Acquired

10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)

December 15, 2025

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  • The success of *Acquired* is partly attributed to the hosts' unique, thesis-like immersion in subjects and the strong, non-competitive chemistry between Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, which fosters genuine reactions. 
  • A core lesson applied to *Acquired* is the principle of scarcity, mirroring the NFL, leading the hosts to intentionally reduce episode frequency (e.g., 8-12 episodes per year) to emphasize quality and event status. 
  • The hosts learned from Berkshire Hathaway to embrace a 'too hard pile,' allowing them to focus only on subjects worthy of the *Acquired* stage, exemplified by putting Hollywood adaptation projects into that pile to prioritize core content creation. 
  • Episodes that hosts are intensely passionate about, even if they initially underperform standard benchmarks, can lead to influential connections that shape future opportunities, as demonstrated by the Nintendo episode leading to engagement with Meta. 
  • The hosts prioritize maintaining founder control and avoiding the 'prisons of their own making' by refusing to scale operations into managing other shows or expanding beyond their core boutique model, even when financially incentivized to do so. 
  • The business model of Acquired is structured around deep, long-term partnerships with sponsors, often involving investment in private sponsors, ensuring that advertising alignment enhances, rather than compromises, the perceived quality of the content. 
  • The success of Acquired is partly attributed to applying business principles like 'Create Spectacle' (live events) and 'Low SKU Count' (focusing on quality over volume) to podcasting. 
  • The hosts believe the longevity and success of Acquired stem from their partnership dynamic, which creates a unique magic that cannot be easily replicated. 
  • Language is inherently a lossy compression of thought, meaning that explaining a creative process, even in detail, results in an incomplete replication of the original work. 
  • Michael Lewis's enthusiasm for specific consumer products, including the ARTEZA rollerball pen, Fujifilm X100VI camera, Uniqlo socks, On Running Shoes, and Rimowa luggage, highlights the joy derived from finding high-quality, beloved items. 
  • The parenting segment revealed several useful products for young children, such as using Guided Access on the iPad to restrict functionality, the enduring appeal of the movie *Toy Story*, the utility of the SlumberPod blackout tent for travel sleep, and the cultural phenomenon of the children's show *Bluey*. 
  • The conversation concluded with acknowledgments to sponsors (J.P. Morgan Payments, WorkOS, Sentry, Shopify), production support (Shep Films), and promotions for other Acquired content like ACQ2 and the revamped email newsletter. 

Segments

10-Year Anniversary Recording Venue
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(00:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: The 10-year anniversary episode of Acquired was recorded in the actual garage that served as Google’s first office.
  • Summary: The hosts celebrated their 10-year anniversary by recording in the historic Google garage, which was loaned to them for the day. The location featured original Google artifacts, including a sawhorse table desk, PC, and CRT monitor from the founders’ collection. This venue choice was a nod to their recent three-part series on Google.
Michael Lewis Joins Acquired
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(01:32:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Michael Lewis was invited as an ‘interlocutor’ to dissect why Acquired succeeded despite its unconventional format (long episodes, infrequent releases).
  • Summary: Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar’s Poker, became a listener in July and was brought on to analyze the podcast’s success. He noted that the four-hour episodes successfully grab the listener, creating an immersive state similar to what he aims for in his books. The hosts planned to share ten lessons they’ve applied to Acquired based on companies they have studied.
Host Chemistry and Backgrounds
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(01:08:53)
  • Key Takeaway: The foundational chemistry between Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal stemmed from shared interests in technology strategy and a mutual feeling of being ‘frauds’ in their respective professional fields.
  • Summary: The hosts bonded over shared interests, including Ben Thompson’s work, and a desire to spend more time together, despite both being married. David felt like a fraud as a VC because his background was in French literature and Wall Street, while Ben felt like a fraud as a software engineer entering venture capital. This dynamic is compared to the intense, yet productive, collaboration between Kahneman and Tversky.
