BusinessEntrepreneurshipInvesting

ACQ2 by Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

ACQ2 is Ben and David's conversations with experts on topics related to Acquired. Acquired the stories of great companies — and ACQ2 dives deeper into the lessons we can learn from them, often with the protagonists themselves.

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112 episodes
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May 5, 2020 · 55 min
High-performance Hiring & Interviewing with former Amazon Worldwide GM of Prime Membership, Anna Collins
We're joined by former Amazon, Microsoft and Bulletproof executive Anna Collins to discuss how high-performance organizations structure their hiring and interview processes. Whether you're a small startup or a big public company, as Anna puts it, there is no more important question than who you put "on your bus". Anna distills what she's learned across 20+ years and making thousands of hires into actionable, must-listen advice for anyone aiming to grow their organization in a high-performance manner (or on the other side, anyone looking to join a high-performance company!). “I believe that structure is what is required for creativity and for humans to actually connect. If you have chaos, that is the opposite of having the ability to connect and having a good candidate experience. It’s all about being human and you need the structure to facilitate that and to be productive.” – Anna Collins Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM Let People Know You’re An LP on Twitter! Show Links: 14 Leadership Principles of Amazon 33 Competencies of MSFT Anna's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-collins-5965/ Transcript link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PX_6bUsHJRN3eZsCH5K8m-9OfHTOuFXH
Apr 29, 2020 · 50 min
The Jason Calacanis Special (cont.)
In Part 2 of our conversation, Jason reveals his "secret master plan" behind the Calacanis empire, as well as how he and his team manage all their various activities and their own productivity. And of course, we couldn’t resist diving into some behind-the-scenes stories and hot takes, including a long bet on a future TWiSt - Acquired live show crossover collab. You can find Part 1 of our conversation in the main show feed at: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/acquired-special-episode-jason-calacanis Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Apr 7, 2020 · 1 hr 1 min
Adapting: Mystery - How to Grow When Your Original Business Goes to Zero (with cofounders Shane Kovalsky & Vince Coppola)
We're joined for an Adapeting episode by the cofounders of Mystery, a Seattle seed-stage startup that we've mentioned before on Acquired and was started by early Convoy employees. In ordinary times, Mystery sends customers on magical date nights and group outings throughout the city with no planning or decision-making required -- an "easy button" for date night. Of course, we no longer live in ordinary times, and Mystery has undergone an incredible transformation. Within the span of a month, the company went from having "found" product market-fit and nearly completing a fundraise, to 100% of their business evaporating (and literally pitching Sequoia on the same day they released the Black Swan Memo), to then launching a completely new stay-at-home product and that not only recovered all of their revenue but meaningfully grew the business. We hope you all enjoy this conversation, and take some inspiration for navigating your own businesses through these stormy seas! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Links: https://www.trymystery.com https://sandwich.co ACQ2 announcement: We now have a Gdrive! You can find full transcripts of ACQ2 Episodes here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1PX_6bUsHJRN3eZsCH5K8m-9OfHTOuFXH
Mar 24, 2020 · 1 hr 11 min
Everything you need to know about Pre-Seed (with Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures)
Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures joins us to illuminate everything Pre-Seed -- not just what it is and how founders/companies should navigate it, but also and more deeply: How he came into this corner of the venture world How he started Precursor as a solo GP and raised his first/subsequent funds, and what that journey was like How he manages the firm, its overall strategy, and especially portfolio construction within this relatively new asset class (spoiler: it's different!) Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Note: we recorded this episode in the days right before it became clear that the coronavirus was going to become a major global crisis. While the world has obviously changed since, nothing in this episode is fundamentally different and -- if anything -- Pre-Seed rounds are going to be more relevant for entrepreneurs and investors going forward as valuations and check-sizes contract. We hope you enjoy and find the discussion as useful and illuminating as we did!
