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.

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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.

59 transcript-backed records

01 / 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

04 / 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

06 / 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

09 / 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

12 / 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

17 / 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

33 / 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

34 / 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

35 / 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

36 / 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

37 / 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

40 / 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

50 / 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

51 / 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

54 / 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

55 / 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

56 / 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

58 / 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
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