Acquired · Framework Field Guide

The frameworks behind Acquired.

Every named framework, play, and operator lesson — extracted, structured, and made searchable from Acquired.

Frameworks: 754
Episodes mined: 210
Insights & segments: 2634
Categories: 13

Highest-confidence frameworks

Test a business against seven mechanisms of durable competitive power

Test whether a company has a structural reason to earn superior long-term profits.

Judge investing skill through correctness, conviction, access, and deployed scale.

Classify what was truly acquired before judging the deal

Evaluate an acquisition through facts, strategic fit, counterfactuals, and results

Translate the deal thesis into owned retention, product, integration, and financial metrics

Episodes

Each episode broken into its frameworks and insights.

Peter Gassner

Nolan Bushnell

Michael Lewis

Howard Schultz

Morris Chang

Jensen Huang

Michael Mauboussin

Dick Costolo

Brian Schultz

Mark Zuckerberg

Anthony Gonzalez

Scott Dorsey

Andreessen Horowitz

Kara Swisher

Brad Gerstner

Andrew Kortina

Howard Marks

Santi Subotovsky

Dara Khosrowshahi

Michael Ovitz

Charlie Munger

Brendan Eich

Trip Hawkins

Mark Zuckerberg

Jason Calacanis

Scott Belsky

Ben Thompson

Alex Sherman

Josh Clemente

Aaron Easterly

Drew Patterson

Taylor Barada

Roelof Botha

Michel Feaster

Kathleen Philips

Jason Calacanis

Katherine Boyle

The frameworks behind Acquired.

Highest-confidence frameworks

Seven Powers Competitive-Advantage Audit

Seven Powers Scorecard

Absolute-Dollar Investment Scorecard

Acquisition Category Taxonomy

Acquisition Evaluation Scorecard

Acquisition Success Milestone Scorecard

Episodes

The New York Times Company

Andreessen Horowitz Part II

Nvidia Part II: The Machine Learning Company (2006-2022)

Benchmark’s Mitch Lasky and Blake Robbins on The Art of Business in Gaming

Capital-Efficient Growth (with Zoom CEO Eric Yuan & Veeva CEO Peter Gassner)

7 Powers with Hamilton Helmer

Whole Foods Market

The Playbook: Lessons from 200+ Company Stories

Amazon.com

The Jamie Dimon Interview

Atari (with Nolan Bushnell)

Special: Superhuman Part II - Designing Software to Feel like a Game (with Rahul Vohra)

Epic Systems (MyChart)

Special: Sequoia Capital's Investment Playbook (with Alfred Lin)

Special: 2016 Review and 2017 Predictions

Arena Show Part II: Brooks Running (with CEO Jim Weber)

10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)

Starbucks (with Howard Schultz)

Enron

TSMC Founder Morris Chang

Nike

Nintendo's Origins

Walmart

Standard Oil Part II

Special: Solana (with CEO Anatoly Yakovenko)

IKEA

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang

Amazon Web Services

Special: Acquired x Indie Hackers

Special: Invest Like the Best on Acquired

Holiday Special 2023

Convoy (with CEO Dan Lewis)

Michael Mauboussin Master Class — Moats, Skill, Luck, Decision Making and a Whole Lot More

Twitter (with Dick Costolo)

Special: A Conversation with Microsoft's Head of Strategic Investments Brian Schultz

The Steve Ballmer Interview

Acquired LIVE from Chase Center (with Daniel Ek, Emily Chang, Jensen Huang and Mark Zuckerberg)

Visa

Nintendo: The Console Wars

From NFL to Startup COO to Congressman Regulating Crypto (with Rep. Anthony Gonzalez)

Super Pumped (with Brian Koppelman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt)

Special: Amazon Unbound (with Brad Stone)

DoorDash

SpaceX

ExactTarget (acquired by Salesforce) with Scott Dorsey

Costco

Renaissance Technologies

Not Boring (with Packy McCormick)

TSMC

Andreessen Horowitz Part I

Ferrari

Google Part II: Alphabet

Indian Premier League Cricket

Benchmark Part I

SONY

Peloton

Pinduoduo

Recode (with Kara Swisher)

The Amazon IPO with original Amazon Board Member Tom Alberg

Coca-Cola

Google Part III: The AI Company

Meta

Hermès

LVMH

Benchmark Part II: The Dinner

Altimeter (with Brad Gerstner)

Complexity Investing & Semiconductors (with NZS Capital)

The Slack DPO

Venmo (live with Andrew Kortina)

Alibaba

The Xiaomi IPO