High Signal Podcasts Evidence ledger
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Public evidence record

Ben Gilbert

Host · Acquired

Claims
500
Episodes
23
Shows
1
Named items
46

Books, apps, and tools

The evidenced stack.

Browse the grouped index →

service / likes

Vanguard

“Ben and David love their index funds. You know, we love Vanguard here. If you had bought the S&P 500 with that same $1,000, instead of $17 million today, you would have $170,000.”

Acquired · 14 Sept 2026

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

other / recommends

Defunctland

“There's a great one on the Florida Project, so I highly recommend Defunctland.”

Acquired · 22 Jun 2026

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

other / recommends

Animagraffs

“I highly recommend the channel, Animagraffs.”

Acquired · 22 Jun 2026

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

hardware / likes

Disneyland

“The sightlines, man. The, the—I, I like going to Disneyland just to walk around.”

Acquired · 22 Jun 2026

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

other / recommends

Tifosi

“I highly recommend Tifosi. They're also pretty cheap. I bought three pairs. They're goofy in different colors and they're fun.”

Acquired · 4 Mar 2026

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

book / uses

Last Man Standing

“One great book I read for research was Last Man Standing to prep for the Jamie Dimon interview.”

Acquired · 15 Dec 2025

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

other / uses

Invest Like the Best

“I listened to an episode of Invest Like the Best about a year ago, which was a really, really long interview with Graham Duncan.”

Acquired · 15 Dec 2025

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

app / uses

Gemini

“I find switching costs to be relatively low. I use Gemini for some stuff, then it’s really easy to switch away.”

Acquired · 6 Oct 2025

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

other / uses

Glass

“I watched the Google IO keynote with Glass and I watched a bunch of Glass content.”

Acquired · 26 Aug 2025

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

paper / uses

Worldly Partners research

“In fact, in particular, for each of these episodes now, I read the Worldly Partners research on the company we’re covering from front of the show, Arvind.”

Acquired · 18 Nov 2024

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

app / uses

Netflix

“Think about how I watch Netflix. I will watch Netflix tonight after we record on my Apple TV upstairs.”

Acquired · 22 Jul 2024

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

other / recommends

Visa

“I highly recommend the Visa one as discussed earlier in the Network of Networks idea, if you haven't heard that”

Acquired · 22 Apr 2024

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

Claim ledger

What Ben said.

500 transcript-backed records

03 / commitment

Today we will tell the story of how it happened. It is an unlikely story of two guys who got unceremoniously fired from their old jobs with little savings and no retirement funds, who then had a revolutionary idea to build a home improvement store in giant warehouses, five times more square footage than any other hardware store at the time, which seemed risky at best, unthinkable maybe.

“Today we will tell the story of how it happened. It is an unlikely story of two guys who got unceremoniously fired from their old jobs with little savings and no retirement funds, who then had a revolutionary idea to build a home improvement store in giant warehouses, five times more square footage than any other hardware store at the time, which seemed risky at best, unthinkable maybe.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
The Home Depot
Publisher
Acquired

06 / belief

' Like, Disney Animation is so important to where we all came from in the world, and they fly down and they meet with people and they see, 'Oh, there's actually great talent here, they're just not being led well, and we think we can apply our process and institute a brain trust and change the physical construction of the building and bring in the Pixar way and make this great again.

“' Like, Disney Animation is so important to where we all came from in the world, and they fly down and they meet with people and they see, 'Oh, there's actually great talent here, they're just not being led well, and we think we can apply our process and institute a brain trust and change the physical construction of the building and bring in the Pixar way and make this great again.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

10 / uncertainty

I mean, you can criticize them all you want today for raising prices, but they had, I don't know, 5 to 10x of you can raise the price and it wouldn't impact demand for a second back then.

“I mean, you can criticize them all you want today for raising prices, but they had, I don't know, 5 to 10x of you can raise the price and it wouldn't impact demand for a second back then.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

12 / uncertainty

I haven't been in, I don't know, 15 years or something, but I have a visceral memory of the parade of animals walking down the aisle and just how uniquely they did the costume designs with the faces of the animals that sort of hover above their heads.

“I haven't been in, I don't know, 15 years or something, but I have a visceral memory of the parade of animals walking down the aisle and just how uniquely they did the costume designs with the faces of the animals that sort of hover above their heads.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

15 / belief

I think the most interesting part of this is they then take the storyboards and put them together in a story reel where they're able to watch it like a movie, even though they're still frames, and they either narrate over it or they do temp dialogue on top.

“I think the most interesting part of this is they then take the storyboards and put them together in a story reel where they're able to watch it like a movie, even though they're still frames, and they either narrate over it or they do temp dialogue on top.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

16 / uncertainty

Could you run a high-quality skinny service that reaches, I don't know, 30 to 50 million people who really just want the straight drip of Disney, but also make hundreds of millions of dollars licensing that content elsewhere, but just kind of spreading it around to make sure that when you have a big thing that you think is the equivalent of a box office hit, you do release it on Netflix to their 350-ish million people.

“Could you run a high-quality skinny service that reaches, I don't know, 30 to 50 million people who really just want the straight drip of Disney, but also make hundreds of millions of dollars licensing that content elsewhere, but just kind of spreading it around to make sure that when you have a big thing that you think is the equivalent of a box office hit, you do release it on Netflix to their 350-ish million people.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

20 / belief

The Disney brand has something to lose. And so if you have a bunch of bombs in a row, I think less of the Disney brand, which again takes away your compounding competitive advantage.

“The Disney brand has something to lose. And so if you have a bunch of bombs in a row, I think less of the Disney brand, which again takes away your compounding competitive advantage.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

21 / observation

I mean, the only way this story could get any more awesome is if they somehow beat Disney at their own game, got bought by Disney, breathed new life into the core of the company, and Steve Jobs became the largest shareholder of Disney itself.

“I mean, the only way this story could get any more awesome is if they somehow beat Disney at their own game, got bought by Disney, breathed new life into the core of the company, and Steve Jobs became the largest shareholder of Disney itself.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

24 / preference

To Bill Block, who formerly led Miramax, to Ben Thompson for his exceptional analysis of Disney over the last decade that inspired a lot of my thinking. I think I read every Strategery piece on the company to prepare for this.

“To Bill Block, who formerly led Miramax, to Ben Thompson for his exceptional analysis of Disney over the last decade that inspired a lot of my thinking. I think I read every Strategery piece on the company to prepare for this.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

25 / evaluation

Michael is supposed to get the job that Barry had as chairman of the movie studio over at Paramount, and he doesn't get that job largely because of internal politics and who's making how much money, those sort of games.

“Michael is supposed to get the job that Barry had as chairman of the movie studio over at Paramount, and he doesn't get that job largely because of internal politics and who's making how much money, those sort of games.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

27 / prediction

They took those kind of rebuilding years, 5, 6 years in the middle, had a pandemic in the middle of it that shut down all their parks. But I think in 2026, it's looking like they'll set a brand new net income record ever based on the way it's trending.

“They took those kind of rebuilding years, 5, 6 years in the middle, had a pandemic in the middle of it that shut down all their parks. But I think in 2026, it's looking like they'll set a brand new net income record ever based on the way it's trending.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

28 / evaluation

There are a few things left, but Iger kind of saw this before anyone else, went in with a bigger checkbook than I think a lot of people would have been willing to go in with, diluted Disney to do it.

“There are a few things left, but Iger kind of saw this before anyone else, went in with a bigger checkbook than I think a lot of people would have been willing to go in with, diluted Disney to do it.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

29 / evaluation

It's going away. They had a very profitable box office, especially in the golden era where you could make and market a film like Avengers, the original one, for, I don't know, $200, $300 million and then gross $1.

“It's going away. They had a very profitable box office, especially in the golden era where you could make and market a film like Avengers, the original one, for, I don't know, $200, $300 million and then gross $1.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

40 / observation

You've got parks to do—it's almost like the extreme bottom of funnel, the way to experience the most Disney thing you possibly could experience every once in a while, but a huge monetization event.

