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
Updated Dec 8, 2025
1 subscribers

Episodes112

Newest first

Apr 9, 2019 · 1 hr 5 min
VC Term Sheets
Ben & David take their turn at the "power ballad" of VC blogging/podcasting, explaining how venture term sheets work. From valuation to pro rata rights to founder vesting, we leave no stone unturned in this episode. If you're a founder, work at a startup, or are considering doing one of those someday, this episode is for you! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM Links from the Show: Acquired LP: Lyft Episode Acquired LP: Demystifying Corp Dev (Sara Adler) AR&D Letter of Intent to DEC Brad Feld: Venture Deals CooleyGo.com GAAP Jeff Bezos, Vesting, and The Divorce Perkins Coie Accelerator SeriesSeed.com Standard Series Seed Term Sheet [Link in Bio]
Mar 28, 2019 · 1 hr 4 min
Reinventing Upfront and building LA (with Upfront partner Kevin Zhang)
We’re joined by Upfront Ventures partner Kevin Zhang to discuss the evolution of both Upfront as a venture firm and the LA tech ecosystem more broadly. We cover the journey from Upfront’s founding as “Global Retail Partners” in 1996 to its place today as the premier and largest tech investor in Southern California. We talk about rebranding the firm and choosing Upfront as a name, launching the Upfront Summit, what LA is "good and not good at", and Kevin’s thesis around gaming as a great place for venture investing. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Mar 5, 2019 · 1 hr 22 min
The Art of SaaS Investing (with Jake Saper, Partner at Emergence Capital)
“80% of the worlds workforce doesn’t sit at a desk, and 95% of the world’s software is built for people who sit at a desk. Once people build software for the other 80%, the size of the addressable market that could be created could dwarf what we currently have, which is pretty humbling to think about.” Jake Saper, Emergence Capital (@jakesaper) We dive deep into the nitty gritty details of SaaS investing and company building with the best in the business, Jake Saper from Emergence Capital. Emergence has been around since the beginning of the SaaS industry and -uniquely for a venture firm- is entirely focused on early-stage investing within it. They were early investors in major successes like Salesforce, Veeva, SuccessFactors, Box and Yammer, and more recently, Gusto, Zoom, and many more. This episode is a must-listen for anyone investing in, operating in, or thinking about modern SaaS companies! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM Links from the Show: Emergence Capital Emergence Capital – “Series-A SaaS Metrics” Emergence Email Newsletter
Feb 26, 2019 · 29 min
Beyond Instagram with Emily White
We continue the conversation with Emily White, covering topics including her career path, what it was like working with Sheryl Sandberg for so many years, her time at Snap, her experience serving on public company boards, and how she operates as an investor now at Anthos Capital. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Feb 11, 2019 · 1 hr 4 min
Why aren't energy startups funded like software? (with Doug Rand)
As promised in our holiday special, we dive into the past, present and future of clean energy funding, with the absolutely perfect guest: the former Obama administration Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Doug Rand. This episode was totally eye-opening for us, and we hope inspires many of you to think about energy and climate through an entrepreneurial lens. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Links: ARPA-E: https://arpa-e.energy.gov Steve Blank’s Secret History of Silicon Valley: https://steveblank.com/secret-history/ NSF Innovation Corps: https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/
Jan 28, 2019 · 41 min
Investment Theses
Ben and David talk about some of their current investment theses at PSL and Wave, as well as how VCs think about themes and theses in general. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Links: Greg McAdoo “Wave” talk at Startup School 2008 https://youtu.be/fZ5F2KhMLiE The Myth of the Job Hopping Millenial https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/7/11/17559484/gig-economy-jobs-rooted-rootless-moving-job-hopping-millennials
Jan 14, 2019 · 1 hr 11 min
How VC Firms Really Work
Ever wondered what's really going on during the Monday Meetings of your friendly neighborhood VC firm? Ben and David take you behind the scenes to discuss structure (especially how the management company works), staffing, LPs, and most importantly decision-making and motivations for VC firms and their partners. Whichever side of the table you're on, we hope you find this episode useful! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Dec 21, 2018 · 1 hr 32 min
2018 Holiday Special
Ben and David continue the Acquired holiday tradition. Happy holidays to everyone! Note: we apologize for David’s sound quality... we’re still working out the kinks on our mobile recording setup. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Extended carve-out links: Books: David: Broken Earth trilogy https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B01947LZ8A Ben: eBoys https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC1HTG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 Article: David: “My Dad's Friendship With Charles Barkley” http://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2018/12/14/lin-wang-charles-barkley Ben: Birth of a New American Aristocracy https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/the-birth-of-a-new-american-aristocracy/559130/ Podcast: David: 996 Podcast https://996.ggvc.com/category/podcast/ Ben: Dissect Season 2 https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dissect/id1143845868?mt=2 Music: David: Tiny Desk concerts https://www.npr.org/series/tiny-desk-concerts/ Ben: Odesza’s A Moment Apart & https://open.spotify.com/album/3VzsvmhnUb9OZ59bq2aoNZ?si=dHUDPR4tSW2u6yey0MWTFw TV / Movie: Both: Black Panther https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/ App: David: Steady Health https://steady.health Ben: Moment https://www.shopmoment.com Weather Line: http://weatherlineapp.com Auto Sleep http://autosleep.tantsissa.com
Dec 2, 2018 · 57 min
The Art of Pitching
Ben and David discuss “the art of the pitch” through the lens of fundraising for seed-stage companies, but the takeaways are also (hopefully) applicable far beyond! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Links: Sequoia pitch deck template: https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/writing-a-business-plan/# Don Valentine talk at GSB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKN-abRJMEw Jim Goetz talk at GSB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnmYSze9M2g
Nov 19, 2018 · 52 min
Growing Airbnb (with Dan Hill, CEO of Alma and former Head of Growth at Airbnb)
Ben and David are back for episode #3, with special guest Dan Hill. Dan discusses: - How his startup, Crashpadder, got acquired by Airbnb - Why Airbnb succeeded, and why marketplace businesses in the US have an advantage in early growth - How they decided on growth metrics at Airbnb - How his new company, Alma, is making charitable giving simple Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Nov 5, 2018 · 1 hr 1 min
Product-market fit
Ben and David are back for episode #2, diving into the most elusive early-stage investing and company-building topics: product-market fit. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Oct 21, 2018 · 48 min
VC Vocab
Kicking off ACQ2 (formerly known as the LP Show) and diving into some jargon-y VC vocab. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra

ACQ2 by Acquired

VC Term Sheets

Reinventing Upfront and building LA (with Upfront partner Kevin Zhang)

The Art of SaaS Investing (with Jake Saper, Partner at Emergence Capital)

Beyond Instagram with Emily White

Why aren't energy startups funded like software? (with Doug Rand)

Investment Theses

How VC Firms Really Work

2018 Holiday Special

The Art of Pitching

Growing Airbnb (with Dan Hill, CEO of Alma and former Head of Growth at Airbnb)

Product-market fit

VC Vocab