Acquired

These guys take their time but every time they drop, it’s a banger. Loved some of their episodes, and I’m sure you will also!

I still need to watch some of the older episodes (like the one with Michael Mauboussin).

Watched Episodes

Benchmark’s Mitch Lasky and Blake Robbins on The Art of Business in Gaming

We sit down Benchmark’s legendary gaming investors Mitch Lasky and Blake Robbins (now also of the excellent Gamecraft podcast fame) to discuss the history and future of gaming business models. This episode is the perfect bookend to our Nintendo/Sega gaming series this season on Acquired — no one is more qualified than Mitch and Blake to breakdown how the business side of the industry has evolved so radically from the Periscope quarter-drop days to the forever games and platform based publishers of today. Regardless if you’re a gamer, understanding the incredible innovation that’s taken place over the past two decades in gaming and what it portends for other industries is critical for any founder and investor to understand. Tune in! ACQ2 Show + LP Program: Subscribe to our interview show, ACQ2! https://pod.link/acquiredlp Become an LP and support the show. Help us pick episodes, Zoom calls and more! https://acquired.fm/lp Sponsors: Thanks to our fantastic partners, any member of the Acquired community can now get: All of your product growth powered by Statsig https://bit.ly/statsigacquired Up to 10% off your first year of business insurance with Vouch https://bit.ly/acquired-vouch A free trial of PitchBook + links to research reports! https://bit.ly/acquiredpitchbook Links: The Gamecraft Podcast https://www.gamecraftpod.com Mitch and Blake on Twitter https://twitter.com/mitchlasky https://twitter.com/blakeir The Genius of the System https://www.amazon.com/Genius-System-Hollywood-Filmmaking-Studio/dp/0816670102 Mitch’s old “Investing in Content” blog post https://web.archive.org/web/20131013193226/http://mitchlasky.biz/investing-in-content/ That Game Company and Sky https://thatgamecompany.com https://thatgamecompany.com/sky/ Riot and the League of Legends dota-allstars.com growth hack https://www.hotspawn.com/dota2/guides/dota-allstars-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.

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Benchmark Part II: The Dinner

We sit down with all five current Benchmark GPs for one of their legendary weekly dinners, during which we ask all of the unresolved burning questions from Part 1. How do THEY think about Benchmark v3? What are their day-to-day emotions trying to keep the equal partnership “bending toward greatness? Why is there no growth fund? What does it take to become the next Benchmark GP? Why is there a secret Principal program? We cover all these and much, much more. We also recorded the whole thing on video — which we highly recommend watching even if you normally only listen to the audio feed! If you want more Acquired, you can follow our public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!): http://pod.link/acquiredlp Links: - Please take our 2022 Acquired Survey if you have a minute. It'd mean the world to us! http://acquired.fm/survey - Dad hats are live in the Acquired Merch Store! https://cottonbureau.com/people/acquired-fm Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 11, Fundrise! If you’re considering raising a growth round of capital in the next year, you should definitely explore raising some of it with the Fundrise Innovation Fund. Just email notvc@fundrise.com, and tell them Ben & David sent you. And if you’re an individual looking for exposure to private growth-stage technology companies, you can invest in the Innovation Fund here: https://bit.ly/acquiredfundriseinnovation Thank you as well to Pilot: https://bit.ly/acquiredpilot22 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.

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Altimeter (with Brad Gerstner)

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.

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Stratechery (with Ben Thompson)

Ben Thompson joins Acquired to discuss the business of Stratechery itself and celebrate 10 years (!) of the internet’s best strategy analysis destination. Even beyond Stratechery’s enormous impact itself on business and tech over the years, Ben’s work inspired a whole generation of business content creators — this show very much included — and it was super special for us to give the Acquired treatment to one of our own heroes. We cover the full history of Ben pioneering the subscription internet media business model (indeed SubStack’s seed round pitch was “Stratechery-in-a-box”), and how + why he’s evolved the business since and is now doubling down both on podcasting and a broader vision of the Stratechery Plus bundle… including for the first time content not made by Ben himself! Tune in and enjoy. If you want more Acquired, you can follow our public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!): http://pod.link/acquiredlp Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 11, Fundrise. If you’re considering raising a growth round of capital in the next year, you should definitely explore raising some of it with the Fundrise Innovation Fund. Just email notvc@fundrise.com, and tell them Ben & David sent you. And if you’re an individual looking for exposure to private growth-stage technology companies, you can invest in the Innovation Fund here: https://bit.ly/acquiredfundriseinnovation Thank you as well to Pilot and Tiny! https://bit.ly/acquiredpilot22 https://bit.ly/acquiredtiny Links: John Gruber’s Daring Fireball https://daringfireball.net Ben’s very first Stratechery post https://stratechery.com/2013/welcome-to-stratechery/ Subscribe to Stratechery Plus https://stratechery.com/stratechery-plus/ 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.

