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Published · transcript-backed

David Rosenthal: uncertainty

27 Jun 2023 Acquired Porsche (with Doug DeMuro)

“Wiedeking, I don't know how much this was his thinking all along, or that he was just emboldened by the success of the Boxster.”

— David Rosenthal

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Everything needed to verify it.

Speaker
David Rosenthal
Attribution
Verified speaker
Claim type
uncertainty
Recorded
27 Jun 2023
Publisher
Acquired

Transcript context

…And it was mid-engine again, so arguably, it was the correct place for it. It felt like a true Porsche sports car. For the first time, Porsche's entry level car felt like that in decades. Yeah. Wiedeking has this awesome quote about the strategy for this. "We didn't want to flee from the competition into higher prices,” meaning not being the entry level market at all. He says, "We don't want to be Germany's Ferrari. We don't want to be a big fish in a pond that's shrinking, but rather a growing fish with more room to move in a larger lake." I feel like Wiedeking and Don Valentine of Sequoia Capital would be brothers in arms here. They're targeting big markets. That is the strategy, but they're targeting them in a Porsche way. Wiedeking, I don't know how much this was his thinking all along, or that he was just emboldened by the success of the Boxster. He really means it. He gets into SUVs. Even as a teenager at the time, I'm not that much of a car guy. I just remember, people are like, Porsche's making an SUV. Are these people lost their freaking minds? Who on earth would buy a Porsche SUV? Also, I got to say, maybe all cars were ugly in this period. But I remember when I looked at the first Cayenne, I was like, so it's like a Toyota?…

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