Ben Gilbert: evaluation

Transcript context

…And they are. And they are. That’s why I have great admiration for this company. We’ve thrown a lot of missives here and there, but we should just say like this is an unbelievable fantastic company that makes a remarkable product, and the strategy and execution by which they’ve executed that is best in the world ever. I have one more addendum appendix that I did write down ahead of time to my quintessence that I will say before I hand the floor over to you. There’s no way to know for sure. Of course he’s been dead a long time, so it could be way off base. As best as I can tell, Hans Wilsdorf seems like he was a really great dude. That’s not always the case of protagonists that we cover or founders that we cover here on Acquired. Sometimes, we cover actual Nazis. But, I could be wrong. Maybe he was a big jerk and that’s just been lost to history because there’s not that much out there. But he seems like he was a genuinely good person. I get the sense really loved and was devoted to both of his wives, then devoted himself to the company and the legacy even though he never had children, and then putting the foundation together obviously was, in very large part, motivated by the long-term legacy of the company. But also this foundation gives away 300 million Swiss francs a year. A huge portion of it just directly giving money to people in need in Geneva in their hometown. That’s amazing. He also made a star out of this secretary in London, Mercedes Gleitze, in 1927. He seems like a genuinely really good dude.…

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