Jon: https://twitter.com/jbathgate Brad: https://twitter.com/bradsling ‍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 bring the epic saga of Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller to a close (for now) with two of history's greatest second acts: Rockefeller's pioneering of modern philanthropy (and really modern life itself), and perhaps the single greatest shareholder value "unlock" of all-time in the breakup of Standard Oil. And like any great American saga, of course the good guys win in the end. The only question is... just who were the good guys?? If you love Acquired and want more, join our LP Community for access to over 50 LP-only episodes, monthly Zoom calls, and access for live events and discussions with episode guests. We can't wait to see you there. Join here at: https://acquired.fm/lp/ Sponsors: Thank you to Pilot for being our presenting sponsor for all of Acquired Season 9! Pilot takes care of startups' bookkeeping, tax and CFO services so busy founders can focus on what matters. To paraphrase Jeff Bezos's AWS analogy: bookkeeping and tax don't make your product any better — so you should let Pilot handle them for you. Pilot is in fact backed by Bezos himself, along with other all-star investors including Sequoia, Index, and Stripe. They are truly the gold standard for startup bookkeeping, and many of the companies we work with run on them. You can get in touch with Pilot here: https://bit.ly/acquiredfmpilot , and Acquired listeners get 20% off their first 6 months! (use the link above) Thank you as well to PitchBook and to Nord Security. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredpitchbook https://bit.ly/acquirednord Links: Titan by Ron Chernow: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400077303/ Episode sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PzIts5VVgKhE70sAeHnLKcmDktTkXRgEVtuHDktfNCw/edit?usp=sharing Carve Outs: The to-be-announced (as of recording) M1X MacBook Pro... Starfish Space: https://www.starfishspace.com/ Peloton: https://www.onepeloton.com ‍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 the one & only Michael Mauboussin to dive deep into his incredible body of work: untangling skill and luck, measuring moats, persistence of returns in venture capital, decision making and — particularly timely — expectations investing and how to think about valuations in the current 2021 market environment. (!!) Michael's work is maybe our most frequent carve out on Acquired, so we're pumped to finally have a chance to interview the man himself. Big thank you to Patrick O'Shaughnessy and Brent Beshore for introducing us all at Capital Camp this year! If you love Acquired and want more, join our LP Community for access to over 50 LP-only episodes, monthly Zoom calls, and live access for big events like emergency pods and book club discussions with authors. We can't wait to see you there. Join here at: https://acquired.fm/lp/ Sponsors: Thanks to SoftBank Latin America for being our presenting sponsor for this special episode. If you are an entrepreneur, employee, other investor or simply someone who's interested in learning about the best young companies in LatAm right now, get in touch with them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredsoftbanklatam , and tell them that Ben and David sent you! You can get learn more about careers at their portfolio company QuintoAndar at https://carreiras.quintoandar.com.br Thank you as well to Modern Treasury and to Fundrise. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredmoderntreasury (and you can find our reverse interview with them at https://www.moderntreasury.com/acquired ) https://bit.ly/acquiredfundrise Jobs! Big news — we now have a full Acquired Job Board! It's a one-stop-shop with all the very best opportunities from the amazing companies in the Acquired community, including folks like Solana, Italic, Pilot, RabbitHole, Modern Treasury, Vouch, Zapier, Levels and more. AND, if you're more casually open to opportunities, we have a form you can fill out and we'll handpick the best ones and personally send to you as they come up. Check it out at https://www.acquired.fm/jobs Links: Michael's wonderful talk at Google: https://youtu.be/1JLfqBsX5Lc The new revised edition of Expectations Investing: https://www.amazon.com/Expectations-Investing-Reading-Returns-Heilbrunn/dp/0231203047/ The Success Equation: https://www.amazon.com/The-Success-Equation-Untangling-Investing/dp/1422184234/ Measuring the Moat: https://research-doc.credit-suisse.com/docView?language=ENG&format=PDF&sourceid=csplusresearchcp&document_id=1066439791&serialid=4uA2wHojCvFKzqWfwIyDvkSN1pkXRpb43LvyclLcJsk%3D&cspId=null Public to Private Equity: https://www.morganstanley.com/im/publication/insights/articles/articles_publictoprivateequityintheusalongtermlook_us.pdf ‍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 time. We dive into the *original* American capitalist mega winner, Standard Oil, and its legendary founder John D. Rockefeller. This company and man almost defy characterization -- Elon, Bezos, Gates, Buffett... they've got nothing on old John D. Not only was Rockefeller the wealthiest person in modern human history, his company wrote the blueprint for today's corporations and everything we now know about business and capitalism. Pull up a chair and get ready to hear how this hillbilly, nobody kid from the sticks grew up to became the richest person in the world, creating a legend along the way that would become the American Dream... If you love Acquired and want more, join our LP Community for access to over 50 LP-only episodes, monthly Zoom calls, and access for live events and discussions with episode guests. We can't wait to see you there. Join here at: https://acquired.fm/lp/ Sponsors: Thank you to Pilot for being our presenting sponsor for all of Acquired Season 9! Pilot takes care of startups' bookkeeping, tax and CFO services so busy founders can focus on what matters. To paraphrase Jeff Bezos's AWS analogy: bookkeeping and tax don't make your product any better -- so you should let Pilot handle them for you. Pilot is in fact backed by Bezos himself, along with other all-star investors including Sequoia, Index, and Stripe. They are truly the gold standard for startup bookkeeping, and many of the companies we work with run on them. You can get in touch with Pilot here: https://bit.ly/acquiredfmpilot, and Acquired listeners get 20% off their first 6 months! (use the link above) Thank you as well to PitchBook and to Nord Security. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquiredpitchbook https://bit.ly/acquirednord Links: Episode sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X7oskTGkPX_rIKqZFlN49USR20Ii6C9p2SJCGzEXHLU/edit?usp=sharing Carve Outs: There Will Be Blood: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469494/ Deadwood: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348914/ SB Nation's Secret Base Atlanta Falcons series: https://youtu.be/Lx_ORMhpmoU ‍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.