Lesson 1: Scarcity and Quality
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(01:42:26)
  • Key Takeaway: Acquired adopted the NFL’s model of product scarcity, intentionally limiting episode releases to maintain high quality and event status, contrasting with typical podcasting advice.
  • Summary: The first lesson applied to Acquired is derived from the NFL, where scarcity makes the product more valuable. The hosts moved from releasing 26 shorter episodes annually to producing only 8 to 12 long, handcrafted episodes per year. This constraint, similar to Hermes’ approach, allowed them to build a successful business model around a highly curated, made-with-love product.
Lesson 2: The Too Hard Pile
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(01:45:57)
  • Key Takeaway: Inspired by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, Acquired adopted the ’too hard pile’ strategy, freeing them to reject complex opportunities like Hollywood projects.
  • Summary: The hosts realized it is acceptable to place complex subjects, such as entering the film or TV business, into a ’too hard pile’ because the opportunity cost of diverting time is too high. They prioritize making another Acquired episode over pursuing these tangential ventures. This realization solidified around 2022-2023 when they decided to focus only on content that is N of one (uniquely executable by them).
Podcast Compounding vs. Book Sales
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(01:25:43)
  • Key Takeaway: Podcasting offers superior compounding effects compared to authorship because subscribers are guaranteed to receive subsequent episodes, whereas each book launch feels like a new startup.
  • Summary: When listeners subscribe to Acquired, they are buying into the hosts’ interest in the subject, and the platform (Apple/Spotify) ensures they receive the next piece of content. This creates a guaranteed audience carry-over for every new episode. Michael Lewis noted that his book audiences do not compound in the same way, requiring each new book to fight for attention independently.
Evolution of Episode Selection
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(01:41:30)
  • Key Takeaway: The show evolved from focusing narrowly on corporate acquisitions to broad histories of important companies and people, driven by audience feedback that they loved the storytelling, not just the M&A angle.
  • Summary: The initial focus on corporate acquisitions (2015) shifted to IPOs (2017-2020), then broadened to general company strategies, culminating in covering people like Taylor Swift. This broadening was based on the realization that the audience valued the hosts’ storytelling and strategic analysis over the strict M&A theme. The hosts now require subjects to be important in the world and feature a compelling hero’s journey from obscurity to ubiquity.
Research Evolution: From Web to Calls
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(01:49:08)
  • Key Takeaway: The most significant recent change in Acquired’s research process is the shift to conducting direct, informed interviews, which now constitute about 50% of the information gathering.
  • Summary: Initially, research relied entirely on digesting existing canonical public information found online. Since 2023, the hosts have begun calling industry insiders and executives after they have already become highly informed on the subject. This direct access, which began with success in reaching figures like Steve Ballmer after building reputation, provides crucial, non-public insights.
NVIDIA Success and Interview Dynamics
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(00:52:49)
  • Key Takeaway: Standard, deeply researched Acquired episodes outperform interview episodes in long-term listener retention.
  • Summary: NVIDIA initially rejected an interview request but later praised the accuracy of the standard, self-researched episodes, leading to a relationship. Interview episodes tend to spike quickly but do not retain listeners as effectively as the deep-dive narrative episodes like those on Costco or LVMH. The hosts’ ability to synthesize public information accurately built credibility, eventually leading to the interview opportunity.
Research Process and Source Weakness
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(00:54:31)
  • Key Takeaway: The hosts actively correct factual errors found in source material, sometimes publishing errata based on direct company feedback.
  • Summary: The research process involves reading everything available, and the hosts are often surprised by the weakness or factual incorrectness of published sources. They use phone calls (e.g., 40 calls for the Google episode) to set the record straight by asking sources what is most misunderstood about the subject. This earnest approach of seeking to understand and correct narratives encourages cooperation from interviewees.
Fun as a Research Filter
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(00:57:35)
  • Key Takeaway: Enjoyment during the learning process acts as a critical filter for topic selection, leading to the cancellation of subjects like the Federal Reserve.
