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17 December 2023

Holiday Special 2023

5Frameworks
12Insights

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Frameworks in this episode

Communication5 steps

Feelings Over Content Listening

Tune into what someone is feeling, not just what they're saying, to actually understand them.

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Peak Performance6 steps

Game Day Performance Ritual

Treat high-stakes creative or performance work like an NFL Sunday: prepare hard, then let it flow.

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Strategy4 steps

Harvest When Others Harvest, Build When It's Quiet

Take advantage of hot markets while they last; use quiet periods to build durable skills.

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Marketing6 steps

The 24 Anti-Laws of Luxury Marketing

Break every rule of mass-market marketing to build a brand that becomes more desirable as it gets scarcer.

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Finance4 steps

The Too-Hard Pile Filter

Default every opportunity to 'too hard' unless it's an obvious no-brainer that costs you almost no time.

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Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Myth Buster· 1

Myth Buster1:13:30

Why Acquired Won't Cover Breaking News Again (Lessons from the SBF Interview)

Reflecting on their regretted Sam Bankman-Fried interview, Ben and David explain why they've moved decisively away from covering current events, arguing they are structurally unsuited to real-time investigative journalism and better suited as historians synthesizing settled stories.

  • They regret the SBF interview and don't want to repeat it
  • Current events have short evergreen value and high risk of getting the story wrong
  • They now self-identify more as historians than journalists
  • Even top VCs are only right roughly 20-30% of the time on real-time bets

“The story is always deeper than you think.”

1:15:00
#current events#editorial strategy#SBF#journalism vs history

Hot Take· 1

Hot Take11:00

Growth Is Not the Goal: Acquired's Deliberate Anti-Growth Growth Strategy

The hosts argue that optimizing directly for audience growth would actively hurt the show, and that their real growth has come as a byproduct of following their own genuine curiosity rather than chasing a bigger audience.

  • Making four-hour episodes and releasing monthly are anti-growth choices by design
  • Growth has been a byproduct of widening their own interests, not a target
  • They distinguish 'good' growth (word of mouth, engaged listeners) from algorithmic virality (e.g., the Porsche YouTube comments)
  • They believe there's a natural ceiling: the fixed population of people who care about business history

“Growth in and of itself should not be a priority, and in fact, can be very detrimental to what I think we both want to…”

11:30
#growth philosophy#audience strategy#YouTube

Explainer· 3

Explainer01:30

2023 Recap: How Acquired Widened from Tech to All Great Companies

Ben and David explain that only a minority of 2023 episodes were technology companies, reflecting Acquired's deliberate widening from a tech-acquisitions podcast to a podcast about all great companies and their playbooks, which they credit for both audience growth and richer lessons applicable to tech.

  • Only 4-6 of 14 episodes in 2023 were technology companies
  • The intro changed from 'great technology companies' to 'great companies'
  • They believe studying non-tech companies like LVMH and Costco is as valuable for building tech companies as studying tech companies themselves
  • The show crossed half a million listeners in 2023

“We went from a podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks behind them to a podcast about great companies and the stories…”

11:30

“So the big news, we hit half a million listeners this year, which is pretty wild.”

09:30
#year in review#podcast growth#strategy shift
Explainer20:30

Lab-Grown vs. Mined Diamonds: A Case Study in Scarcity and Value

Ben explains why GIA-certified mined diamonds hold value better than chemically identical lab-grown diamonds, using it as an analogy for why verified scarcity (like on-chain NFTs) can command a premium over otherwise identical digital assets.

  • Mined diamonds are laser-etched and serialized via the GIA, creating verifiable finite supply
  • Lab-grown diamonds are chemically identical but will asymptotically get cheaper as production scales
  • The comparison mirrors the NFT/JPEG debate around provenance versus identical copies

“There is a fixed supply of diamonds in the world, and there is a rate at which humans can mine them.”

20:30
#diamonds#NFTs#scarcity#value theory
Explainer1:02:00

New Fortune 500 Sponsors and Ben & David's Joint Investing Vehicle

The hosts announce JP Morgan Payments and ServiceNow as new season-14 sponsors alongside Vanta and Pilot, and reveal that going full-time together in 2024 will let them formally combine their angel investing into growth-stage companies from the Acquired ecosystem.

  • JP Morgan Payments and ServiceNow join as new large-enterprise sponsors for season 14
  • Vanta and Pilot split the third sponsor slot
  • Ben and David will now invest together at scale in growth-stage companies they already know from the show
  • Vanta's $10M SPV in its Series B is cited as an early example of this playbook

“David and I are gonna join our investing forces and invest more in those growth stage market leading tech companies.”

1:07:30
#sponsorship#business model#investing#JP Morgan#ServiceNow#Vanta

Story· 3

Story33:30

The Interview U-Turn: Swearing Off Interviews, Then Doing Four Anyway

Ben and David describe formally deciding in January 2023 to stop doing 'specials' and interviews because they aren't N-of-one content, only to reverse course for Daniel Ek, Dara Khosrowshahi, Jensen Huang, and Charlie Munger because those interviews leveraged hundreds of hours of prior research unique to Acquired.

