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Acquired / episode intelligence

Holiday Special 2023

18 Dec 2023 56 published claims 2 attributable people
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Speakers in the public record

David RosenthalBen Gilbert

Claim mix

belief 34commitment 9evaluation 4recommendation 3uncertainty 2preference 2observation 1disagreement 1

Evidence policy

Every row below preserves an exact excerpt. Identified speakers are linked; unresolved voices are labeled and excluded from people counts.

Claim ledger

The useful parts, with receipts.

56 published records

02 / belief

I think there's another way to make decisions, which is surround yourself with—if you're an ambitious person—the most intelligent people you possibly can who are the closest to ground zero for your industry.

“I think there's another way to make decisions, which is surround yourself with—if you're an ambitious person—the most intelligent people you possibly can who are the closest to ground zero for your industry.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

03 / belief

I think that's been what's so cool for me. My big lessons and takeaways from everything we've done this year is that those stories and studying the LVMHs, the Costcos, the Nikes of the world, if anything, that's even more important than studying the great technology companies for building a great technology company.

“I think that's been what's so cool for me. My big lessons and takeaways from everything we've done this year is that those stories and studying the LVMHs, the Costcos, the Nikes of the world, if anything, that's even more important than studying the great technology companies for building a great technology company.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

13 / commitment

At the end of the episode, we're going to share a little bit about David and my investing lives and how those will be changing in 2024 as David, you and I are going to get to do much more of our investing together.

“At the end of the episode, we're going to share a little bit about David and my investing lives and how those will be changing in 2024 as David, you and I are going to get to do much more of our investing together.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

14 / commitment

I just look at the investments that I've done and I've been more active in the past few years than I was when I was a VC, you and I are going to be even more active together going forward.

“I just look at the investments that I've done and I've been more active in the past few years than I was when I was a VC, you and I are going to be even more active together going forward.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

22 / belief

I think we figured out a nice balance to be able to work with Fortune 500s as a scale platform and also to be in business, both investing and on a sponsorship basis for their go-to market with growth stage companies.

“I think we figured out a nice balance to be able to work with Fortune 500s as a scale platform and also to be in business, both investing and on a sponsorship basis for their go-to market with growth stage companies.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

26 / belief

I have no idea what Charlie would say to that, obviously. But I think for people who find themselves in those positions, Steve Jobs was that, for sure, obviously Warren and Charlie are that, Jensen may be on his way to becoming that.

“I have no idea what Charlie would say to that, obviously. But I think for people who find themselves in those positions, Steve Jobs was that, for sure, obviously Warren and Charlie are that, Jensen may be on his way to becoming that.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

27 / belief

Until this year, I don't think I would have agreed with the statement that the quality of our episodes is governed just as much by our headspace the day of recording as it is by the quality of the research that we did. Now I believe that that is immensely the case.

“Until this year, I don't think I would have agreed with the statement that the quality of our episodes is governed just as much by our headspace the day of recording as it is by the quality of the research that we did. Now I believe that that is immensely the case.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

30 / belief

I think that to the extent that we find and continue to find great partners who want to work with us as sponsors in that way, that works really well to make sure that the content bar is where it needs to be, the audience is happy, and that we can frankly blow it out of the water the way that we do on the season episodes for our sponsors.

“I think that to the extent that we find and continue to find great partners who want to work with us as sponsors in that way, that works really well to make sure that the content bar is where it needs to be, the audience is happy, and that we can frankly blow it out of the water the way that we do on the season episodes for our sponsors.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

31 / belief

Reflecting on this too, I think, ironically, moving to this role as our and my over the past couple of years official job function and identity of being historian versus venture capitalist investor, has made me a much better investor.

“Reflecting on this too, I think, ironically, moving to this role as our and my over the past couple of years official job function and identity of being historian versus venture capitalist investor, has made me a much better investor.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired

36 / commitment

We're finally going to be able to do that at scale and do it together in a way that we're not spending a lot of our time hearing early stage pitches or anything like that. But for companies that we already know well, David and I are going to join our investing forces and invest more in those growth-stage market-leading tech companies.

“We're finally going to be able to do that at scale and do it together in a way that we're not spending a lot of our time hearing early stage pitches or anything like that. But for companies that we already know well, David and I are going to join our investing forces and invest more in those growth-stage market-leading tech companies.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

46 / uncertainty

Would you describe anything that you own that way other than things that are obviously that way, other than some like Louis Vuitton suitcase that you have? I don't know what you have, but you've got some Rolexes.

“Would you describe anything that you own that way other than things that are obviously that way, other than some like Louis Vuitton suitcase that you have? I don't know what you have, but you've got some Rolexes.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

48 / evaluation

I think the growth is a byproduct of our obsessions shifting and becoming these durable businesses, and trying to understand what makes a company worthy of being a century-long company, regardless of where it came from, how it was funded, or what technologies were used in creating it.

“I think the growth is a byproduct of our obsessions shifting and becoming these durable businesses, and trying to understand what makes a company worthy of being a century-long company, regardless of where it came from, how it was funded, or what technologies were used in creating it.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

50 / recommendation

The rule is you must write a three page stream of consciousness before getting out of bed in the morning. It is so cool, because it flushes out all the crap from your head so that you can go and have a clean slate to start the day, and you're not wasting your time processing.

“The rule is you must write a three page stream of consciousness before getting out of bed in the morning. It is so cool, because it flushes out all the crap from your head so that you can go and have a clean slate to start the day, and you're not wasting your time processing.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

51 / preference

Now that I'm using the big camera again, because we have a baby, I've gone back to using the Alpha 7C's and this very flexible lens that can either be a wide or a zoom lens that we're going to use actually for some upcoming interviews next year to get a tighter shot on the subject, I've been using that.

“Now that I'm using the big camera again, because we have a baby, I've gone back to using the Alpha 7C's and this very flexible lens that can either be a wide or a zoom lens that we're going to use actually for some upcoming interviews next year to get a tighter shot on the subject, I've been using that.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

52 / evaluation

I don't ever expect that we are going to get a story right about something in flight, but hopefully given a couple of months to prepare, we can get the story right about something that's happened over a long period of time with a lot of perspectives where people are willing to share everything they know since the hatchets are buried.

“I don't ever expect that we are going to get a story right about something in flight, but hopefully given a couple of months to prepare, we can get the story right about something that's happened over a long period of time with a lot of perspectives where people are willing to share everything they know since the hatchets are buried.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

53 / preference

A few other things we've got up our sleeve, I think the goal is to be able to continue to work with these recent product/market fit, Series B-ish companies that we've always worked with.

“A few other things we've got up our sleeve, I think the goal is to be able to continue to work with these recent product/market fit, Series B-ish companies that we've always worked with.”
Speaker
Ben Gilbert
Publisher
Acquired

55 / evaluation

We go make a great Acquired episode. This has been such a gift to me in my life because up until we started doing Acquired and up until Acquired became my full-time job three years ago, I didn't have anything that I could control like that.

“We go make a great Acquired episode. This has been such a gift to me in my life because up until we started doing Acquired and up until Acquired became my full-time job three years ago, I didn't have anything that I could control like that.”
Speaker
David Rosenthal
Publisher
Acquired
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