Feb 24, 2020 · 41 min
Remote Work, No-Code, and Products that Sell Themselves (w/ Zapier CEO Wade Foster)
We're joined by Wade Foster, co-founder & CEO of Zapier, a company that basically hasn’t raised capital, doesn’t have an office, doesn’t have salespeople, and whose product consists of connecting other people’s products. And yet today they are doing well over $50M in profitable ARR, have hundreds of employees and thousands of hyper-passionate customers, and are one of the most interesting private SaaS companies in the world. We’re super excited for Wade to join us and dive into the full story of how this came to be! “We as founders have been prone to overthinking things. Just go for it, don’t be afraid of being a little weird about it. It’s hard to stand out. If your conviction is telling you to do something unconventional, unconventional stands out.” Wade, CEO of Zapier @wadefoster Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Show Links: makerpad.co Zapier Fibonacci Pricing High Growth Handbook Ford vs Ferarri Poor Charlie’s Almanack The Ultimate Guide To Remote Work
Jan 21, 2020 · 1 hr 7 min
Reverse Interview: Acquired Strategy, with Nathan Baschez of Divinations (& former Gimlet Media + Substack)
“There’s no real secret to making the stuff we make. It’s not something where you have to be crazy talented. The thing is, you just spend a little bit longer on it than is reasonable. Most people would give up, and then you just keep going on it for three more hours making it better, doing more research, whatever the thing is that makes it better. Wherever most people would say, yea, that’s good enough, you just keep going for a little while longer. Not an eternity longer, just a bit longer.” -Nathan, quoting Alex Blumberg, Gimlet Media Ben and David agree to have the tables turned in a great interview by friend and longtime Acquired supporter Nathan Baschez, who was formerly the Head of Product at both Gimlet Media and Substack, and now writes the excellent Divinations newsletter on tech and business strategy. This episode originally came about because one of Nathan’s first articles at Divinations kindly focused on Ben and Acquired, which you can read in full here: https://divinations.substack.com/p/ben-gilbert-on-how-acquired-launched The core Divinations newsletter is free for everyone, but if you’d like special access to any of their paywalled content, Nathan shared this discount link for all Acquired LPs: https://divinations.substack.com/acquired . Check it out! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM Show Links: Nathan Baschez The Morning Show (AppleTV) Thinking Fast and Slow Summary Willpower Summary Marshmallow Experiment How I Built This Startup Serial Invest Like The Best The No-Code Movement Diggnation Joe Rogan Show
Jan 10, 2020 · 1 hr 36 min
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (with Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner at Benchmark)
Let's face it, Acquired borders on Star Wars fan podcast anyway. So we dipped our toe in the water of making it official, with our review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. We are joined by fellow Star Wars nerd and repeat special guest, Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner at Benchmark. In this episode, we *nearly* avoid any business analysis or speculation on the technology, media, or enterprise ecosystems, with only a brief revisit to the question: "Was it worth it for Disney to buy Lucasfilm?" Did we love it, hate it, or want to bury it like the prequels? Tune in! There are definitely spoilers, so be warned! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Jan 6, 2020 · 1 hr 9 min
Cameo CEO Steven Galanis on building the first non-advertising driven social media company (at least in the US!)
Steven Galanis, cofounder and CEO of the red-hot Chicago startup Cameo, joins us to discuss how they've turned selling personalized celebrity shoutouts online into both a massive business and the most interesting new social media phenomenon to hit the West since TikTok. We hope you have as much fun listening as we did recording this one! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM Show Links: Broke – ESPN Documentary Mark McGrath’s Breakup Cameo
Dec 12, 2019 · 1 hr 1 min
Building Webflow, and the No-Code Movement (with Vlad Magdalin, Co-Founder and CEO)
We're joined by Webflow's Co-Founder and CEO, Vlad Magdalin, talking about how he started the company (over a decade, trying three times), how to nail the timing of your startup, and the future of the "no-code movement." Vlad took his company through YCombinator in 2013, and raised only $3m in the following six years, before closing a $72m Series A from Accel earlier this year. He gives his perspective on why now is the only time Webflow could have worked (not in 2009, the last time he tried to start it), what's changed in browser technology, and how he was inspired by one of the original designers of the iPhone software. Vlad also shares his wisdom for other founders and opportunities he thinks will be available for entrepreneurs in the next five years when robust "no-code" infrastructure is built out. “The differentiator between No-Code and Low-Code is that Low-Code makes this implicit admission that in order to really finish a project, I’m going to need a developer. Or I am going to need to know how to take it across that last mile. In No-Code, the aspiration is that for the vast majority of cases, you will not that. Or, if you do, that one or a few developers that can create the No-Code version that abstracts away the Low-Code version and put it into the hands of millions.” -Vlad Magdalin, @callmevlad Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM Show Links: Bret Victor – The Future of Programming (YouTube) Bret Victor – Inventing on Principle (vimeo) Paul Graham – Default Alive or Default Dead Essay