  • Summary: The hosts acknowledge that the fun derived from learning is a major motivation for sources and themselves, sometimes leading to the cancellation of potential episodes. The Federal Reserve topic was shelved because the hosts could not generate sufficient enthusiasm for the material. Bell Labs was also paused because the story lacked a clear, singular through-line, despite its potential appeal.
Monopoly Funding Basic Research
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(00:58:50)
  • Key Takeaway: Monopolistic cash flows, like Google’s recent $100 billion quarter, are essential for funding long-term, non-immediately profitable basic research endeavors like quantum computing.
  • Summary: The concept of ‘stored potential energy’ in great businesses suggests that fat profits fund necessary boondoggle basic research that moves society forward. Google’s massive quarterly revenue enables them to fund projects like Gemini and Waymo, which operate outside immediate profitability metrics. This contrasts with general corporate America, which historically engages less in this type of exploratory research.
Hamilton Helmer’s Seven Powers Framework
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(00:59:33)
  • Key Takeaway: Hamilton Helmer’s Seven Powers framework provides a complete analytical structure for understanding the durability and sustained profitability of industry-leading companies.
  • Summary: The framework clicked for the hosts as the definitive list of ways a leading company maintains profitability over time, serving as a crucial analytical tool for episode conclusions. It helps land the plane on episodes by answering the ‘so what’ question regarding a company’s durability. The hosts integrate this framework to analyze the cause (the power) behind the observed effect (durability).
Authorial Process and Iterative Drafting
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(01:01:27)
  • Key Takeaway: Both hosts rely on intensive, multi-cycle manual processing—writing notes and rewriting—to internalize information, rejecting AI note-taking for deep comprehension.
  • Summary: The process involves multiple cycles of source material passing through the brain and fingers onto a keyboard, similar to writing a senior thesis. This filtering process ensures that only the most interesting information makes it from initial notes to a Word document and eventually into the final narrative. Michael Lewis noted that he might spend a year researching a topic like Sam Bankman-Fried without a clear ending, only finding the narrative structure when the story broke open.
Podcast Editing Intensity
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(01:11:50)
  • Key Takeaway: The final Acquired episode length is achieved through an extremely rigorous, multi-stage editing process involving hundreds of retakes and multiple passes by both hosts and an editor.
  • Summary: The hosts and their editor, Steven, engage in hundreds of retakes during recording to ensure clarity and energy, often cutting 8-9 hours of raw audio down to about five hours. The hosts then conduct two cycles of editing on the resulting file, making 500 to 800 additional cuts to reach the final 3.5 to 4-hour length. The default editing philosophy is always to cut, prioritizing energy and flow over retaining every piece of initial material.
Niche Audience Size and Scalable Outputs
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(01:08:36)
  • Key Takeaway: The internet allows niche content creators to reach audiences far larger than geographically constrained media, meaning output value can scale independently of input effort.
  • Summary: Inspired by Ben Thompson’s work, the hosts recognize that the global internet supports massive audiences for niche topics, such as smart people interested in business strategy. Their current operational inputs are similar to two years ago, but the audience growth means every business output, like revenue, is dramatically different. This validates their strategy of focusing on high quality to reach this large, specific niche without scaling their operational overhead.
Business Model: VC Approach to Sponsorships
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(01:16:46)
  • Key Takeaway: Acquired treats sponsor relationships as strategic partnerships, prioritizing alignment and ROI for B2B sponsors over maximizing ad volume, reflecting their venture capital background.
  • Summary: The hosts reject the traditional media model of separating editorial from advertising, instead seeking sponsors whose success they can directly impact, often leading to sponsors gaining large customers from the audience. They plan sponsor slates years in advance, looking for ‘Switzerland’ companies—those not involved in contentious debates—and preferring B2B firms with high LTV customers. This approach culminates in the hosts investing in many of their private company sponsors, aligning their financial success with the show’s partners.
