Acquired
About this creator
Acquired is a long-form business podcast that breaks down the companies, acquisitions, and strategic decisions behind iconic businesses.
Why they're in the library
Included for clear, credible perspective as long-form business podcast that breaks down the companies, acquisitions, and strategic decisions behind iconic businesses.
Showing 168 digests for Acquired.
Founder interviews
Podcast
Patrick O'Shaughnessy on building OSAM, Canvas, and Invest Like the Best
Acquired
October 7, 2020
Founder interviews
9
Business models
7
Content marketing
5
Radical transparency in investing is a durable moat, not a liability
OSAM turned internal quant infrastructure into a bespoke portfolio platform
Curiosity-driven content compounds into competitive advantage without marketing
Bebo's second life: buying a dead social network and selling it to Twitch
Acquired
September 9, 2020
Case studies
10
Pivoting
7
Pitching investors
6
A $850M social network bought back from bankruptcy for just $1M.
Selling a company means finding what the buyer already wants to do.
Buying profitable small businesses beats the startup lottery for most people.
The rise of Epic Games and Fortnite
Acquired
September 2, 2020
Case studies
9
Business models
8
Pivoting
6
Free-to-play cosmetics strategy turned Fortnite into $9 billion phenomenon
Epic's Apple App Store battle challenges tech platform gatekeeping
Tim Sweeney's open metaverse vision competes with Meta's approach
Founder interviews
Podcast
Eventbrite: bootstrapping, IPO, and surviving COVID with Julia and Kevin Hartz
Acquired
August 25, 2020
Founder interviews
10
Bootstrapping
7
Fundraising & VC
6
Two years bootstrapping, 27 VC rejections — before Sequoia finally said yes.
Why big private funding rounds made the business harder, not easier.
Revenue went from record highs to negative in two weeks when COVID hit.
How Pinduoduo reached $100 billion in five years
Acquired
July 16, 2020
Case studies
9
Business models
8
Growth hacking
7
Team buying turned viral social mechanics into e-commerce dominance
Tencent's platform bet over advertising gave PDD its structural moat
Positive operating cashflow hides behind misleading GAAP net losses
Founder interviews
Podcast
Oprah Winfrey and Harpo Studios: from talent to media mogul
Acquired
June 25, 2020
Founder interviews
10
Business models
7
Branding
6
Owning production — not starring — is how Oprah became a billionaire
A $16M bet on herself returned one of the best media IRRs ever recorded
Oprah invented native advertising, book clubs, and the influencer playbook
How SpaceX disrupted the aerospace industry with vertical integration
Acquired
May 26, 2020
Business models
10
Case studies
9
Competitive analysis
7
SpaceX nearly went bankrupt on its fourth and final funded launch attempt.
Vertical integration cut rocket costs to one-tenth of NASA's own estimates.
A $1.6B NASA contract on Christmas Eve 2008 saved the company and changed spaceflight.
Intel's transformation from memory to microprocessors
Acquired
May 12, 2020
Origin stories
9
Pivoting
9
Management
5
Memory business commoditized overnight; Andy Grove pivoted Intel to CPUs and sole-sourced the 386
Japanese competitors undercut Intel 10% recursively; market share fell from 80% to 1.3% in four years
Sole-source 386 processor created monopoly; Intel Inside campaign locked out AMD for six years
Founder interviews
Podcast
Jason Calacanis: Building a media and investing empire from scratch
Acquired
April 29, 2020
Founder interviews
10
Fundraising & VC
7
Pivoting
6
Lost a $12M media empire in the dot-com crash, rebuilt in 18 months
First Sequoia Scout turned $700K into $100M+ backing Uber and Stripe
Angel investing requires 20–40 bets, not 1–5, to capture outlier returns
Cash flow management
Podcast
Sequoia's Black Swan memo: Crisis adaptation and investor leadership
Acquired
March 31, 2020
Cash flow management
9
Pivoting
7
Resilience & grit
6
Survival through crisis requires ruthless focus on cash, expense discipline, and product over sales and marketing.
Sequoia published their Black Swan warning six days before America woke up—drawn from China's full lockdowns and 50 years of recession experience.
Great companies hunker down in crisis, build differentiated products, and emerge with disproportionate advantages when competition clears.
Adapting in crisis: Canlis transforms for community during COVID-19
Acquired
March 20, 2020
Case studies
9
Pivoting
8
Culture building
6
Fine dining restaurant pivots to drive-through, bagels, and delivery within two weeks
Entire 115-person staff volunteers to stay employed despite uncertain, radical business changes
Leadership decision rooted in military values prioritizes people over profit during crisis
How Sequoia Capital became a global powerhouse under Doug Leone
Acquired
February 18, 2020
Case studies
10
Fundraising & VC
8
Business models
7
Sequoia refused to call Mulligan in 1999, bringing near-zero funds to near 2X
Going global meant betting on local teams, not flying in to make deals
Sequoia's edge is culture: quirky individuals in a flat, trust-first team
How Facebook paid $22 billion to neutralise its biggest global threat
Acquired
January 29, 2020
Origin stories
9
Business models
7
Fundraising & VC
6
Phone-number identity solved messaging's cold-start problem in one move
WhatsApp was profitable with 50 staff before Facebook paid $22 billion
Facebook bought silence, not revenue — zero monetisation six years later
Founder interviews
Podcast
How Eric Ries is rebuilding public markets for the long term
Acquired
December 30, 2019
Founder interviews
9
Business models
7
Fundraising & VC
6
Activist investors with 10-minute holding periods control public company governance
LTSE lets founders legally bind themselves to long-term principles — with real penalties
Lean Startup started as anonymous blog posts to avoid being yelled out of boardrooms
How ByteDance acquired Musical.ly to build TikTok
Acquired
December 9, 2019
Case studies
9
Pivoting
7
Business models
6
Algorithm-first feeds beat follow-graphs — TikTok actually is N squared.
Musical.ly pivot from education app to lip-sync on a Caltrain hunch.
ByteDance spent more on post-merger ads than the $1B acquisition price.