Bill Gates

Oof.

Oof.

Brutal. One other Microsoft exec put it to me. It hurt so bad that a bunch of our best systems people were leaving the company and driving across the lake, going to work for an online bookseller, and then building that online bookseller into the market-leading enterprise compute company. That is a black eye right there.

Brutal. One other Microsoft exec put it to me. It hurt so bad that a bunch of our best systems people were leaving the company and driving across the lake, going to work for an online bookseller, and then building that online bookseller into the market-leading enterprise compute company. That is a black eye right there.

And David, unexpectedly, there is a through line through all of them. There's a cohesive story that leads to Azure here.

And David, unexpectedly, there is a through line through all of them. There's a cohesive story that leads to Azure here.

But before we do that, this is the perfect time for another one of our favorite companies and longtime acquired partners, Pilot.com. For startups and growth companies of all kinds, Pilot handles all of your company's accounting, tax, and bookkeeping needs and is by far the largest startup-focused accounting firm in the entire U.S.

But before we do that, this is the perfect time for another one of our favorite companies and longtime acquired partners, Pilot.com. For startups and growth companies of all kinds, Pilot handles all of your company's accounting, tax, and bookkeeping needs and is by far the largest startup-focused accounting firm in the entire U.S.

Yep. So back to Pilot. And speaking of Bill, we talk all the time on Acquired about one of his Seattle neighbors, Jeff Bezos, and the AWS-inspired axiom that startups should focus on what makes your beer taste better.

Yep. So back to Pilot. And speaking of Bill, we talk all the time on Acquired about one of his Seattle neighbors, Jeff Bezos, and the AWS-inspired axiom that startups should focus on what makes your beer taste better.

In other words, only spend your limited time and resources on what's actually going to move the needle for your company, for your product, for your customers, and outsource everything else that you need to do that doesn't fit that bill. And accounting is just example number one of this. Every company needs it. It needs to be done by a professional.

In other words, only spend your limited time and resources on what's actually going to move the needle for your company, for your product, for your customers, and outsource everything else that you need to do that doesn't fit that bill. And accounting is just example number one of this. Every company needs it. It needs to be done by a professional.

You don't want to take any risk of something going wrong, but at the same time, it has zero impact on your product or customers.

You don't want to take any risk of something going wrong, but at the same time, it has zero impact on your product or customers.

And when you say thousands of startups, Pilot has done this for OpenAI, Airtable, Scale, as well as large e-commerce and other companies. So it's not just that they have experience across startups. They can also keep working with you as you scale to the growth phase and beyond.

And when you say thousands of startups, Pilot has done this for OpenAI, Airtable, Scale, as well as large e-commerce and other companies. So it's not just that they have experience across startups. They can also keep working with you as you scale to the growth phase and beyond.

So if your company wants to start focusing on what makes your beer taste better, go to pilot.com slash acquired and tell them that Ben and David sent you. Thank you to Pilot. Okay, so search. And the alternate title of this chapter could be an acquisition that wasn't. I think that's a lost to history moment is the acquisition that almost happened here for $47 billion.

So if your company wants to start focusing on what makes your beer taste better, go to pilot.com slash acquired and tell them that Ben and David sent you. Thank you to Pilot. Okay, so search. And the alternate title of this chapter could be an acquisition that wasn't. I think that's a lost to history moment is the acquisition that almost happened here for $47 billion.

So I'm just actually curious. Do you know the company I'm referring to? Do you know the deal?

So I'm just actually curious. Do you know the company I'm referring to? Do you know the deal?