Founder Control and Stored Potential Energy
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(01:30:48)
  • Key Takeaway: The hosts intentionally avoid maximizing short-term profits or scaling into a large enterprise to preserve ‘stored potential energy’ and maintain personal control over the creative output.
  • Summary: The decision to remain boutique, avoid hiring staff beyond a single editor, and limit ad slots is a conscious choice to avoid becoming ‘business wussies’ trapped in successful prisons. Once money ceases to increase happiness, letting out potential energy via more ads or shows is seen as releasing pressure without benefit. This strategy ensures they remain focused on creating high-quality content without the constraints of managing a large enterprise or external bosses.
Underperforming Episodes Yielding Influence
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(01:37:37)
  • Key Takeaway: Passionately pursued episodes that underperform numerically can still be invaluable if they resonate deeply with a small, highly influential audience segment.
  • Summary: The Nintendo and Indian Premier League episodes underperformed relative to the benchmark but were crucial because they were deeply loved by key individuals within major companies like Meta. This passion led to Meta executives listening to the show, which directly facilitated the subsequent JP Morgan partnership discussions. The lesson is to trust the feeling of passion, as intense resonance with a few can outweigh broad, moderate appeal.
RenTech Mystery and Missed Opportunity
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(01:43:38)
  • Key Takeaway: The mystery surrounding Renaissance Technologies (RenTech) involves the possibility they secretly perfected machine learning decades ago, creating predictable alpha that disappeared as they concealed it.
  • Summary: The RenTech episode was a passion project that performed exceptionally well, focusing on the firm’s secretive nature, one of Wall Street’s great mysteries alongside Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity. The hosts explored the theory that RenTech found weak signals others missed and then hid their findings, making their alpha generation unsustainable for competitors. Michael Lewis noted he passed on writing the book because he could not secure the necessary inside collaboration from Jim Simons.
Michael Lewis’s Unwritten Book
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(01:44:18)
  • Key Takeaway: Michael Lewis considered writing a book about Jim Simons’ firm but declined because he needed deep insider access to avoid factual errors, which he was unwilling to pursue.
  • Summary: Lewis noted the difficulty of writing about secretive firms like Jane Street or Citadel without inside collaboration, as external observation risks significant factual errors. He mentioned that Jim Simons’ son was in his child’s class, providing a potential avenue for access, but the opportunity did not materialize. He views this unwritten book as one that ‘got away’ due to a lack of appeal for an outside perspective.
Acquired’s Spectacle Strategy
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(01:45:43)
  • Key Takeaway: Acquired learned from the NFL to ‘Create Spectacle’ by focusing on high-impact, infrequent live events rather than relying on habit-forming content releases.
  • Summary: The podcast shifted from aiming to create a daily habit to creating annual ‘Super Bowl’ events, like the shows at Chase Center and Radio City Music Hall. Although these events reach a tiny percentage of the audience, the resulting ‘heat and light’ are more impactful for building the franchise than many regular episodes. The initial arena show at Climate Pledge, though small, served as proof of concept when pitching larger venues.
Radio City Show Guest Strategy
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(01:47:33)
  • Key Takeaway: The Radio City Music Hall event featured high-profile guests like Jamie Dimon and Barry Diller, but the tickets sold out based solely on the Acquired brand, as the guests were a surprise reveal.
  • Summary: The hosts deliberately kept the guests for the Radio City show secret, ensuring the 6,000 attendees were there for Acquired itself, not the names on the poster. This confirmed the strength of the Acquired brand, contrasting with the uncertainty felt after the Chase Center show, which featured Mark Zuckerberg.
Upcoming Super Bowl Event
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(01:48:27)
  • Key Takeaway: Acquired will be MCing the NFL’s Innovation Summit the Friday before the Super Bowl in San Francisco, featuring an episode-style discussion with Roger Goodell and other partners.