“You've got parks to do—it's almost like the extreme bottom of funnel, the way to experience the most Disney thing you possibly could experience every once in a while, but a huge monetization event.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

41 / commitment

Essentially, it was Roy's way of saying, okay, the company doesn't want to be too tied up in this project if it fails, but we will provide you a way to get more cash flows from the company so you can figure out how to do more of the funding of this thing yourself.

“Essentially, it was Roy's way of saying, okay, the company doesn't want to be too tied up in this project if it fails, but we will provide you a way to get more cash flows from the company so you can figure out how to do more of the funding of this thing yourself.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

49 / commitment

That's where we'll send our big takeaways from each episode, past episode corrections, exclusive behind-the-scenes photos that we found in our research, and it's where you can vote on future episode topics. Plus, we will give away a little hint each time about the next episode topic.

“That's where we'll send our big takeaways from each episode, past episode corrections, exclusive behind-the-scenes photos that we found in our research, and it's where you can vote on future episode topics. Plus, we will give away a little hint each time about the next episode topic.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

54 / evaluation

Listeners, for anyone who isn't tuned into our Visa episode, it took a similarly—I'm not sure if "selfless" is the right word—but a person who was not motivated by getting to own the fruits of their labor, where Dee just decided this is the best structure if all these banks link arms and collectively create this thing that if memory serves, it might have even been a nonprofit or some sort of strange structure.

“Listeners, for anyone who isn't tuned into our Visa episode, it took a similarly—I'm not sure if "selfless" is the right word—but a person who was not motivated by getting to own the fruits of their labor, where Dee just decided this is the best structure if all these banks link arms and collectively create this thing that if memory serves, it might have even been a nonprofit or some sort of strange structure.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Vanguard
Publisher
Acquired

57 / uncertainty

Most of the time it's suggestions of how we should vote the shares, but I get where you're going that the fund manager of, let's say, one of these Vanguard or BlackRock grows to be, I don't know, 60% ownership of every company in America.

“Most of the time it's suggestions of how we should vote the shares, but I get where you're going that the fund manager of, let's say, one of these Vanguard or BlackRock grows to be, I don't know, 60% ownership of every company in America.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Vanguard
Publisher
Acquired

65 / evaluation

" Then he went and talked to a second doctor, and that doctor said, "Why don't you get a place out in Cape Cod and stop working and enjoy the last few years you have left? Don't work anymore.

“" Then he went and talked to a second doctor, and that doctor said, "Why don't you get a place out in Cape Cod and stop working and enjoy the last few years you have left? Don't work anymore.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Vanguard
Publisher
Acquired

70 / prediction

I will say this 20% is a little misleadingly low because thanks to direct indexing and people constructing their own portfolios that look like indexes but aren't actually in index funds, the passive ownership in companies could be more like 30 to 40%.

“I will say this 20% is a little misleadingly low because thanks to direct indexing and people constructing their own portfolios that look like indexes but aren't actually in index funds, the passive ownership in companies could be more like 30 to 40%.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Vanguard
Publisher
Acquired

72 / preference

Like normally in a company, when I buy a share of Apple, it's because I think Apple is gonna compound their profits, their cash flows in the future at a higher rate than anything else that I could invest in.

“Like normally in a company, when I buy a share of Apple, it's because I think Apple is gonna compound their profits, their cash flows in the future at a higher rate than anything else that I could invest in.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Vanguard
Publisher
Acquired

73 / prediction

The answer I suspect Vanguard leadership would give you is you do actually need to grow to stay competitive because you need to keep investing in the platform and the current cash flows off our small management fees are not enough to make all the investments that we wanna make.

“The answer I suspect Vanguard leadership would give you is you do actually need to grow to stay competitive because you need to keep investing in the platform and the current cash flows off our small management fees are not enough to make all the investments that we wanna make.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Vanguard
Publisher
Acquired

74 / prediction

You can see why they had the fear, which is if you provide this existence proof that you can run this business at cost and you don't need to pay huge sums of money to the people managing this, then our customers will demand the same from us, which is sort of right because you can buy an S&P 500 index fund from basically anyone today at basically no cost.

“You can see why they had the fear, which is if you provide this existence proof that you can run this business at cost and you don't need to pay huge sums of money to the people managing this, then our customers will demand the same from us, which is sort of right because you can buy an S&P 500 index fund from basically anyone today at basically no cost.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Vanguard
Publisher
Acquired

80 / belief

Lamborghini actually canceled theirs and has switched it to a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle instead. And I think the point I keep kicking around is, much like the quartz crisis in the world of watches, speed is no longer relevant.

“Lamborghini actually canceled theirs and has switched it to a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle instead. And I think the point I keep kicking around is, much like the quartz crisis in the world of watches, speed is no longer relevant.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Ferrari
Publisher
Acquired

82 / commitment

S. and around the world, as we will soon get to from those early days. And behind any company operating at that scale, there is a massive engine orchestrating money movement behind the scenes.

“S. and around the world, as we will soon get to from those early days. And behind any company operating at that scale, there is a massive engine orchestrating money movement behind the scenes.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Ferrari
Publisher
Acquired

85 / belief

The big difference here being that Ferrari is much sort of flashier than Patek is as a brand, and they also have the Tifosi, which adds this whole different element to it. So to directly answer your question, I think branding shows up more in luxury watches than it does in luxury cars for the— almost like the lack of experienceable intrinsic product characteristics, that it's just hard to experience the product in a Porsche, but it's easy to experience the product differences in a car.

“The big difference here being that Ferrari is much sort of flashier than Patek is as a brand, and they also have the Tifosi, which adds this whole different element to it. So to directly answer your question, I think branding shows up more in luxury watches than it does in luxury cars for the— almost like the lack of experienceable intrinsic product characteristics, that it's just hard to experience the product in a Porsche, but it's easy to experience the product differences in a car.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Ferrari
Publisher
Acquired

87 / observation

Dealers do, however, play a huge role in the secondary market, and Ferrari knows it's in their interest to have a thriving secondary market since, given how few new cars there are, the entry-level Ferrari is really a used Ferrari. And so it's the way to sort of cultivate the next generation of owners.

“Dealers do, however, play a huge role in the secondary market, and Ferrari knows it's in their interest to have a thriving secondary market since, given how few new cars there are, the entry-level Ferrari is really a used Ferrari. And so it's the way to sort of cultivate the next generation of owners.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Ferrari
Publisher
Acquired

92 / preference

Sometimes I get tricked by Instagram, as my wife says, where I'm scrolling through and then I find like the perfect ad hitting me at the perfect moment for some product I didn't even know I needed. This pair of scissors, the ad is great because it says, how come your scissors are like some flimsy sheet metal?

“Sometimes I get tricked by Instagram, as my wife says, where I'm scrolling through and then I find like the perfect ad hitting me at the perfect moment for some product I didn't even know I needed. This pair of scissors, the ad is great because it says, how come your scissors are like some flimsy sheet metal?”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Ferrari
Publisher
Acquired

94 / prediction

Enzo really wanted to do this deal, and I think he determined at this point in history— I've not seen this written anywhere, but I'm reading into this, you know, even Ford thought it was worth somewhere between $10 and $18 million earlier in the decade.

“Enzo really wanted to do this deal, and I think he determined at this point in history— I've not seen this written anywhere, but I'm reading into this, you know, even Ford thought it was worth somewhere between $10 and $18 million earlier in the decade.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Ferrari
Publisher
Acquired

98 / commitment

If you want to know, every time an episode drops, check out our email list. It is the only place where we will share a hint of what our next episode will be, and we’ll share corrections, updates, and little tidbits that we learned from previous episodes.

“If you want to know, every time an episode drops, check out our email list. It is the only place where we will share a hint of what our next episode will be, and we’ll share corrections, updates, and little tidbits that we learned from previous episodes.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Rolex
Publisher
Acquired

100 / evaluation

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.

