🇺🇸 United States Episodes

Ben and David tackle their first failed acquisition: Facebook's 2013 offer to buy Snapchat. They cover the fascinating story of Snapchat's creation and growth, their blossoming business model, how it would be different inside of Facebook, and what the future holds.Sponsors:Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierraSentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryAnthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Vanta: https://vanta.com/acquired More Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCItems mentioned in the show:The Inside Story Of Snapchat: The World's Hottest App Or A $3 Billion Disappearing Act?Inside Evan Spiegel's very private Snapchat Story

Innovation or invention? Platform or app? Vertical or horizontal? Strategy or tactic? Does the smartphone eat VR? And (not to get all existential about it or anything but), what is an app, really? a16z partners Benedict Evans, Connie Chan, Kyle Russ...

Managers play a huge role in their employees' personal lives, which in turn affects productivity, morale, and turnover at work. Professor Scott Behson, author of "The Working Dad's Survival Guide," and professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University, gives practical tips for being a leader who is flexible, fair, and effective.

Tom Papa is a comedian, actor, writer and television/radio host. Check out his podcast "Come To Papa." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One of the most important lessons of the internet age is what happens when we give people -- including companies, developers, engineers, hobbyists, and yes, even a few bad (or dumb) actors -- a new platform, along with the freedom to innovate on top ...

It almost seems like gospel -- or at least a given -- today for startups to embrace the cloud. Services like AWS have powered an entire generation of startups that can now spin up new applications, new businesses, and new experiments with very little...

If the next 20 years of startup-led tech innovation are going to be about addressing massive problems -- like health, energy, transportation, cities, education, and more -- it will mean more directly confronting (instead of stealthily bypassing) regu...

Bobcat Goldthwait is an actor, comedian, and filmmaker. His latest movie called "Willow Creek" is a found footage horror film involving bigfoot evidence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gary Johnson is the Honorary Chairman of the Our America Initiative, two-term Governor of New Mexico, and 2016 Libertarian candidate for President. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brendan Schaub is a mixed martial artist and also a former college & pro football player. Bryan Callen is an actor and stand-up comedian. Together they host "The Fighter & The Kid." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sometimes, our career paths are accidental not intentional... but then it all fits together and makes perfect sense in hindsight. This was especially true for Ezra Klein, who went from writing for his college's alternative paper The Fish Wrap Weekly ...

Therese Huston, Ph.D. and author of "How Women Decide," offers research-based tips for both men and women on how to make high quality, defensible decisions -- and sell them to your team.

Every big technological shift (per Carlota Perez) brings with a structural shift too — an “institutional adjustment” in how companies innovated and build new products, according to Steve Blank and Evangelos Simoudis. Large organizations used to (and ...

Alison Rosen is a podcaster, writer, and television personality. She also hosts her own podcast called "Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend" available on Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Whether you think of it as a distributed ledger, decentralized database, computing infrastructure, open source/ software development platform, cryptocurrency, transaction platform, or financial services marketplace, the bitcoin blockchain is driven b...

Alex Grey is a visionary artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana practitioner. Alex and Allyson are co-founders of CoSM, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, and are currently working to build Entheon. http://buildentheon.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ben and David return to technology acquisitions by examining a classic: eBay's 2002 purchase of PayPal.Sponsors:Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierraSentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryAnthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Vanta: https://vanta.com/acquired More Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLCItems mentioned in the show:  How the 'PayPal Mafia' redefined success in Silicon Valley  - Tech Republic Instagram Will Be a $3 Billion Business This Year: Analyst President Obama and Bill Simmons: The GQ Interview"The Carve Out": Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder -  The Bill Simmons Podcast - Chris Sacca

Josh Zepps is the host of #WeThePeople LIVE available on Spotify and at http://wtplive.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ian Edwards is a stand up comedian and also hosts his own podcast called "Soccer Comic Rant" available on Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, both of Harvard, discuss what they've learned from studying radically transparent organizations where people at all levels of the hierarchy get candid feedback, show vulnerability, and grow on the job. Their book is "An Everyone Culture."