Ben Gilbert: disagreement

Transcript context

…Yes. The big news is we hit half a million listeners this year, which is pretty wild. Hopefully we can put up the chart, the Ben Gilbert Acquired chart that you make obsessively every month showing our episode growth over time. Which at some point, I do want to stop making, because I said last year on the show at the holiday special, I don't think growth is inherently virtuous for us, for the goals of our business here. And yet, I am the person who's obsessively trying to compile the numbers and figure out, is it going to double again organically since we don't advertise or anything? Do I want to be known for the Ben Gilbert chart? I don't really think so, because it's actually antithetical to how I think about what we do. But I do make the chart. I put a lot of thought into it, what episodes will do what, and try to predict the numbers. I think a lot of people describe it as virtuous to, oh, I don't pay attention to the analytics. I think to each his own. I pay a lot of attention to the analytics. I think that helps you become better at making a product that people like. I don't understand why you wouldn't immerse yourself in every single number you possibly could all the time. It may lead you to a different outcome, but that outcome, as long as you're measuring correctly, seems to make something that people want more. Yes, I obsessively look at the numbers. I look at the completion rates. I think that's super important. A related side part of that, thank you to all of you, a half a million of you now for spending all this time with us this year. There's a lot to discuss. For me, I've gone back and forth. You started saying I think about two years ago, growth is not a goal. I don't know that growth is good for Acquired. I nodded my head, but I wasn't totally sure. This year (I think) has really helped crystallize my thoughts on this as we've grown so much. I do completely agree with you. Growth in and of itself should not be a priority and in fact, can be very detrimental to what I think we both want to do here if we optimize just for growth. What I think we've done this year. It goes back to the very start of this episode and you changing the intro. We went from a podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks behind them to a podcast about great companies and the stories and playbooks behind them. Yes, we have continued to grow in the tech world and our core niche, and I think that audience and audience potential is way bigger than we ever realized, but we've also added everybody else in the world now who is interested in business, runs a brand, and thinks about brand management, runs a retailer, or runs a large hardware business like Home Depot or something like that, and also all around the world too.…

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