“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.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Rolex
Publisher
Acquired

122 / observation

The first quartz watch that hit the market in 1969 from Seiko was dependent on the invention and miniaturization of the transistor and integrated circuit before it could actually happen. That’s why we’re stuck waiting from the 1920s all the way to 1969 before it can be used in a watch.

“The first quartz watch that hit the market in 1969 from Seiko was dependent on the invention and miniaturization of the transistor and integrated circuit before it could actually happen. That’s why we’re stuck waiting from the 1920s all the way to 1969 before it can be used in a watch.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Rolex
Publisher
Acquired

124 / evaluation

James Cameron, on a man submersible, takes the Sea-Dweller Deepsea Challenge—it actually is (I think) all of those brands; they include the sub-brand with the parent brand in this thing—down to the Marianas Trench to the deepest part of the ocean.

“James Cameron, on a man submersible, takes the Sea-Dweller Deepsea Challenge—it actually is (I think) all of those brands; they include the sub-brand with the parent brand in this thing—down to the Marianas Trench to the deepest part of the ocean.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Rolex
Publisher
Acquired

126 / evaluation

Unlike everything else that is incredibly tight inside a watch, this component, the balance almost floats and it moves with really low friction. It’s weird because it’s the opposite of everything else that’s in the whole watch.

“Unlike everything else that is incredibly tight inside a watch, this component, the balance almost floats and it moves with really low friction. It’s weird because it’s the opposite of everything else that’s in the whole watch.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Rolex
Publisher
Acquired

128 / evaluation

Fascinatingly, and I’m not sure if this is counterintuitive or not, I don’t remember 2014 thinking about the watch industry because I didn’t, but it was the best thing to ever happen to Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek, et cetera.

“Fascinatingly, and I’m not sure if this is counterintuitive or not, I don’t remember 2014 thinking about the watch industry because I didn’t, but it was the best thing to ever happen to Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek, et cetera.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Rolex
Publisher
Acquired

129 / evaluation

In some ways, we have to tell a whole industry history here. But in other ways, these are all the same company, because they're all stacked learnings from Sol Price and his various brain children over the years to create the Costco that it is today.

“In some ways, we have to tell a whole industry history here. But in other ways, these are all the same company, because they're all stacked learnings from Sol Price and his various brain children over the years to create the Costco that it is today.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Costco
Publisher
Acquired

132 / commitment

One of the things we're going to talk about here in bear and bull, and I think we should transition, is what Costco is doing that is Costco-flavored ecommerce instead of Amazon-flavored ecommerce, but I will save that for my bookcase.

“One of the things we're going to talk about here in bear and bull, and I think we should transition, is what Costco is doing that is Costco-flavored ecommerce instead of Amazon-flavored ecommerce, but I will save that for my bookcase.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Costco
Publisher
Acquired

138 / evaluation

There was a Deutsche Bank analyst that said, "It is better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder," which Costco management would say, yeah, that's literally like we've printed it.

“There was a Deutsche Bank analyst that said, "It is better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder," which Costco management would say, yeah, that's literally like we've printed it.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Costco
Publisher
Acquired

139 / belief

Their machine really works. I think that's the point. They've earned the right acting this nobly partially got them to where they are, but where they are earns them the right to continue to be noble.

“Their machine really works. I think that's the point. They've earned the right acting this nobly partially got them to where they are, but where they are earns them the right to continue to be noble.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Costco
Publisher
Acquired

141 / belief

I think the dynamics are actually the opposite way with Costco, where Costco gets to hold an auction and say, we have an enormous amount of payment volume with enormously good customers with good credit.

“I think the dynamics are actually the opposite way with Costco, where Costco gets to hold an auction and say, we have an enormous amount of payment volume with enormously good customers with good credit.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Costco
Publisher
Acquired

151 / evaluation

The split is just significant enough for the retail business where you're like, okay, yeah, we should care about growing sales in the retail business. But if it wasn't 70/30, if it was 90/10, or 95/5, you'd be like, well, I'm actually not sure why we care about making a single nother sale of toilet paper, because unless it is increasing the likelihood someone retains, I don't care about it.

“The split is just significant enough for the retail business where you're like, okay, yeah, we should care about growing sales in the retail business. But if it wasn't 70/30, if it was 90/10, or 95/5, you'd be like, well, I'm actually not sure why we care about making a single nother sale of toilet paper, because unless it is increasing the likelihood someone retains, I don't care about it.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Costco
Publisher
Acquired

154 / evaluation

It is such a good value that 55% of US members now do it. But much like everything else we've talked about with Costco, it is also amazing for Costco, because they get your money at the beginning of the year further advantaging their cash flow position.

“It is such a good value that 55% of US members now do it. But much like everything else we've talked about with Costco, it is also amazing for Costco, because they get your money at the beginning of the year further advantaging their cash flow position.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Costco
Publisher
Acquired

157 / evaluation

Costco decides, we will only markup anything a maximum of 14%. They actually do mark other things up less than that because things like electronics, they actually can only mark up 6%, 7%, 8%.

“Costco decides, we will only markup anything a maximum of 14%. They actually do mark other things up less than that because things like electronics, they actually can only mark up 6%, 7%, 8%.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Costco
Publisher
Acquired

159 / evaluation

It eventually became the sport of rich guys who want to own teams to gallivant around Europe, losing colossal sums of money along the way. And in fact, David, since the sport began, over 100 separate teams have entered and exited the competition, mostly because they went bankrupt.

“It eventually became the sport of rich guys who want to own teams to gallivant around Europe, losing colossal sums of money along the way. And in fact, David, since the sport began, over 100 separate teams have entered and exited the competition, mostly because they went bankrupt.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Formula 1
Publisher
Acquired

169 / observation

There was a six wheeled car at one point, because it wasn't in the rules that you only had to have four wheels. And over time, as they start adding more and more guidelines for safety and for all these other reasons, the way to succeed in Formula 1 shifted from making a more powerful engine or figuring out the very best aero to figuring out how to exploit the rules.

“There was a six wheeled car at one point, because it wasn't in the rules that you only had to have four wheels. And over time, as they start adding more and more guidelines for safety and for all these other reasons, the way to succeed in Formula 1 shifted from making a more powerful engine or figuring out the very best aero to figuring out how to exploit the rules.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Formula 1
Publisher
Acquired

173 / observation

In general, what diffusers do is they direct the airflow that is coming out from the bottom of the car up and sort of out of the way to ideally shape the aerodynamics as the air escapes the back of the car.

“In general, what diffusers do is they direct the airflow that is coming out from the bottom of the car up and sort of out of the way to ideally shape the aerodynamics as the air escapes the back of the car.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Formula 1
Publisher
Acquired

177 / preference

The cars have three to 600 sensors on them. And shockingly to me as an American, David, I don't know if you knew this before we started researching, it's actually the world's most popular annual sporting series with over 827 million viewers.

“The cars have three to 600 sensors on them. And shockingly to me as an American, David, I don't know if you knew this before we started researching, it's actually the world's most popular annual sporting series with over 827 million viewers.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Formula 1
Publisher
Acquired

179 / prediction

Yes, but for fans of ground effects, they would make their way back for the 2022 to 2025 regulations, which that's what we saw in Vegas, David. It was crazy cool to watch because I think 70% of the downforce from those cars is created by the ground effects, not from the pushing down of the spoiler, but the sucking of the car onto the track.

“Yes, but for fans of ground effects, they would make their way back for the 2022 to 2025 regulations, which that's what we saw in Vegas, David. It was crazy cool to watch because I think 70% of the downforce from those cars is created by the ground effects, not from the pushing down of the spoiler, but the sucking of the car onto the track.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Formula 1
Publisher
Acquired

181 / belief

Yep, but we're a short number of years away from, I think, seeing a giant breakout star who started in flag football because it was a part of their school or YMCA program from another country.

“Yep, but we're a short number of years away from, I think, seeing a giant breakout star who started in flag football because it was a part of their school or YMCA program from another country.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
The NFL
Publisher
Acquired

191 / belief

Now listeners, just like our NBA episode a couple of years ago, this is an episode on the business of football. It's not specifically about things I learned reviewing game film or the merits of the eye formation.

