Ben Gilbert: belief

Transcript context

…All right, let's talk about the episodes. We started the year actually with the NFL, which I think a lot about that episode still to this day. We did the Visa episode that we finished the year with the NFL Coda part two. Then we did LVMH, which I feel like we have even more to talk about. Nintendo, Lockheed, Porsche, Nike, Costco, NVIDIA part three, and then Visa. Our interviews this year—we should talk about our change in strategy from what used to be specials last year to Acquired interviews this year—Daniel Ek, Dara Khosrowshahi from Uber, Jensen from NVIDIA, and then Charlie. But let's stick with the season first. What was your favorite that we did this year, like Ben Gilbert's personal favorite episode? I think the most interesting businesses or businesses that tickle me are Costco and Visa, because there's a purity to them. Costco's is the purity of the way that the puzzle pieces fit together in a way that is just artful. It's almost like a discovery of laws of physics the way that Sol Price, Jim Senegal, and the rest of the crew have built that business over the years. It's just beautiful. It's like watching a ballet. I think that we likened it to that in the episode. Visa on the other hand is the best operating leverage business. They have over 50% net income margins. They seem like they're locked in forever for better or for worse as we described in the episode. I wouldn't ask someone like, what is the best at scale business model? It's probably Visa to do this least work for the most free cash flow. If you look at Costco, not that much free cash flow, crap ton of work. It's almost like the complete opposite over in Visa land. Total opposites.…

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