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Benchmark Part I

Benchmark Capital. We tell the tale of the legendary equal partnership that accomplished something no other venture firm can claim: twice it has produced the highest returning fund of its cycle, each time with a 100% different GP lineup. If ever there were a playbook for successful generational transfer of a generational-defining venture firm, this is it. We spend 3.5+ hours digging into how the dotcom “eBay eBoys” transformed into the rockstar Fab Four of the Uber, Instagram and Snap mobile gold rush (spoiler: not by a straight line!), and what the future holds for Benchmark’s next GP generation. If you’re a student of the venture game from any angle — founder, GP, LP, etc — this is a story you need to tune in for! If you want more Acquired, you can follow our public LP Show feed in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!): http://pod.link/acquiredlp Sponsors: Thank you to our presenting sponsor for all of Season 11, Fundrise! If you’re considering raising a growth round of capital in the next year, you should definitely explore raising some of it with the Fundrise Innovation Fund. Just email notvc@fundrise.com, and tell them Ben & David sent you. And if you’re an individual looking for exposure to private growth-stage technology companies, you can invest in the Innovation Fund here: https://bit.ly/acquiredfundriseinnovation Thank you as well to Pilot and NZS Capital! https://bit.ly/acquiredpilot22 https://bit.ly/acquirednzsmarginofsafety You can register for the next NZS Talkback here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZErdOmtrjgrHNB5Z4J4zGp8vejLlznkmC9v Links: Benchmark’s website circa 1997 https://web.archive.org/web/19970222220811/http://www.benchmark.com/ Benchmark’s website circa 2000 https://web.archive.org/web/20020926024038/http://www.benchmark.com/ Benchmark’s website today http://www.benchmark.com Episode sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tvF9-2gtJfKyLA1xjOLxV9uC6DLe0BnRFPa0J-1N_B8/edit?usp=sharing Carve Outs: Bill Gurley’s Runnin’ Down a Dream talk https://youtu.be/xmYekD6-PZ8 Smartless Podcast https://www.smartless.com Mitch Lasky on Invest like the Best https://www.joincolossus.com/episodes/99764091/lasky-the-business-of-gaming?tab=transcript Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle https://www.amazon.com/Earthsea-Cycle-Set-Books-1/dp/B07PBZX7HT 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.

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Howard Marks & Andrew Marks: Something of Value

We sit down with legendary investor Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital and his son Andrew who, while less-well-known, is also an incredibly accomplished investor in a very different arena: early-stage VC. The purpose of the conversation was to discuss their joint work together on Howard’s all-time most popular memo, “Something of Value”, which made the then-shocking argument that Value and Growth investing are not diametric opposites but rather two sides of the same investing coin. We of course dive deep into that, and also cover plenty of fun Oaktree and investing history, as well as Andrew’s favorite topic: selling (or not selling, as the case may be). This is not one to miss! If you want more Acquired, you can follow our public LP Show feed in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!): http://pod.link/acquiredlp Links: The Original “Something of Value” Memo: https://www.oaktreecapital.com/docs/default-source/memos/something-of-value.pdf Howard and Andrew on Oaktree’s “The Memo” podcast: https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/memo-podcast/the-rewind-something-of-value Sponsors: Thanks to Vanta for being our presenting sponsor for this special episode. 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 Brex and to Tiny: https://bit.ly/acquiredbrex https://bit.ly/acquiredtiny 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.

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Platforms and Power (with Hamilton Helmer and Chenyi Shi)

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! 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 at https://solana.com/developers, and learn more about Stake Pools at https://solana.foundation/stake-pools, and just tell them them at 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 ‍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.

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