“Now listeners, just like our NBA episode a couple of years ago, this is an episode on the business of football. It's not specifically about things I learned reviewing game film or the merits of the eye formation.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
The NFL
Publisher
Acquired

193 / belief

One, NFL teams are now just always reliably profitable businesses. That's not true in most sports and it wasn't true in the NFL's history, but if you own an NFL team, you are going to get, I believe get a dividend check every year since they're cash generative.

“One, NFL teams are now just always reliably profitable businesses. That's not true in most sports and it wasn't true in the NFL's history, but if you own an NFL team, you are going to get, I believe get a dividend check every year since they're cash generative.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
The NFL
Publisher
Acquired

195 / evaluation

The interesting thing too is that the leagues aren't respecting each other's drafts. It doesn't matter if you draft someone in your league, I'm signing him to a contract in mind and that contract is valid in the United States.

“The interesting thing too is that the leagues aren't respecting each other's drafts. It doesn't matter if you draft someone in your league, I'm signing him to a contract in mind and that contract is valid in the United States.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
The NFL
Publisher
Acquired

196 / uncertainty

"Walking up the stairs of the rotunda when the vote looked like a sure thing, Rozelle was ever his usual humble self. Congressman Boggs, I don't know how I can ever thank you enough for this.

“"Walking up the stairs of the rotunda when the vote looked like a sure thing, Rozelle was ever his usual humble self. Congressman Boggs, I don't know how I can ever thank you enough for this.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
The NFL
Publisher
Acquired

198 / belief

There's now, I think when we did the episode, we said something about $18 billion a year, the league now does over $23 billion per year] across all teams that's on track to surpass $25 billion.

“There's now, I think when we did the episode, we said something about $18 billion a year, the league now does over $23 billion per year] across all teams that's on track to surpass $25 billion.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
The NFL
Publisher
Acquired

203 / prediction

I think the takeaway is the league is extremely good at predicting what this revenue is going to look like. And because of the structure that we've talked about all episode with the way that the salary cap and the TV deals and her play and the length of the TV deals, it's just extremely knowable what the future of the league looks like.

“I think the takeaway is the league is extremely good at predicting what this revenue is going to look like. And because of the structure that we've talked about all episode with the way that the salary cap and the TV deals and her play and the length of the TV deals, it's just extremely knowable what the future of the league looks like.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
The NFL
Publisher
Acquired

204 / recommendation

We think you should just compete against each other until your margins are zero, and we're going to accrue all the profit pool now, because there's basically nothing else that you'll put on that people want to watch.

“We think you should just compete against each other until your margins are zero, and we're going to accrue all the profit pool now, because there's basically nothing else that you'll put on that people want to watch.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
The NFL
Publisher
Acquired

205 / evaluation

Then Amazon is having to do make goods with the advertisers because Amazon wasn't able to get enough people to watch the streams because frankly, I think a lot of people want to watch the NFL on TV.

“Then Amazon is having to do make goods with the advertisers because Amazon wasn't able to get enough people to watch the streams because frankly, I think a lot of people want to watch the NFL on TV.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
The NFL
Publisher
Acquired

206 / evaluation

Players are effectively a partner in the league because the league's success ends up being their success, not necessarily evenly distributed among all players by any means, in fact, quite the opposite.

“Players are effectively a partner in the league because the league's success ends up being their success, not necessarily evenly distributed among all players by any means, in fact, quite the opposite.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
The NFL
Publisher
Acquired

208 / prediction

The right thing was as soon as possible, the NFL to get as much distribution as possible because the TV rights would become the most important revenue line, but also the thing that most fueled the flywheel.

“The right thing was as soon as possible, the NFL to get as much distribution as possible because the TV rights would become the most important revenue line, but also the thing that most fueled the flywheel.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
The NFL
Publisher
Acquired

212 / belief

If I had pitched you on Acquired in 2015, there's no way I would've said Acquired helps you understand why the world is arranged the way it is. Now I think that is absolutely the promise that we come through on.

“If I had pitched you on Acquired in 2015, there's no way I would've said Acquired helps you understand why the world is arranged the way it is. Now I think that is absolutely the promise that we come through on.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

213 / belief

I think we did our part two, and then we got a note from NVIDIA saying, Jensen has listened and wants to know who your inside sources are because it's the most correct telling of NVIDIA's story ever.

“I think we did our part two, and then we got a note from NVIDIA saying, Jensen has listened and wants to know who your inside sources are because it's the most correct telling of NVIDIA's story ever.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

216 / evaluation

If an agency reaches out and says, we want to place ads on your podcast, we write them a very nice note if we're able to get to the email and say, oh, we don't work with agencies, but thank you so much for your interest.

“If an agency reaches out and says, we want to place ads on your podcast, we write them a very nice note if we're able to get to the email and say, oh, we don't work with agencies, but thank you so much for your interest.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

221 / belief

I think in the first 10 episodes. The first five episodes, we got feedback saying, you guys need to disagree more, but I don't think we quite realized that we should reveal surprises for each other until five years ago, four years ago.

“I think in the first 10 episodes. The first five episodes, we got feedback saying, you guys need to disagree more, but I don't think we quite realized that we should reveal surprises for each other until five years ago, four years ago.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

224 / belief

I think the reasons Acquired will eventually fail, I don't think come from like platform disruption like, oh, TikTok's going to make it so people want short form instead of Acquired.

“I think the reasons Acquired will eventually fail, I don't think come from like platform disruption like, oh, TikTok's going to make it so people want short form instead of Acquired.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

229 / belief

I think we're trying to store up as much potential energy in Acquired as we can rather than anytime there's a way to make it show up on the financial statements, like letting out the pressure and being like, yup, second show, yup, more ads, yup, dynamic ads from an ad network.

“I think we're trying to store up as much potential energy in Acquired as we can rather than anytime there's a way to make it show up on the financial statements, like letting out the pressure and being like, yup, second show, yup, more ads, yup, dynamic ads from an ad network.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

230 / evaluation

You were discovering these things that nobody's talking about, whereas when we do something like Trader Joe's, someone says, what are you working on, and we're like, Trader Joe's, they're like, I love Trader Joe's.

“You were discovering these things that nobody's talking about, whereas when we do something like Trader Joe's, someone says, what are you working on, and we're like, Trader Joe's, they're like, I love Trader Joe's.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

233 / evaluation

I think we found our way to that probably four-ish years ago, maybe five years ago, where we used to feel like we were bad at podcasting because we couldn't make very many, because we didn't have a whole production team, and we didn't have professional ad salespeople.

“I think we found our way to that probably four-ish years ago, maybe five years ago, where we used to feel like we were bad at podcasting because we couldn't make very many, because we didn't have a whole production team, and we didn't have professional ad salespeople.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

247 / belief

I’m pretty sure what actually happens is Pemberton lets his formula settle, and it’s this thick syrupy thing, brings it down the street to the first drugstore, and that druggist, that proprietor is the one who actually combines that syrup with the carbonated water and makes the choice, which I think could have gone either way.

“I’m pretty sure what actually happens is Pemberton lets his formula settle, and it’s this thick syrupy thing, brings it down the street to the first drugstore, and that druggist, that proprietor is the one who actually combines that syrup with the carbonated water and makes the choice, which I think could have gone either way.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Coca-Cola
Publisher
Acquired

253 / belief

I think Coca-Cola would be worse off today if they didn’t go through the New Coke moment, which is crazy to say—I guess we don’t have the counterfactual—but if you just look at the data on the resurgence in Coke afterwards, you couldn’t have come up with a better marketing stunt.

“I think Coca-Cola would be worse off today if they didn’t go through the New Coke moment, which is crazy to say—I guess we don’t have the counterfactual—but if you just look at the data on the resurgence in Coke afterwards, you couldn’t have come up with a better marketing stunt.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Coca-Cola
Publisher
Acquired

255 / evaluation

The way in which this giant mass produced thing is created, it’s only stored (I believe) in two people’s head at any given time. They deliberately kept this a trade secret and didn’t patent it, because if you patent something, eventually it does become the property of the public and anyone can use it to further innovate.

