Acquired

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:

Many thanks to our fantastic Fall ‘24 Season partners:

• J.P. Morgan Payments
• Statsig
• Crusoe
• Huntress

Links:

• Please take our 2024 Acquired Survey if you have a minute. It'd mean the world to us!
• 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
• 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.

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:

Many thanks to our fantastic Fall ‘24 Season partners:

• J.P. Morgan Payments
• Statsig
• Crusoe

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
• Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!

Photo Credit: Mark Zuckerberg by Jeff Sainlar / Meta

‍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 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:

Many thanks to our fantastic Fall ‘24 Season partners:

• J.P. Morgan Payments
• Statsig
• Crusoe

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
• Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!

Photo Credit: Mark Zuckerberg by Jeff Sainlar / Meta

‍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.

Summer greetings from Acquired! Two items for this “mini-episode”:

1. 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

2. 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

‍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.

Chase Center Live Show in SF:

• Sign up here to for the pre-sale list before tickets are available to the public. See you there!!

Sponsors:

Many thanks to our fantastic Season 14 partners:

• J.P. Morgan Payments
• ServiceNow
• Pilot

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
• Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!

Note: references to Fortune in ServiceNow sponsor sections are from Fortune ©2023. Used under license.

‍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:

Many thanks to our fantastic Season 14 partners:

• J.P. Morgan Payments *
• ServiceNow
• Pilot

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
• Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!

** Future capabilities of biometric payments are under development; features and timelines are subject to change at the bank’s sole discretion.*

Note: references to Fortune in ServiceNow sponsor sections are from Fortune ©2023. Used under license.

‍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.

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:

ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acqsnaiagents
Huntress: https://bit.ly/acqhuntress
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta

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!

‍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:

ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acqsnaiagents
Huntress: https://bit.ly/acqhuntress
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta

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!

‍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:

ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acqsnaiagents
Huntress: https://bit.ly/acqhuntress
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta

More Acquired!:

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
• Join the Slack
• Subscribe to ACQ2
• Merch Store!

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.

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 Acquired to finally tackle healthcare (18% of US GDP!) became too strong for us to resist. While we didn’t know much about Novo Nordisk before diving in, our first thought was, “wow, seems like these new diabetes and obesity drugs mean serious trouble for big insulin companies.”

And then… we realized that Novo Nordisk IS the big insulin company. And in a story befitting of Steve Jobs and Apple, they’d just disrupted themselves with the drug equivalent of an iPhone moment. Once we dug further, we quickly realized this company has it all: an incredible 100+ year history filled with Nobel Prizes, bitter personal rivalries, board room dramas, a generation-defining silicon valley innovation, lone voices persevering against all odds — and oh yeah, the world’s largest charitable foundation at its helm. Tune in for one incredible story!

Sponsors:

ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acqsnaiagents
Huntress: https://bit.ly/acqhuntress
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta

More Acquired!:

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
• Join the Slack
• Subscribe to ACQ2
• Merch Store!

Links:

• Chart: US Healthcare Spend by Category
• Chart: US Distribution and Reimbursement System (for pharmaceutical drugs)
• Chart: Insulin Supply Chain
• YouTube Talk: What People Get Wrong about the Finances of the Drug Industry
• Alex Telford: The pharma industry from Paul Janssen to today: why drugs got harder to develop and what we can do about it
• Out-of-Pocket Health: Obesity Drugs
• Out-of-Pocket Health: US Healthcare System Problems
• All episode sources

Carve Outs:

• Noxgear Tracer 2 running vest
• Drops of God
• Wool by Hugh Howey
• Mere Mortals at San Francisco Ballet
• Blackberry

‍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.