Podcast
Acquired
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
Every company has a story. Learn the playbooks that built the world’s greatest companies — and how you can apply them.
— All episodes
EPISODES
- 01
Mar 2, 2026 · 4h 29m · S19 E1
Formula 1
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...
- 02
Jan 27, 2026 · 4h 17m · S19
The NFL
The NFL is nearly synonymous with America today. Practically nothing is more quintessentially and universally American than tuning in every Sunday (and Monda...
- 03
Jan 3, 2026 · 4h 59m · S16 E2
Rolex
Rolex is a series of paradoxes. They sell obsolete and objectively inferior mechanical devices for 10-1000x the price of their superior digital successors… a...
- 04
Jan 2, 2026 · 3h 1m · S13 E2
Costco
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 oppos...
- 05
Dec 15, 2025 · 2h 47m · S18 E4
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)
Why has Acquired — seemingly against all odds — “worked”? It's a puzzling question: episodes are four hours long, they come out infrequently, and they usuall...
- 06
Nov 24, 2025 · 4h 4m · S18 E3
Coca-Cola
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 Compa...
- 07
Oct 27, 2025 · 3h 28m · S18 E2
Trader Joe’s
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,...
- 08
Oct 6, 2025 · 4h 6m · S18 E1
Google Part III: The AI Company
Google faces the greatest innovator's dilemma in history. They invented the Transformer — the breakthrough technology powering every modern AI system from Ch...
- 09
Oct 1, 2025 · 1m · S18
Acquired Live at Radio City Music Hall (Presented by J.P. Morgan)
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...
- 10
Aug 26, 2025 · 4h 11m · S17 E4
Google Part II: Alphabet
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...
- 11
Jul 16, 2025 · 1h 8m · S17 E3
The Jamie Dimon Interview
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...
- 12
Jun 30, 2025 · 3h 37m · S17 E2
Google Part I: Origins of Search
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...
- 13
Jun 2, 2025 · 2h 57m · S17 E1
The Steve Ballmer Interview
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....
- 14
Apr 28, 2025 · 4m · S16 E5
Announcement: Acquired Live at Radio City Music Hall!
A few weeks ago, we told you that Acquired is doing something in New York City on July 15 with our good friends at J.P. Morgan Payments. Well, the big announ...
- 15
Apr 21, 2025 · 3h 55m · S16 E4
Epic Systems (MyChart)
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 subt...
- 16
Mar 24, 2025 · 4h 26m · S16 E3
Indian Premier League Cricket
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....
- 17
Jan 27, 2025 · 2h 56m · S16 E1
TSMC Founder Morris Chang
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...
- 18
Jan 21, 2025 · 2h 29m · S16
TSMC (Remastered)
We dive into the unbelievable and unlikely history behind the quietest technology giant of them all: the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Founded...
- 19
Dec 16, 2024 · 3h 52m · S15 E4
Mars Inc. (the chocolate story)
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:...
- 20
Nov 18, 2024 · 3h 21m · S15 E3
IKEA
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...
- 21
Oct 28, 2024 · 6h 19m · S15 E2
Meta
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 u...
- 22
Sep 30, 2024 · 2h 25m · S15 E1
Acquired LIVE from Chase Center (with Daniel Ek, Emily Chang, Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg)
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 j...
- 23
Sep 18, 2024 · 1h 29m · S15
The Mark Zuckerberg Interview
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 peopl...
- 24
Aug 8, 2024 · 21m · S14
Chase Center + Summer Update
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...
- 25
Jul 22, 2024 · 4h 50m · S14 E6
Microsoft Volume II
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 happ...
- 26
Jun 4, 2024 · 3h 14m · S14 E5
Starbucks (with Howard Schultz)
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 a...
- 27
Apr 22, 2024 · 4h 24m · S14 E4
Microsoft Volume I
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...
- 28
Mar 18, 2024 · 3h 8m · S14 E3
Renaissance Technologies
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 an...
- 29
Feb 20, 2024 · 4h 9m · S14 E2
Hermès
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 l...
- 30
Jan 22, 2024 · 3h 44m · S14 E1
Novo Nordisk (Ozempic)
Last year Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical company behind Ozempic and Wegovy, overtook LVMH to become Europe’s most valuable company. And the pull for...
- 31
Dec 18, 2023 · 2h 18m · S13 E5
Holiday Special 2023
Ben has some big news. Actually, double big news! On what has become a holiday tradition here at Acquired, we cozy up to the fire to do our annual review of...