“The way in which this giant mass produced thing is created, it’s only stored (I believe) in two people’s head at any given time. They deliberately kept this a trade secret and didn’t patent it, because if you patent something, eventually it does become the property of the public and anyone can use it to further innovate.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Coca-Cola
Publisher
Acquired

256 / evaluation

Coca-Cola is one thing that means our formula, our secret formula with this mystery merchandise 7x, which is the real crux of the formula. And there are no other things that can be colas because we created the concept of Coca-Cola and we are N of one.

“Coca-Cola is one thing that means our formula, our secret formula with this mystery merchandise 7x, which is the real crux of the formula. And there are no other things that can be colas because we created the concept of Coca-Cola and we are N of one.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Coca-Cola
Publisher
Acquired

258 / evaluation

I would swear up and down too, but yes, this is the best example ever though of someone electing to use a trade secret instead of a patent, and then creating all this lore, secrecy, and myth around it.

“I would swear up and down too, but yes, this is the best example ever though of someone electing to use a trade secret instead of a patent, and then creating all this lore, secrecy, and myth around it.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Coca-Cola
Publisher
Acquired

259 / evaluation

I mean, in an era where most grocery chains are being disrupted, Trader Joe's cult following has driven it to be more successful than ever, at least as far as we can tell from the outside, because it is an intensely private company.

“I mean, in an era where most grocery chains are being disrupted, Trader Joe's cult following has driven it to be more successful than ever, at least as far as we can tell from the outside, because it is an intensely private company.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Trader Joe’s
Publisher
Acquired

265 / belief

The noise cancellation is insane. I think a lot of it's physical cancellation. Maybe the algorithms are better, too, and they're more comfortable over a long period of time—like on long runs.

“The noise cancellation is insane. I think a lot of it's physical cancellation. Maybe the algorithms are better, too, and they're more comfortable over a long period of time—like on long runs.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Trader Joe’s
Publisher
Acquired

270 / observation

I did a brief history of supermarkets in America to come up to speed on what Trader Joe's does differently and how we got here. So, you go way back, all the way to pre-Civil War America, and you've got general stores.

“I did a brief history of supermarkets in America to come up to speed on what Trader Joe's does differently and how we got here. So, you go way back, all the way to pre-Civil War America, and you've got general stores.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Trader Joe’s
Publisher
Acquired

272 / prediction

Yes, it's a partnership, but it's not a great partnership because as soon as the CPG product becomes so wildly differentiated, they're going to start commanding—somehow squeezing more in the value chain.

“Yes, it's a partnership, but it's not a great partnership because as soon as the CPG product becomes so wildly differentiated, they're going to start commanding—somehow squeezing more in the value chain.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Trader Joe’s
Publisher
Acquired

274 / evaluation

Executives who worked for him — stuffed C-suite dullards of the grotesquely self-confident variety — will drop all pretense and describe wanting to wake up early in the morning to race to work because they can't wait to hear what Joe has to say.

“Executives who worked for him — stuffed C-suite dullards of the grotesquely self-confident variety — will drop all pretense and describe wanting to wake up early in the morning to race to work because they can't wait to hear what Joe has to say.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Trader Joe’s
Publisher
Acquired

275 / evaluation

"And so if you just want to sell those to me, I'm sure I can unload them on our customers; they're going to love the deal. And then it's actually not a big deal for me when I run out, because that's not a part of our value proposition the way it is for the big supermarkets.

“"And so if you just want to sell those to me, I'm sure I can unload them on our customers; they're going to love the deal. And then it's actually not a big deal for me when I run out, because that's not a part of our value proposition the way it is for the big supermarkets.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Trader Joe’s
Publisher
Acquired

278 / recommendation

You can build a much better business on being known for, "I will be surprised and delighted when I come to the store, and you have selected interesting items for me," than you can on, "You are an empty vessel through which to provide me milk.

“You can build a much better business on being known for, "I will be surprised and delighted when I come to the store, and you have selected interesting items for me," than you can on, "You are an empty vessel through which to provide me milk.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Trader Joe’s
Publisher
Acquired

288 / observation

If you’re not a finance person, the way to read into that is yes, we still need a lot of cash for investing in the future of AI and data centers, but we still actually had way more cash than we needed and we decided to distribute that to shareholders.

“If you’re not a finance person, the way to read into that is yes, we still need a lot of cash for investing in the future of AI and data centers, but we still actually had way more cash than we needed and we decided to distribute that to shareholders.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

289 / commitment

Most of you, we can’t fit millions of people in a tidy auditorium in San Francisco the week of the Super Bowl when every other venue has tons of stuff too, so there’ll be an opportunity to watch that streaming online. And as we get closer to that date in February, we will make sure that you all know a way that you can tune in and watch the MC-ing, interviewing, and festivities at hand, Super Bowl week.

“Most of you, we can’t fit millions of people in a tidy auditorium in San Francisco the week of the Super Bowl when every other venue has tons of stuff too, so there’ll be an opportunity to watch that streaming online. And as we get closer to that date in February, we will make sure that you all know a way that you can tune in and watch the MC-ing, interviewing, and festivities at hand, Super Bowl week.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

291 / belief

I wonder if they did talk to AWS at all about it. Because I think—this is a crazy Easter egg; I hesitate to say it out loud—AWS was actually in the very first investment with Elon in OpenAI.

“I wonder if they did talk to AWS at all about it. Because I think—this is a crazy Easter egg; I hesitate to say it out loud—AWS was actually in the very first investment with Elon in OpenAI.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

293 / belief

There’s an independent oversight board that is set up to make sure that the mission and goals of DeepMind are actually being followed. This is an asset that Google owns today that again, I think is worth half a trillion dollars if it’s independent.

“There’s an independent oversight board that is set up to make sure that the mission and goals of DeepMind are actually being followed. This is an asset that Google owns today that again, I think is worth half a trillion dollars if it’s independent.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

294 / commitment

If they’re saying the most capital-intense race in business history is happening right now, we intend to win it. And we have tons of extra cash lying around on top of what we think, plus a safety cushion for investing in that CapEx race.

“If they’re saying the most capital-intense race in business history is happening right now, we intend to win it. And we have tons of extra cash lying around on top of what we think, plus a safety cushion for investing in that CapEx race.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

296 / belief

There was a billion dollars pledged. That came from famously Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston—who (I think) most people don’t realize was part of that initial tranche—and Peter Thiel.

“There was a billion dollars pledged. That came from famously Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston—who (I think) most people don’t realize was part of that initial tranche—and Peter Thiel.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

299 / prediction

Jeff Dean does the math, and figures out if people use this for (I don’t know call it) three minutes a day and we roll it out to all billion Android phones, we’re going to need twice the number of data centers that we currently have across all of Google just to handle it.

“Jeff Dean does the math, and figures out if people use this for (I don’t know call it) three minutes a day and we roll it out to all billion Android phones, we’re going to need twice the number of data centers that we currently have across all of Google just to handle it.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

301 / evaluation

In theory, this is really bad because it means you would need to be constantly waiting around on any given machine for the other machines to sync their updated parameters before you could proceed.

“In theory, this is really bad because it means you would need to be constantly waiting around on any given machine for the other machines to sync their updated parameters before you could proceed.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

303 / evaluation

One of the reasons that the judge cited of why they weren’t going to really take these actions is because of the race in AI. That because tens of billions of dollars of funding have gone into companies like OpenAI and Anthropic and Perplexity, Google essentially has this new war to fight and we’re going to leave it to the free market to do its thing where it creates viable competition on its own, and we’re not going to hamstring Google.