  • Summary: The hosts manifested a Super Bowl-related event by securing the MC role for the NFL Innovation Summit, which will be streamed but not open to the public. The event will feature guests on par with their major partners, demonstrating the growing corporate integration of the podcast.
Costco Episode Preparation Lesson
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(01:49:45)
  • Key Takeaway: The Costco episode succeeded by focusing intensely on one primary source (Saul Price’s autobiography) and a deep, exclusive interview with the CFO, avoiding the burnout caused by over-researching the Nike episode.
  • Summary: Following a flat Nike episode where they read too many books, the approach for Costco was to ‘play loose’ and focus on Saul Price’s autobiography and an in-depth whiteboard session with the CFO. This focused research yielded key insights, such as the impact of Costco’s low SKU count (4,000 vs. Walmart’s 100k-200k) on vendor relationships and working capital efficiency.
TSMC’s Focus Strategy
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(02:05:03)
  • Key Takeaway: Morris Chang of TSMC advised against diversifying into less optimal businesses like solar or memory, emphasizing that the best strategy is to double down on the core business where the company is already the best.
  • Summary: TSMC erred by trying to exit integrated circuits for other ventures that were not as strong. The key insight was recognizing they were already in the best business (integrated circuits) and should focus solely on excelling there. The Acquired hosts apply this principle by believing their best path forward is always to make another Acquired episode, not to pivot to something they are less good at.
VC vs. Podcast Research
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(02:05:55)
  • Key Takeaway: The deep, narrative-driven research required for Acquired episodes bears little resemblance to the high-level, founder-betting nature of early-stage venture capital investment memos.
  • Summary: VC diligence, especially at the early stage, is described as making educated guesses about future market size and relying heavily on founder bets, often operating with imprecise information. The hosts found that studying mature businesses through Acquired episodes prepared them better to be investors than their actual VC experience did.
Evolution of Storytelling Skills
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(02:09:05)
  • Key Takeaway: The hosts learned to structure narratives around the ‘why’ and story flow, moving beyond simple chronological recounting (’this happened and then this happened’) to create compelling content.
  • Summary: The ability to craft a story, rather than just catalog history, is a skill developed over ten years, exemplified by the difference between ’the queen died and then the king died’ versus ’the queen died and then the king died of heartbreak.’ This focus on narrative structure is crucial for mesmerizing listeners through four-hour conversations.
Platform Tailwinds for Podcasting
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(02:09:59)
  • Key Takeaway: The rise of AirPods created a massive tailwind by enabling listeners to consume long-form audio while multitasking, effectively doubling the available listening minutes in the day.
  • Summary: The release of AirPods coincided with the start of Acquired, making it socially acceptable to listen to audio while moving or performing other tasks. This allowed the hosts to capture time slots previously unavailable for deep listening. Furthermore, Spotify’s entry into podcasting brought hundreds of millions of new listeners to the medium.
Applying Seven Powers to Acquired
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(02:13:26)
  • Key Takeaway: Acquired possesses strong Scale Economies (large audience amortizes high input costs) and Counterpositioning (structurally different incentive model than typical podcasts), but lacks Switching Costs.
  • Summary: Scale Economies allow Acquired to afford an unreasonable amount of research input per episode because the large listener base spreads the cost. Counterpositioning is evident in their low episode volume and refusal to work with ad agencies, structural choices competitors cannot easily match. However, they have no Switching Costs, as listeners can move to another podcast with a single click.
Process Power and Lossy Compression
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(02:14:44)
  • Key Takeaway: The Acquired production process is a ‘Process Power’ because even if fully explained, it is subject to lossy compression, meaning the emotional trust and nuance required for replication cannot be transferred.
  • Summary: Explaining a process is a lossy compression of the actual steps, similar to how an MP3 or JPEG loses data. Language itself is a lossy compression of thought, making it impossible to perfectly transfer the mechanical steps of their creation process. This inherent difficulty in replication protects the unique results achieved by the hosts’ specific workflow.
