Google: The AI Company

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an... enterprise software company? We give the full Acquired treatment to newly-public Slack, one of the most extreme and successful pivots of all-time. From a log cabin in Canada to a never-ending game and back again, Slack’s journey has more twists and turns than a Hobbit’s tale. Tune in for one APLUSS story you don’t want to miss!Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnVanta: http://vanta.com/acquiredStatsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25More Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCLinksKara Swisher’s Flipcam interview with Glitch:  https://www.wsj.com/video/tiny-speck-stewart-butterfield-speaks/C51EAD27-FE8E-46AE-B785-6ECF1A9798B0.htmlMarc Andreessen on “all will still end well...” https://twitter.com/patphelan/status/1142733251691405312The Glitch public domain archive: https://www.glitchthegame.comNaming Slack: https://twitter.com/stewart/status/780906639301812225?s=21Carve OutsBen: The Expanse on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/The-Expanse-Season-1/dp/B018BZ3SCMDavid: Give to any non-profit on Alma: https://alma.app/blog/1-4-million-reasons-to-love-alma-search

25 Jun 20192h

Zoom board member (and general partner at Emergence Capital) Santi Subotovsky joins us to tell the true underdog story behind the hottest IPO of 2019. Together we trace founder Eric Yuan’s incredible journey from immigrant software developer, who didn’t speak any English upon arriving in Silicon Valley in 1997, to Glassdoor’s #1 rated CEO in America in 2018. In an age where border walls have replaced open doors in Washington, and burn rates and privacy scandals have sidelined Silicon Valley’s pretense of making the world a better place, there is no better reminder than Zoom of everything that can be great about our country and our industry.Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnVanta: http://vanta.com/acquiredStatsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25More Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCLinksWalt Mossberg’s review of Zoom in 2012:  http://allthingsd.com/20120821/a-chance-to-call-15-friends-to-video-chat-in-high-def/Carve OutsBen: General Magic https://www.generalmagicthemovie.comDavid: Dissect Season 4 https://dissectpodcast.com/subscribe-to-the-podcast/

19 Jun 20191h 23min

Acquired looks back at a monumental IPO from a *much* different era: Electronic Arts. We’re joined by EA’s founder Trip Hawkins to tell the incredible story of how he built the company that made video games mainstream. Starting from his high school years as both a geek and a jock, to then working for Steve Jobs as one of Apple Computer’s first employees and later completely changing the world of sports with John Madden Football, Trip always had a clear vision for what EA could become and what magic could happen at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts.Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnVanta: http://vanta.com/acquiredStatsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25More Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC

27 Mai 20192h 5min

Welcome to the big one. On the day of its IPO, we tell the story of Uber. It’s a story whose roots stretch back 130 years, but whose impact reverberates perhaps more powerfully on our current world than any other. A story that, in all of its greatness and in all of its ugliness, may just be the story of our time.Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnVanta: http://vanta.com/acquiredStatsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25More Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCLinks:Austin Geidt’s incredible journey: https://youtu.be/-NjaqDMYNVsTravis’s self-introduction as “the Wolf from Pulp Fiction”: https://youtu.be/VMvdvP02f-YTravis interview on TWiST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=550X5OZVk7Y

11 Mai 20192h 26min

In the second episode of our APLUSS(Z!) IPO saga, we dive into the history behind the planet’s largest non-social social network, Pinterest. From The Pirates of Silicon Valley to the bloggers of Salt Lake City, the creation story behind this “productivity tool for planning your dreams” is far from your typical unicorn journey. Once labelled as the “next Facebook” by investors and press, ten years later both Pinterest-the-product and Pinterest-the-company are in fact anything but. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing… tune in to find out!Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnVanta: http://vanta.com/acquiredStatsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25More Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCLinksPinterest’s S-1:  https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1506293/000119312519083544/d674330ds1.htmFun photos of the Pinterest early days from Leslie Kincaid:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/azy9xtxtq5l6r3y/AAC68OhprmVbauZreHPyLbn5a?dl=0Pinterest financial summary on Seeking Alpha: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4255230-know-pinterest-ipoCarve OutsBen: Eugene Wei on the Invest Like The Best Podcast: http://investorfieldguide.com/wei/David: A-Rod interviews George Springer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOqgxmG4yc8

24 Apr 20191h 44min

Call it the playoffs. Call it the Olympics. Call it March Madness. No matter which sports analogy you borrow, it falls short of capturing what Lyft's IPO yesterday kicked off in the tech world. A generational changing of the guard from the FAANG to the APLUSS (Airbnb, Pinterest, Lyft, Uber, Slack, Stripe). A breaking of the liquidity dam that's kept capital, technology and talent locked up in a small number of Silicon Valley winners for longer than ever in history. And most importantly, a public market avenue for investing in the largest single market created since the advent of the internet. Acquired is live on the scene recounting and analyzing the history of Lyft (and ridesharing broadly) in every exquisite detail!Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnVanta: http://vanta.com/acquiredStatsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25More Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCLinks:Lyft’s S-1:  https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1759509/000119312519059849/d633517ds1.htmDonate to Homobiles: http://bit.ly/2TM40nAÂCarve Outs:Ben: Bill Gurley on "Runnin' Down a Dream" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmYekD6-PZ8David: "Cricket Fever" on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80222770

30 Mar 20192h 22min

We enter the wayback machine and revisit the subject of Acquired’s second ever episode, Facebook’s bombshell 2012 acquisition of Instagram — this time with the help of then-Facebook executive Emily White, who moved over post-acquisition to become Instagram’s first business head. Together with Kevin and Mike, Emily helped build Instagram's business model, which today accounts for nearly 1/4 of all of Facebook’s revenue. Is this still Acquired’s canonical A+ with an extra 3.5 years of hindsight? Spoiler alert: yes.Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnVanta: http://vanta.com/acquiredStatsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25More Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCCarve Outs:Ben: Sam Harris on the Joe Rogan Experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ5_hAEsLkUDavid: Boom Town by Sam Anderson:  https://www.amazon.com/Boom-Town-Fantastical-Basketball-World-class-ebook/dp/B077RHYC4G

26 Feb 20191h 17min

Spotify + Gimlet/Anchor Quick Take!We continue to experiment on Acquired, this time with a quick-take on Spotify’s bombshell dual-acquisition of Anchor and Gimlet Media. While we may give these deals the full Acquired treatment in the future, we wanted to share our quick thoughts with you all sooner rather than later while the Acquired research department (aka Ben & David’s free time) works through the current episode backlog. Let us know if you like this format and we’ll do more in the future!Sponsors:Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsnVanta: http://vanta.com/acquiredStatsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25More Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC

19 Feb 201940min