“One of the reasons that the judge cited of why they weren’t going to really take these actions is because of the race in AI. That because tens of billions of dollars of funding have gone into companies like OpenAI and Anthropic and Perplexity, Google essentially has this new war to fight and we’re going to leave it to the free market to do its thing where it creates viable competition on its own, and we’re not going to hamstring Google.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

304 / evaluation

Because this is Google and they have (I think) the most obfuscated financials of any of the companies we’ve studied, they anger me the most in being able to hide the ball in their financial statements.

“Because this is Google and they have (I think) the most obfuscated financials of any of the companies we’ve studied, they anger me the most in being able to hide the ball in their financial statements.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

305 / prediction

I think the AI era we’re entering gets us to think about it.” This is the worst possible thing that could happen to Google, that now Microsoft can actually challenge Google on their own turf, intent on the Internet with a legitimately different, better, differentiated product vector.

“I think the AI era we’re entering gets us to think about it.” This is the worst possible thing that could happen to Google, that now Microsoft can actually challenge Google on their own turf, intent on the Internet with a legitimately different, better, differentiated product vector.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

309 / belief

I was about to say their infrastructure, but I think that’s actually a scale economy that they’ve built out the infrastructure they have so they can run all their products as cheaply as they can.

“I was about to say their infrastructure, but I think that’s actually a scale economy that they’ve built out the infrastructure they have so they can run all their products as cheaply as they can.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

311 / commitment

The one thing I will say here, David, is unlike all those other Google products, maps, Gmail, YouTube, the organizing the world’s information, this is not organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible.

“The one thing I will say here, David, is unlike all those other Google products, maps, Gmail, YouTube, the organizing the world’s information, this is not organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

314 / observation

The only way it could have gone better is if instead of launching Android, they launched the iPhone and they also got the iPhone profits rather than just some small dollars that protected their core business.

“The only way it could have gone better is if instead of launching Android, they launched the iPhone and they also got the iPhone profits rather than just some small dollars that protected their core business.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

315 / commitment

We don’t currently have a buyer in our ad network forum, throw them up on this exchange and see if programmatically some people will bid on it. We will get more dollars this month for the same number of page views.

“We don’t currently have a buyer in our ad network forum, throw them up on this exchange and see if programmatically some people will bid on it. We will get more dollars this month for the same number of page views.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

316 / belief

Still does by the way. Which I think held them back in AI for a while. They know the Google name means something, so they are reticent to throw their name on it until they got shoved off the cliff.

“Still does by the way. Which I think held them back in AI for a while. They know the Google name means something, so they are reticent to throw their name on it until they got shoved off the cliff.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

317 / commitment

Imagine that generating a whole bunch more page views on search results pages and a whole bunch more opportunities for our advertisers to reach your eyeballs. But I will say they were also correct from a user experience perspective, the fact that URLS ever leaked to the public is a mistake that is letting an implementation detail of the technology.

“Imagine that generating a whole bunch more page views on search results pages and a whole bunch more opportunities for our advertisers to reach your eyeballs. But I will say they were also correct from a user experience perspective, the fact that URLS ever leaked to the public is a mistake that is letting an implementation detail of the technology.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

320 / uncertainty

Then the question becomes how profitable is the 50 billion in revenue? And officially we don’t know, but there are these great things called research firms out there that make our jobs that Acquired here much easier.

“Then the question becomes how profitable is the 50 billion in revenue? And officially we don’t know, but there are these great things called research firms out there that make our jobs that Acquired here much easier.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

324 / evaluation

Just like we talked about on the Microsoft episodes, it really doesn’t matter when you fail and how many times you fail, even the size of your failures, if your hits are these giant world changing platform type tech businesses that endure for decades and that’s what they had on their hands.

“Just like we talked about on the Microsoft episodes, it really doesn’t matter when you fail and how many times you fail, even the size of your failures, if your hits are these giant world changing platform type tech businesses that endure for decades and that’s what they had on their hands.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

326 / belief

Here's why I want to pause David, and I’m going to take it in a little bit different direction than I think you’re probably expecting, which is so therefore they went after Facebook.

“Here's why I want to pause David, and I’m going to take it in a little bit different direction than I think you’re probably expecting, which is so therefore they went after Facebook.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

332 / commitment

Now I will say I believe Apple reputation launderers a little bit. They get a lot of the value of being in the search business without having to do all the stuff that they demonize from a privacy and data sharing and all that ickiness perspective.

“Now I will say I believe Apple reputation launderers a little bit. They get a lot of the value of being in the search business without having to do all the stuff that they demonize from a privacy and data sharing and all that ickiness perspective.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

334 / evaluation

We had that awkward teenage years where browsers had the URL bar on the left and then the search on the right and it’s clean to think about it on its own because now that we understand that that is sponsored, that I think for the longest time that was not in the public psyche, that whatever search engine appeared in that box in the right hand corner was paying for that placement.

“We had that awkward teenage years where browsers had the URL bar on the left and then the search on the right and it’s clean to think about it on its own because now that we understand that that is sponsored, that I think for the longest time that was not in the public psyche, that whatever search engine appeared in that box in the right hand corner was paying for that placement.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

339 / prediction

Whereas YouTube can say, eh, whatever, but then they’re going to go out of business because they’re going to get sued out of business. It’s this really interesting catch-22 of this is the way to start and get all the users because this is the best user experience.

“Whereas YouTube can say, eh, whatever, but then they’re going to go out of business because they’re going to get sued out of business. It’s this really interesting catch-22 of this is the way to start and get all the users because this is the best user experience.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

348 / belief

Absolutely. And we’re designing our own file systems with GFS, or I think we’ll talk about a lot of it in the next episode, but very real system-level software that is pioneering.

“Absolutely. And we’re designing our own file systems with GFS, or I think we’ll talk about a lot of it in the next episode, but very real system-level software that is pioneering.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

353 / prediction

Not to spoil too much, but obviously this still plays out all the way to the much debated apple Safari deal today, and the tens of billions of dollars that Google still pays to Apple in traffic acquisition costs.

“Not to spoil too much, but obviously this still plays out all the way to the much debated apple Safari deal today, and the tens of billions of dollars that Google still pays to Apple in traffic acquisition costs.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

354 / prediction

I think (a) they believe search is going to be bigger than anyone could have realized, but (b) they had the insight of the exponential curve of content on the Internet is growing faster than Google will ever be able to index it all or come up with clever strategies to sort it all.

“I think (a) they believe search is going to be bigger than anyone could have realized, but (b) they had the insight of the exponential curve of content on the Internet is growing faster than Google will ever be able to index it all or come up with clever strategies to sort it all.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

363 / evaluation

IBM thought, oh we’ve got some protection from Microsoft, disintermediating us from all the developers and all the potential customers, because targeting our BIOS is going to be important and unreplicable.

“IBM thought, oh we’ve got some protection from Microsoft, disintermediating us from all the developers and all the potential customers, because targeting our BIOS is going to be important and unreplicable.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

366 / belief

You’re starting to get these political wins of, hey, everyone wants a good system for electronic medical records. We think in the abstract there’ll be a lot of good that comes from it.

“You’re starting to get these political wins of, hey, everyone wants a good system for electronic medical records. We think in the abstract there’ll be a lot of good that comes from it.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

367 / belief

Small. But I think to get to this point that we’ve been hitting in a bunch of different ways, as long as you can win deals in the short-term early days without sales and marketing spend, and you can just spend all of your costs or as much as possible on R&D, that R&D does compound over time to give you a big competitive advantage later in life that other forms of spend do not.

“Small. But I think to get to this point that we’ve been hitting in a bunch of different ways, as long as you can win deals in the short-term early days without sales and marketing spend, and you can just spend all of your costs or as much as possible on R&D, that R&D does compound over time to give you a big competitive advantage later in life that other forms of spend do not.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

369 / belief

What are things that we just all agree on are good ideas for the country that should happen? And let’s just pass some legislation that rewards the crap out of people with free money for doing the things that we think are a good idea anyway.