Nov 11, 2019 · 51 min
Early Stage and Enterprise Investing (with Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner at Benchmark)
We are joined by Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner on Benchmark, talking his investment philosophies, enterprise technology trends, and the uniqueness of Benchmark. How is this firm with only five partners and no associates so repeatably successful? Chetan shares the story of his very first investment, MongoDB, and lessons learned from his other investments and board positions in Elastic, Sketch, Duffel, Mulesoft, and many others. Chetan also helps us understand how he balances staying open-minded enough to let founders shape his vision of the future (and not the other way around), while staying educated on areas where he thinks the future is bright. “The product/market fit question, I don’t find to be a conclusive one…because one of the assumptions is that you’re assuming the market itself is constant, which we all know is not true. Today’s product/market fit might be tomorrow’s outdated solution.” – Chetan Puttagunta, @chetanp Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM
Oct 21, 2019 · 1 hr 5 min
Chewse CEO Tracy Lawrence on growing both as a company and a founder
"You can call it paranoia, or you can call it innovation. The language doesn’t matter if the feeling is the same. This is all an experiment I’m running eight years in: How do I update my mindset to want to approach things by activating the pleasure center more than the pain center? I’m more likely to move away from pain and towards pleasure. So why don’t I make innovation a game and bring play to, literally playfulness, into it? I see too many founders burn out because they have lost playfulness in their culture." – Tracy Lawrence, @chewishgirl Tracy Lawrence, founder and CEO of Chewse (@chewse) takes us on the journey of how and why she founded Chewse. Tracy, Ben, and David discuss most of the traditional topics (early days, product-market fit, mission alignment), but spend most of the time talking about non-traditional topics like mental health, vulnerability, and love for company and self. If you’re a founder, this episode will perk both your IQ and your EQ. For everyone else, your faith in the future of tech might get restored. Enjoy! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM
Oct 3, 2019 · 1 hr 9 min
Marketplaces Deep Dive with Ramesh Johari
We're joined by Stanford professor and senior advisor to Airbnb, Uber, Stitch Fix, and Wave Capital, Ramesh Johari, who is one of the world's leading experts in marketplaces. Ramesh has been advising David and his partners at Wave since day one, and we're super excited to bring his incredible experience and insights to all of our ACQ2 listeners. In this conversation we dive deep into nearly every aspect of starting, building and then operating a marketplace at scale. Whether you are a marketplace entrepreneur, employee, investor, or just curious about how some of the most powerful businesses of our time work, this is not one to miss! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Sep 15, 2019 · 52 min
How a Startup Studio Works
Ben and David discuss the newest development in the venture ecosystem, startup studios, through the lens of Pioneer Square Labs (which Ben cofounded in 2015). David manages to trick Ben into sitting on the other side of the table and being interviewed about how PSL works, how he and his partners started it, and what lies ahead! For more information, check out http://psl.com. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Sep 3, 2019 · 45 min
The Random Episode: Twitter Commentary and 2019 Survey Feedback
Ben and David couldn’t agree on a topic for this LP episode with the clock winding down to our recording going live... so we decided to “do it live” and commentate on our Twitter feeds haha (and discuss your survey feedback). We hope you enjoy this fun slice of randomness, and we’ll be back with more actionable interviews and company-building topics very soon! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Aug 17, 2019 · 49 min
Product recruiting and executive search (with Andrew Abramson from Riviera Partners)
We dive into one of the most critical components of company building, recruiting product leaders (and executives in general), with Andrew Abramson of Riviera Partners -- one of the most elite search firms in Silicon Valley. We cover first how companies and founders should think about recruiting senior leaders, from knowing when you're ready to work with search firms. Then we dive into the other side, how product managers should think about managing and progressing in their own careers toward senior leadership roles. Thanks to Andrew for joining us and we hope everyone can take away something applicable for their own companies and careers! Great Founders think about the product; Exceptional Founders think about who should lead the company vs who should lead the product. They sound similar but they are very, very different. – Andrew Abramson, @AndrewA91 Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM
Jul 29, 2019 · 42 min
Times they are a’changin: Series A is not what it used to be
“If you look at the firms that were traditionally the early-stage ventures firms, the Series-A firms, and you look at their fund sizes and their firm sizes and compositions, it’s changed significantly in the last ten years. Your typical early-stage venture fund was a $250M Series A fund. Now your typical early stage fund is anywhere from $500M to 1B.” In this episode, Ben and David dive into the evolution of Seed Funds and how early-stage investing has changed in the last two decades both for investors and founders alike. Understanding the past changes in the ecosystem helps founders and investors establish themselves for the future. If you are an early-stage founder, this episode will contextualize the information you need to prepare your company for investment. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM Links from the Show: Wing’s analysis of the current state of the early-stage venture ecosystem: Seed is the new A, A is the new B Secrets of Sand Hill Road Gartner Hype Cycle Value of VC Investment (1995-2018) US VC Investment Surpasses Dot-Com Era
Jul 7, 2019 · 56 min
Due Diligence
Could I see myself or my wife working for/with this CEO? Would I quit my job and go work for this person? That’s the crux of it. If you’re a CEO out raising money, that is the lens with which you should view every interaction with a VC. You should come across in such a personally compelling way that they’re drawn to you. That’s the bar they are holding you to. The right amount of diligence is a great topic to think about, whether a company is ready for investment or not. This episode was made for founders getting ready for investment, or founders who want to start asking the right questions about their work. Ben and David discuss in depth what you can reasonably expect from VCs conducting diligence, and how to set yourself up for long-term value creation. Most importantly, Ben and David discuss the questions you should be prepared to answer and the questions you should be prepared to have asked about you. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM
Jun 13, 2019 · 48 min
Building tech and product for marketplaces (with Rover cofounder Phil Kimmey)
“There’s often a desire to keep adding features because ‘Oh wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this or that?’ The reality is if a customer is only spending five minutes with your product, they’re only going to interact with a very tiny subset of your feature set. And so, you’re better off usually improving something that 80% of [customers] interact with that is really core than things around the edges that are more functionality.” - Phil Kimmey We are very excited to be joined by Phil Kimmey, one of the co-founders of Rover (and a frequent member of various 30 under 30 lists), who designed Rover in its infant stages at a Startup Weekend! In this episode, we dive into Rover’s initial design, how the business model was proved, and wrap up with a lengthy discussion on Value-Add Features vs Data-Driven Features. Phil also provides his opinion on what makes new tech and development teams successful and explains why PayPal still sends Rover’s monthly summary statements to his parent’s house. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Follow Acquired: @AcquiredFM, acquired.fm Links from the Show: Conjoined Triangles of Success
May 30, 2019 · 53 min
Reflections on the APLUSS IPOs so far, Uber+Lyft+regulators+autonomy, and listener Q&A
“Uber, pre-IPO, had raised more money than Lyft’s current market cap. And now, because they raised 9B in an IPO, they’re close to total money ever raised to being 2x of Lyft’s current market cap. It’s an outlier in every way.” Ben & David reflect on what they’ve learned from the APLUSS IPOs so far, what’s ahead for Uber and Lyft, and tackle some longstanding listener questions. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM Links from the Show: Narrative Violations – Bedrock Capital
May 5, 2019 · 42 min
Building Product & Ops at Uber (with Brian Tolkin)
[on Uber’s Early Organizational Structure] “Uber always thought about it as a twin-turbine plane: maybe for a short period of time, you could operate on one engine. But if you want to operate at full efficiency, you need both engines working in tandem and working effectively together.” Brian Tolkin, (@briantolkin) We’re super excited to be joined by Brian Tolkin, one of Uber’s first ~100 employees who built their “Product Ops” organization and then went on to lead Product Management for UberPOOL and all shared rides on the platform. We dive into the nitty gritty of how Uber built their “twin turbine” engine of decentralized real-world Ops and centralized Tech Product, and how the organization evolved as it scaled. We also cover Brian’s new role at OpenDoor and the tight ops + product coupling they’re building now in real estate. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM Links from the Show: Stanford Venture Capital Club Ben Evans: The End of the Beginning (video) Lyft IPO (Acquired) Pre-Meeting Narrative Example OpenDoor.com

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