Ben Gilbert: preference

Transcript context

…But the capacity to take on more things would take away from our getting in the room with that founder who is going to build that next iconic company and support the ones that we have. We're forced in a way by the constraint of the SEAL team of six people never to be more than that to be ruthlessly focused. That's what we're here for. That's super real. Just to validate it, there are lots of opportunities that you can always pursue that seem like good ideas. We have this struggle at Acquired, we're two people. There's a thing that we know is uniquely differentiating, which is these ridiculous, deep dive podcasts that are just us. Sometimes we have guests that are wonderful to be here, thank you for doing this with us. But we know that the most differentiating thing that we do is this unique format that just we can do. Every time we start taking on more stuff, I'm like, oh, man, the golden goose is getting worse. I can feel the golden goose getting worse because we're doing other stuff. You're really good about keeping us both honest on that, too. It's funny that you use that phrase. In 2008, there's a first time somebody said to me, you should consider venture capital. I didn't join Benchmark until 2014. In 2008, a very famous, nameless, venture capitalist said, our early stage program is our golden goose. That early stage, everything that we do protects that golden goose.…

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