  • Specials/interviews consistently underperformed season episodes in downloads
  • They briefly considered moving CEO interviews to ACQ2 before reversing that decision
  • Interviews only make sense when built on massive pre-existing research (Reva 128 example with Jensen)
  • The strategy going forward: no scheduled interview slots, only serendipitous ones tied to deep research

“We had made the decision that there was never going to be another interview on Acquired.”

36:00

“It turns out with interviews, the answer is we still don't do interviews. We don't do specials. Acquired is what it is, except for, you…”

37:30
#interviews#content strategy#ACQ2#Jensen Huang#Charlie Munger
Story49:00

How They Landed Charlie Munger and Jensen Huang — A Multi-Year Courtship

Ben and David reveal that their biggest interviews of the year took months to years of lead time, built on prior deep-research episodes, and reflect on meeting Charlie Munger about six weeks before his death.

  • The Jensen interview took roughly two years from first outreach to happening, after NVIDIA parts one and two
  • The Charlie Munger interview emerged from a suggestion by researcher Andrew Marks during Costco prep
  • Charlie told them 'I'm not interested in being any more of a guru than I already am'
  • Daniel Ek's interview happened fastest because Spotify has an in-house podcast studio

“Charlie was a maybe six-month thing. It was once we started digging into Costco.”

49:30

“I'm not interested in being any more of a guru than I already am.”

Charlie Munger · 47:00
#Charlie Munger#Jensen Huang#interviews#research
Story1:34:00

Ben's 3,000 Spinach Feta Wraps: The Best Acquired Trivia You Didn't Know

In the 'unusual habit' Q&A, Ben reveals he has eaten a Starbucks spinach feta wrap nearly every day for roughly seven to ten years, estimated at close to 3,000 wraps, a habit David confirms he's witnessed firsthand across the country.

  • Ben buys the wraps cold in bulk and reheats them at home
  • David has watched Ben order the same wrap at airports for years
  • Estimated lifetime total: roughly 3,000 wraps

“I eat a Starbucks spinach feta and cage-free egg white bite wrap every single day.”

1:34:00

“I think you have eaten more spinach fitter wraps than any other human being in the world.”

1:34:30
#personal habits#trivia#fun facts

Q&A· 2

Q&A16:30

Favorite vs. Best Episode: Nike, Visa, LVMH, and Costco

Ben and David debate their favorite versus objectively best episodes of the year, with Ben favoring Costco and Visa for their conceptual 'purity,' and David favoring Nike emotionally despite believing LVMH, Costco, and Visa were technically stronger episodes.

  • Ben's favorite: Costco (purity of business model) and Visa (best operating-leverage business)
  • David's favorite: Nike, despite it not being his 'best' episode
  • Both agree Visa, LVMH, and Costco were their strongest episodes of the year
  • David over-prepared for Nike, reading over 10 books

“My favorite episode was Nike. But I don't think it was our best episode. I think our best episodes this year were LVMH Costco and…”

22:30
#episode recap#Nike#Visa#Costco#LVMH
Q&A1:23:30

Listener Rapid-Fire Q&A: Books, Purchases, Billboards, and Advice

Responding to a detailed question list from listener Martin in Scotland, Ben and David answer rapid-fire personal questions covering favorite books, best small purchases, billboard mottos, career advice, and how they stay focused.

  • Ben's most-influential books: Psychology of Money, The Artist's Way, Thinking Fast and Slow
  • David's most-gifted book: Transitions by William Bridges
  • Ben's billboard: 'just be kind'; David's: 'Il faut cultiver notre jardin' (we must cultivate our own garden)
  • Best investment for both: their marriages and their partnership with each other

“What is the book or books you've given most as a gift and why?”

1:24:00
#listener Q&A#books#life advice

Tool· 1

Tool1:48:00

Holiday Carve-Outs: Compost Bins, Lightroom AI, Silo, and Strollers

The hosts run through their traditional end-of-year recommendation list, spanning the Mill smart compost bin, Adobe Lightroom's AI denoise feature, the Apple TV+ show Silo, and a deep dive into baby stroller and car seat setups.

  • Mill: an internet-connected compost bin that roasts scraps overnight
  • Adobe Lightroom's ML-powered denoise feature dramatically improves low-light photos
  • Silo (Apple TV+) recommended as excellent sci-fi television
  • Detailed stroller/car-seat setup: UPPAbaby Vista at home, Joolz Aer+ for travel, Clek Liing car seat

“This thing roasts your compost overnight and is internet connected.”

1:49:30
#carve outs#recommendations#gadgets#parenting gear

Takeaway· 1

Takeaway2:09:30

Closing Thank Yous: Editor Steven, Researcher Andrew Marks, and the Listeners

Ben and David close the year by thanking their editor Steven, researcher and 'Acquired MVP' Andrew Marks, guest collaborator Doug DeMuro, NVIDIA's communications team, and the wider listener community for making the show possible.

  • Editor Steven does two full editing passes on 8-9 hours of raw audio per episode
  • Andrew Marks named 'Acquired MVP of 2023' for research support across nearly every episode
  • Doug DeMuro set the bar for how a guest expert should be incorporated into a season episode
  • The episode closes with gratitude to the full half-million-listener community

“Steven, you are, and everybody listening, I'm sure will agree the single best podcast editor in the business.”

2:10:00

“This whole thing would not happen without you listening.”

2:15:00
#thank yous#team#listener community