Creative Goal: Delight Over Imposition
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(02:17:29)
  • Key Takeaway: The primary creative goal is to present information elegantly so the listener can form their own conclusions, rather than imposing a singular editorial view, which requires the creators to constantly discover new, delightful insights.
  • Summary: The hosts aim for listeners to enjoy the episode and learn something, regardless of whether they agree with the company’s morality. This approach is more fun than trying to muscle readers, as it requires the creators to remain delighted by new discoveries during research. The most likely reason for Acquired’s eventual failure is running out of material that generates this internal delight.
Carve Outs: Books and Media
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(02:22:28)
  • Key Takeaway: Michael Lewis highly recommends ‘The Name of the Wind’ for its compelling narrative and Vannevar Bush’s ‘Science, the Endless Frontier’ for its blueprint on government-backed scientific funding.
  • Summary: Lewis praised ‘The Name of the Wind’ for captivating his son and noted its quality despite the author’s delay on the final book. He also highlighted Vannevar Bush’s memo to Truman, which advocated for government funding to empower scientists to choose their own research paths, rather than dictating projects.
Favorite New Products
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(02:36:14)
  • Key Takeaway: The ARTEZA rollerball pen (0.7 fine) is highly praised for its fine point, generous ink flow, non-smearing quality, and suitability for air travel.
  • Summary: The ARTEZA rollerball pen, 0.7 fine, was identified as a favorite new product due to its perfect ink delivery and non-smearing properties. The Fujifilm X100VI camera was also adopted and loved for capturing family moments beyond smartphone quality. Uniqlo socks were discovered as superior multi-purpose alternatives to athletic socks, prompting bulk purchase due to fear of discontinuation.
Footwear and Luggage Endorsements
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(02:38:09)
  • Key Takeaway: On Running Shoes are highly favored, even over previous favorites like Hoka, and Roger Federer’s early equity deal with On is cited as a potentially excellent endorsement partnership.
  • Summary: The speaker switched from Hoka to On Running Shoes, finding the latter exceptionally comfortable, even wearing them instead of dress shoes on television despite criticism. Roger Federer’s alignment with On, potentially based on an early equity deal, is considered one of the best athlete endorsement deals ever. The Rimowa suitcase was also highlighted as a surprisingly exciting purchase that brings joy despite being just luggage.
Parenting Tools and Media
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(02:40:28)
  • Key Takeaway: Guided Access on the iPad is an essential accessibility feature for parents to lock children into a single application during travel, preventing accidental interaction with controls.
  • Summary: Guided Access on the iPad prevents young children from exiting or manipulating apps, making it useful for travel like on airplanes. Toy Story was successfully introduced as a first movie, with the younger child affectionately misnaming Mr. Potato Head as ‘Tapo Head.’ The SlumberPod blackout tent proved miraculous for the younger child’s travel sleep after failing with the older child, creating a portable sensory deprivation environment.
Bluey Phenomenon and Show Wrap
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(02:42:30)
  • Key Takeaway: None
  • Summary: Bluey is lauded as the greatest kid show ever made, originating from an Australian animator who previously worked on Peppa Pig. Disney has been attempting to acquire the IP for years but recently struck a unique deal to use Bluey IP without owning it, including a 2026 appearance at Animal Kingdom. A temporary recreation of Bluey’s house was available for ticketed visits in Union Square, NYC.
Episode Conclusion and Thanks
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(02:44:09)
  • Key Takeaway: The hosts expressed disbelief and gratitude that Michael Lewis joined the 10th-anniversary episode to analyze the success of Acquired itself.
  • Summary: The hosts thanked Michael Lewis for joining to discuss the show’s success, noting the surreal nature of having him analyze their creative process after a decade. Significant thanks were extended to Shep Films for elevating the production quality of this special episode. Final calls to action included checking out related episodes, subscribing to ACQ2, and signing up for the newly overhauled email newsletter at acquired.fm/email.