“What are things that we just all agree on are good ideas for the country that should happen? And let’s just pass some legislation that rewards the crap out of people with free money for doing the things that we think are a good idea anyway.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

374 / observation

Buffet’s been running Berkshire for over 50 years. But in Judy’s case, having 47 years to imbue the founder’s personality into the organization as it’s built all the way to this scale is really rare and really powerful.

“Buffet’s been running Berkshire for over 50 years. But in Judy’s case, having 47 years to imbue the founder’s personality into the organization as it’s built all the way to this scale is really rare and really powerful.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

376 / observation

You also can’t do their clever bundling in a bunch of free stuff that you might want to use in the future unless you have the scale economies also. They just develop a lot of software that they either throw in for free or offer to you in the future, and the only way you can develop that much software is have a huge number of customers to amortize it across.

“You also can’t do their clever bundling in a bunch of free stuff that you might want to use in the future unless you have the scale economies also. They just develop a lot of software that they either throw in for free or offer to you in the future, and the only way you can develop that much software is have a huge number of customers to amortize it across.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

379 / belief

I think at this point in history, 2025, when the customer wants to do something a certain way and Epic wants to do something a certain way, ultimately Epic is customer-focused, so they will do whatever the customer wants, but they’re going to lay out very compelling convincing arguments why their way is the correct way.

“I think at this point in history, 2025, when the customer wants to do something a certain way and Epic wants to do something a certain way, ultimately Epic is customer-focused, so they will do whatever the customer wants, but they’re going to lay out very compelling convincing arguments why their way is the correct way.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

381 / belief

I think what was happening is they had this nascent market in the proto EHR world, where they were able to sell something small enough at enough of a profit to be self-sustaining while they bided their time and built out the bigger suite.

“I think what was happening is they had this nascent market in the proto EHR world, where they were able to sell something small enough at enough of a profit to be self-sustaining while they bided their time and built out the bigger suite.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

390 / belief

The current competitive set is now what we’re dealing with, and we think the current competitive set is good enough that this is shovel-ready enough that we want the best ones to get implemented everywhere.

“The current competitive set is now what we’re dealing with, and we think the current competitive set is good enough that this is shovel-ready enough that we want the best ones to get implemented everywhere.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

400 / belief

I think Disney wanted to also go for the streaming rights, but I think the assumptions you have to make about the growth and monetization potential of streaming are a pretty big leap to say, yeah they’re worth the same as TV now, which has a lot of hungry advertising customers standing there with cash now saying I want to advertise on this product.

“I think Disney wanted to also go for the streaming rights, but I think the assumptions you have to make about the growth and monetization potential of streaming are a pretty big leap to say, yeah they’re worth the same as TV now, which has a lot of hungry advertising customers standing there with cash now saying I want to advertise on this product.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

410 / observation

The capital calls are the way to do it. It’s an incredible way to get someone to bid $50-$100 million for something that doesn’t exist yet, to say well, in the first year you’re only out $5 million.

“The capital calls are the way to do it. It’s an incredible way to get someone to bid $50-$100 million for something that doesn’t exist yet, to say well, in the first year you’re only out $5 million.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

413 / belief

I think by our calculations—we tried to estimate a P&L for any given team—we’re looking at something today like $66 million coming from a central pool and only $4-ish million coming from tickets.

“I think by our calculations—we tried to estimate a P&L for any given team—we’re looking at something today like $66 million coming from a central pool and only $4-ish million coming from tickets.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

414 / commitment

The IPL team owners are starting to own or have partnerships with the other T20 leagues that are popping up. So it’s very easy for them to be like, you guys shouldn’t allow a players’ union and we won’t allow a players’ union.

“The IPL team owners are starting to own or have partnerships with the other T20 leagues that are popping up. So it’s very easy for them to be like, you guys shouldn’t allow a players’ union and we won’t allow a players’ union.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

415 / evaluation

You just want to assume that if someone knows that they’re about to launch a huge new cricket league that’s not included in your contract and you’re operating under the idea that it is included in your contract, what’s in the contract doesn’t matter as much as what you both feel like you’re agreeing to.

“You just want to assume that if someone knows that they’re about to launch a huge new cricket league that’s not included in your contract and you’re operating under the idea that it is included in your contract, what’s in the contract doesn’t matter as much as what you both feel like you’re agreeing to.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

416 / belief

Major League Cricket, for listeners out there, I’d spent a good amount of time with Soma Somasegar, who is the former Microsoft exec now at Madrona, who is a co-owner with Satya Nadella of the Seattle Major League Cricket team. It is very interesting getting his perspective on developing Major League Cricket in the US because I think the whole bet with Major League Cricket is we got to build cricket fandom domestically in a grassroots way with players here, slowly over time.

“Major League Cricket, for listeners out there, I’d spent a good amount of time with Soma Somasegar, who is the former Microsoft exec now at Madrona, who is a co-owner with Satya Nadella of the Seattle Major League Cricket team. It is very interesting getting his perspective on developing Major League Cricket in the US because I think the whole bet with Major League Cricket is we got to build cricket fandom domestically in a grassroots way with players here, slowly over time.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

417 / belief

If you want to know every time an episode drops, check out our email list. It’s the only place where we share a hint at what our next episode will be and share episode corrections, updates, and little tidbits that we learned from previous episodes.

“If you want to know every time an episode drops, check out our email list. It’s the only place where we share a hint at what our next episode will be and share episode corrections, updates, and little tidbits that we learned from previous episodes.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

418 / commitment

I will say more than any other episode that we’ve done, it seems like every element of this has two completely different sides to the story, both of which the leaders of that side dig in and maintain their side.

“I will say more than any other episode that we’ve done, it seems like every element of this has two completely different sides to the story, both of which the leaders of that side dig in and maintain their side.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

419 / belief

To apply this to the IPL, the question is who are the IPL’S competitors? And I think because they are so n-of-one at this point, you have to think about it as their potential competitors or potential competitors in the past that they have since vanquished.

“To apply this to the IPL, the question is who are the IPL’S competitors? And I think because they are so n-of-one at this point, you have to think about it as their potential competitors or potential competitors in the past that they have since vanquished.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

425 / belief

I signed up for AAA while I’m just sitting there in the gas station parking lot, and within, I think an hour, hour-and-a-half, they had a mobile tire inflator on a long weekend, like a holiday weekend when other people aren’t working, drive out and fill up the air in my tire so we could be quickly on our way, not ruin the weekend.

“I signed up for AAA while I’m just sitting there in the gas station parking lot, and within, I think an hour, hour-and-a-half, they had a mobile tire inflator on a long weekend, like a holiday weekend when other people aren’t working, drive out and fill up the air in my tire so we could be quickly on our way, not ruin the weekend.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

428 / uncertainty

I keep thinking about the fact that they can spend $20 billion to build a building, and the stuff that they spit out is so valuable that that $20 billion was a profitable investment in a matter of, I don’t know how many years.

“I keep thinking about the fact that they can spend $20 billion to build a building, and the stuff that they spit out is so valuable that that $20 billion was a profitable investment in a matter of, I don’t know how many years.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

429 / belief

If you like Acquired and you wish you had something Acquired-like that’s visual, that’s about history, intellectual property, and people trying crazy stuff, some of the most crazy entrepreneurs and executives within companies decided to build theme parks. It is very fun to see the weird old Nickelodeon hotels or action park in (I think) New Jersey, the wildly unsafe park from the 60s, 70s and 80s.

“If you like Acquired and you wish you had something Acquired-like that’s visual, that’s about history, intellectual property, and people trying crazy stuff, some of the most crazy entrepreneurs and executives within companies decided to build theme parks. It is very fun to see the weird old Nickelodeon hotels or action park in (I think) New Jersey, the wildly unsafe park from the 60s, 70s and 80s.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

435 / prediction

Ideally, you spend no time in the low volume period. It seems like over time, all the returns in the industry, the winner is the one with all the volume, because they’ll just have the lowest prices.

“Ideally, you spend no time in the low volume period. It seems like over time, all the returns in the industry, the winner is the one with all the volume, because they’ll just have the lowest prices.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

437 / evaluation

Which is funny because in older interviews sometimes he goes, well, the timing was a little lucky on when fabless happened. But I think he even said to Jensen in the first few years of TSMC, growth wasn’t very high because we were waiting for the customers to emerge.