- 32
Nov 27, 2023 · 3h 44m · S13 E4
Visa
To paraphrase Visa founder Dee Hock, how many of you know Visa? Great, all of you. Now, how many of you know how it started? Or, for that matter, who started...
- 33
Oct 30, 2023 · 1h 6m · S13
Charlie Munger
We sit down with the legendary Charlie Munger in the only dedicated longform podcast interview that he has done in his 99 years on Earth. We’ve gotten to hav...
- 34
Oct 16, 2023 · 1h 31m · S13
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang
We finally sit down with the man himself: Nvidia Cofounder & CEO Jensen Huang. After three parts and seven+ hours of covering the company, we thought we knew...
- 35
Sep 6, 2023 · 2h 55m · S13 E3
Nvidia Part III: The Dawn of the AI Era (2022-2023)
It’s a(nother) new era for Nvidia. We thought we’d closed the Acquired book on Nvidia back in April 2022. The story was all wrapped up: Jensen & crew had set...
- 36
Jul 25, 2023 · 4h 2m · S13 E1
Nike
Nike — it’s perhaps the most iconic and most prolific brand of the modern era. On any given day, swooshes adorn the feet of more people on earth than any oth...
- 37
Jun 27, 2023 · 3h 23m · S12 E6
Porsche (with Doug DeMuro)
Nobody’s perfect — including Porsche. Despite that phrase appearing in their famous 1983 magazine advertisement, they managed to get damn-close to the perfec...
- 38
Jun 13, 2023 · 1h 38m · S12
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi dropped by the Acquired studio for an Eats delivery, so we broke out the cameras and asked him to hang out for a wide-ranging conv...
- 39
May 30, 2023 · 3h 39m · S12 E5
Lockheed Martin
Today we bring you two absolutely incredible stories. The first is Lockheed’s legendary Skunk Works division — the elite team of aviation geniuses who produc...
- 40
May 18, 2023 · 1h 39m · S12
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek
We sit down with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek live in Stockholm at Spotify’s amazing HQ studio (check out the video version of this episode — which plays natively o...
- 41
Apr 26, 2023 · 2h 17m · S12
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 an...
- 42
Apr 18, 2023 · 1h 9m · S12
Short: The Death of Sega
Sega and the Genesis was THE underdog story of the early 90’s. In a single console generation, Sega went from ~zero to 50% US market share and dethroned Nint...
- 43
Apr 11, 2023 · 3h 19m · S12 E4
Nintendo: The Console Wars
In the 1980’s Nintendo was on top of the world, with the NES achieving over 90% market share of home video games globally. So how did they fall ALL the way d...
- 44
Apr 4, 2023 · 1h 31m · S12
Interview: Hamilton Helmer & Chenyi Shi on How to Build an AWS-Like Second Business
7 Powers author Hamilton Helmer and his Strategy Capital colleague Chenyi Shi join us again to discuss their latest research on a topic that’s highly relevan...
- 45
Mar 29, 2023 · 3h 20m · S12
Sessions: David Senra (Founders Podcast)
ACQ Sessions returns with David Senra of the Founders Podcast. David is one of our very favorite people in the world — it’s impossible to spend an hour (or 3...
- 46
Mar 16, 2023 · 3h 27m · S12 E3
Nintendo's Origins
You may think you know the Nintendo story: a plumber named Mario, a princess named Zelda… and didn’t they buy the Seattle Mariners at some point? We thought...
- 47
Feb 21, 2023 · 3h 33m · S12 E2
LVMH
We tell the full history of LVMH, and how Bernard Arnault turned a $15m investment in a bankrupt French textile company into the world’s largest individual f...
- 48
Jan 25, 2023 · 3h 48m · S12 E1
The NFL
The NFL — it’s almost synonymous with America today. And its history is a fascinating lens to explore the nation’s development over the last 100 years, from...
- 49
Dec 19, 2022 · 2h 21m · S11
Holiday Special 2022
Cozy up to the fire and join Acquired as we do our annual strategic review of the show and our business “in public”. We recap our perspectives on Acquired’s...
- 50
Dec 6, 2022 · 1h 56m · S11 E8
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. Ev...
- 51
Nov 29, 2022 · 3h 34m · S11 E7
Enron
The FTX fraud has dominated headlines now for weeks, during which we’ve debated if and how Acquired could uniquely add to the conversation. Then we realized...
- 52
Nov 15, 2022 · 2h 28m · S11 E6
Qualcomm
Qualcomm, or “Quality Communications” — despite being one of the largest technology companies in the world, few people know the absolutely amazing technologi...
- 53
Oct 17, 2022 · 2h 1m · S11 E5
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 P...
- 54
Oct 4, 2022 · 2h 19m · S11
ACQ Sessions: Jason Calacanis
We kick off ACQ Sessions with the-behind-the-scenes story of All-in, from the world’s greatest moderator himself Jason Calacanis. ACQ Sessions is our new, oc...
- 55
Sep 28, 2022 · 3h 44m · S11 E4
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...
- 56
Sep 6, 2022 · 2h 45m · S11 E3
Amazon Web Services
So, how DID an online book retailer end up building the infrastructure layer that powers the entire internet? (Or at least 39% of it, per latest market share...
- 57
Aug 30, 2022 · 1h 31m · S11
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 investo...
- 58
Aug 16, 2022 · 4h 18m · S11 E2
Amazon.com
Amazon. No company has impacted the internet — and all of modern life — more than this one. We’ve waited seven years to do this episode, and are so, so excit...
- 59
Aug 2, 2022 · 1h 57m · S11
From NFL to Startup COO to Congressman Regulating Crypto (with Rep. Anthony Gonzalez)
This episode is a first for Acquired: we’re joined by a sitting US Congressman (from Ben’s home state of Ohio!), Republican House Representative Anthony Gonz...
- 60
Jul 19, 2022 · 3h 1m · S11 E1
Walmart
We kick off Season 11 with the incredible story of the retail “granddaddy of them all” Walmart, and its founder Sam Walton. Once you study Walmart, you reali...
- 61
Jun 20, 2022 · 1h 5m · S10
The Playbook: Lessons from 200+ Company Stories
When Patrick O'Shaughnessy and Brent Beshore asked us to give a talk at their incredible Capital Camp conference, we knew we had to bring something special....
- 62
Jun 6, 2022 · 1h 19m · S10
American Dynamism (with Katherine Boyle)
We sit down with a16z General Partner Katherine Boyle to discuss investing in “American Dynamism”, why it’s so important and why now is the right time to pur...
- 63
May 19, 2022 · 1h 8m · S10
Capital-Efficient Growth (with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan & Veeva CEO Peter Gassner)
We sit down with the CEO founders of two of the most capital efficient success stories of all time — Zoom and Veeva Systems — to understand how they grew to...
- 64
May 16, 2022 · 1h 12m · S10 E8
Arena Show Part II: Brooks Running (with CEO Jim Weber)
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...
- 65
May 12, 2022 · 1h 28m · S10 E7
Arena Show Part I: Idea Dinner + YC Continuity
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 ou...
- 66
Apr 20, 2022 · 2h 13m · S10 E6
Nvidia Part II: The Machine Learning Company (2006-2022)
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 th...
- 67
Apr 6, 2022 · 1h 24m · S10
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 Cap...
- 68
Mar 28, 2022 · 2h 1m · S10 E5
Nvidia Part I: The GPU Company (1993-2006)
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 —...
- 69
Mar 15, 2022 · 1h 54m · S10 E4
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 bec...
- 70
Mar 7, 2022 · 3h 3m · S10 E3
SONY
Born in the unlikeliest of places — the terrible, wasteland-like aftermath of post WWII Japan — Sony rose to capture the imaginations (and wallets) of consum...
- 71
Feb 22, 2022 · 1h 4m · S10
Super Pumped (with Brian Koppelman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
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 adaptin...
- 72
Feb 15, 2022 · 1h 43m · S10
The Browser (with Brendan Eich, Chief Architect of Netscape + Mozilla and CEO of Brave)
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 forme...
- 73
Feb 10, 2022 · 2h 20m · S10 E2
Peloton
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 s...
- 74
Jan 23, 2022 · 2h 39m · S10 E1
Taylor Swift (Acquired’s Version)
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 albu...
- 75
Dec 21, 2021 · 1h 52m · S9 E8
CAA (with Michael Ovitz)
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,...
- 76
Dec 15, 2021 · 1h 36m · S9 E7
FTX (with Sam Bankman-Fried & Mario Gabriele)
Note: This episode was published on Dec 14, 2021, approximately a year before FTX’s subsequent meltdown. The apparent negligence, fraud and self-dealing at F...
- 77
Dec 8, 2021 · 1h 4m · S9
7 Powers with Hamilton Helmer
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! We've remastered o...
- 78
Dec 3, 2021 · 2h 47m · S9 E6
Not Boring (with Packy McCormick)
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 + th...
- 79
Nov 3, 2021 · 1h 44m · S9
Complexity Investing & Semiconductors (with NZS Capital)
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 l...
- 80
Oct 18, 2021 · 2h 23m · S9 E5
Standard Oil Part II
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 m...