“Which is funny because in older interviews sometimes he goes, well, the timing was a little lucky on when fabless happened. But I think he even said to Jensen in the first few years of TSMC, growth wasn’t very high because we were waiting for the customers to emerge.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

442 / belief

I think for the biggest businesses in the world, it’s these businesses that operate at high gross margins in very large markets, where you basically can build out a massive fixed cost base and then have great operating leverage.

“I think for the biggest businesses in the world, it’s these businesses that operate at high gross margins in very large markets, where you basically can build out a massive fixed cost base and then have great operating leverage.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

448 / uncertainty

Everybody who eats sugar today knows that if you’re eating sugar, it is triggering, I don’t know if it’s dopamine or serotonin, but there’s definitely a stimulus of a happiness release.

“Everybody who eats sugar today knows that if you’re eating sugar, it is triggering, I don’t know if it’s dopamine or serotonin, but there’s definitely a stimulus of a happiness release.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

452 / belief

Chocolate is remarkably hard to make. I think that is a huge takeaway. The fact that I’m looking down here at all these bags of M&M’s and the Snickers bar, we just assume, oh, this is an industrial thing that just comes off the line.

“Chocolate is remarkably hard to make. I think that is a huge takeaway. The fact that I’m looking down here at all these bags of M&M’s and the Snickers bar, we just assume, oh, this is an industrial thing that just comes off the line.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

455 / belief

I think part of it was also a spike in strawberry prices, so they just did away with the vanilla, and now it’s just called 3 Musketeers, even though it’s only the chocolate variant.

“I think part of it was also a spike in strawberry prices, so they just did away with the vanilla, and now it’s just called 3 Musketeers, even though it’s only the chocolate variant.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

456 / commitment

You may know that they own the world’s most popular candy, Snickers, in addition to M& M’s, or perhaps you know they’re in the pet food business. But they also own everything from Ben’s Original Rice to now Kind Bars, and they have one massive deal in the works that we will talk about later on this episode.

“You may know that they own the world’s most popular candy, Snickers, in addition to M& M’s, or perhaps you know they’re in the pet food business. But they also own everything from Ben’s Original Rice to now Kind Bars, and they have one massive deal in the works that we will talk about later on this episode.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

459 / belief

We picked M&M’s, thinking this’ll be just some nice light hearted fare about the candies and the characters on commercials that remind us all of our childhood. But as we dug into Mars Incorporated, the parent company, we realized that the story is totally thrilling.

“We picked M&M’s, thinking this’ll be just some nice light hearted fare about the candies and the characters on commercials that remind us all of our childhood. But as we dug into Mars Incorporated, the parent company, we realized that the story is totally thrilling.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

462 / evaluation

In markets where it is important to be first to market, getting scale quickly so you become the product of record or of reference when people are trying to describe the category.

“In markets where it is important to be first to market, getting scale quickly so you become the product of record or of reference when people are trying to describe the category.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

463 / uncertainty

There are two versions of the story, and we don’t know which one is true. Either way, David, it leads to this thing that you’re talking about, which is there’s a little bit of a funk or a little bit of a sourness in Hershey’s chocolate.

“There are two versions of the story, and we don’t know which one is true. Either way, David, it leads to this thing that you’re talking about, which is there’s a little bit of a funk or a little bit of a sourness in Hershey’s chocolate.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

465 / evaluation

I thought this was a recent diversification hedge, but here it is effectively at the founding of Mars or at least Forrest’s modern Mars, and he’s in the first second year of business buying and diversifying to pet food. It was immediately a good idea because it became profitable after just a couple of years, and started generating enough cash flow to fund the expansion of Mars bars.

“I thought this was a recent diversification hedge, but here it is effectively at the founding of Mars or at least Forrest’s modern Mars, and he’s in the first second year of business buying and diversifying to pet food. It was immediately a good idea because it became profitable after just a couple of years, and started generating enough cash flow to fund the expansion of Mars bars.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

466 / recommendation

We just had one of my favorite conversations ever on the show, in part because I just love talking computer architecture, with Rene Haas, who is the CEO of Arm Holdings, the chip design company that makes the designs and the instruction set architecture of everything inside your smartphone, your car, your laptop, and now even massively in the data centers.

“We just had one of my favorite conversations ever on the show, in part because I just love talking computer architecture, with Rene Haas, who is the CEO of Arm Holdings, the chip design company that makes the designs and the instruction set architecture of everything inside your smartphone, your car, your laptop, and now even massively in the data centers.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

469 / commitment

If you just think about all the ways in which they whittle price down, every single place they could make a deal with a customer and say, hey, how about you do a little bit of work and we don’t, we will give you a better price, and the customer says, okay.

“If you just think about all the ways in which they whittle price down, every single place they could make a deal with a customer and say, hey, how about you do a little bit of work and we don’t, we will give you a better price, and the customer says, okay.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
IKEA
Publisher
Acquired

473 / belief

Trying to buy materials at a discount, minimal sales staff, no finishes on unseen services, flat-packing, no one has assistance, I think actually the CEO is the only person at the company with an assistant, no one flies first class, they print on both sides of the paper.

“Trying to buy materials at a discount, minimal sales staff, no finishes on unseen services, flat-packing, no one has assistance, I think actually the CEO is the only person at the company with an assistant, no one flies first class, they print on both sides of the paper.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
IKEA
Publisher
Acquired

475 / commitment

I will say a thing that illustrates every point we’ve been making on this episode really, really well is, so they bought TaskRabbit for a small amount, $50–$75 million somewhere in there A few years ago.

“I will say a thing that illustrates every point we’ve been making on this episode really, really well is, so they bought TaskRabbit for a small amount, $50–$75 million somewhere in there A few years ago.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
IKEA
Publisher
Acquired

486 / belief

David, I think where you’re going with this is they really start going down, once IKEA does meaningfully start investing in e-commerce, starting in 2018 is when they really put their foot on the gas.

“David, I think where you’re going with this is they really start going down, once IKEA does meaningfully start investing in e-commerce, starting in 2018 is when they really put their foot on the gas.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
IKEA
Publisher
Acquired

489 / belief

I think there are certainly a lot of question marks around what do they look like in an e-commerce world, a world that’s shifting to urbanization, and a world where they’re now a big company.

“I think there are certainly a lot of question marks around what do they look like in an e-commerce world, a world that’s shifting to urbanization, and a world where they’re now a big company.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
IKEA
Publisher
Acquired

492 / commitment

While we will of course discuss these events as part of our story and analysis, our goal today on this podcast episode is really to understand how it is that Meta became the dominant fabric that connects the human race, and why they’ve been so successful at continuing to win over and over again.

“While we will of course discuss these events as part of our story and analysis, our goal today on this podcast episode is really to understand how it is that Meta became the dominant fabric that connects the human race, and why they’ve been so successful at continuing to win over and over again.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Meta
Publisher
Acquired

493 / belief

As you looked at not the high level metrics of how many users have ever signed up, because MySpace and Friendster, I think we’re still way ahead at this point, if you looked at how’s this going to play out if it keeps compounding and you looked at the deeper metrics, you thought, oh, I’m running the better company by a lot.

“As you looked at not the high level metrics of how many users have ever signed up, because MySpace and Friendster, I think we’re still way ahead at this point, if you looked at how’s this going to play out if it keeps compounding and you looked at the deeper metrics, you thought, oh, I’m running the better company by a lot.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Meta
Publisher
Acquired

494 / evaluation

The scarce commodity is trust. That is the important lesson here. It’s also a very convenient infrastructure decision, where if these two systems truly don’t need to talk to each other, that’s great.

“The scarce commodity is trust. That is the important lesson here. It’s also a very convenient infrastructure decision, where if these two systems truly don’t need to talk to each other, that’s great.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Episode
Meta
Publisher
Acquired
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