Steve Ballmer
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
are like me because some of them are long-suffering. The team wasn't good there for a number of years. People are diehards. They'll come up to you and say, I'm 89, which really means they bought their season tickets in 1989, and they've been there. Now we've exploded in the last, whatever, 14 years. We haven't had a losing season.
You know there are battles in tech where you just have to be patient and long-term. Our goal in LA, it's weird to have a town with two teams. Our goal is to be long-term grinders on that. And we want to beat them every time on the court. It's okay to have two popular teams. Los Angeles County, for gosh sakes, has the same number of people as the state of Ohio pretty much.
You know there are battles in tech where you just have to be patient and long-term. Our goal in LA, it's weird to have a town with two teams. Our goal is to be long-term grinders on that. And we want to beat them every time on the court. It's okay to have two popular teams. Los Angeles County, for gosh sakes, has the same number of people as the state of Ohio pretty much.
So there's plenty of people to be fans. We don't want to be, quote, little brother. We don't want to be the team with a nice 20% market share. No. We want to get our fair share. We're never going to get 100. The Lakers have tradition. So just like at Microsoft, patient, long-term, hardcore approach. And if we don't do that, no. The Lakers have the position. They've earned it.
So there's plenty of people to be fans. We don't want to be, quote, little brother. We don't want to be the team with a nice 20% market share. No. We want to get our fair share. We're never going to get 100. The Lakers have tradition. So just like at Microsoft, patient, long-term, hardcore approach. And if we don't do that, no. The Lakers have the position. They've earned it.
They got a lot of championships. I don't mean we're not going to keep coming and coming and coming. Steve, thank you so much. Thanks, man.
They got a lot of championships. I don't mean we're not going to keep coming and coming and coming. Steve, thank you so much. Thanks, man.
New Beyonce. Oh, New Beyonce. I haven't heard it yet. How is it? I really like it. Nice. I think it is reductionist to call it country.
New Beyonce. Oh, New Beyonce. I haven't heard it yet. How is it? I really like it. Nice. I think it is reductionist to call it country.
Of course you were. But I kind of feel like a David Rosenthal move is that you might have been listening to Start Me Up whether we were doing Microsoft or not. That's a very squarely in your genre song.
Of course you were. But I kind of feel like a David Rosenthal move is that you might have been listening to Start Me Up whether we were doing Microsoft or not. That's a very squarely in your genre song.
Welcome to Season 14, Episode 4 of Acquired, the podcast about great companies and the stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert. I'm David Rosenthal. And we are your hosts. We often remark that selling software is the best business model of all time. Well, today, finally, we tell the story of the company that created that business, Microsoft.
Welcome to Season 14, Episode 4 of Acquired, the podcast about great companies and the stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert. I'm David Rosenthal. And we are your hosts. We often remark that selling software is the best business model of all time. Well, today, finally, we tell the story of the company that created that business, Microsoft.
It's been daunting. You know, we wanted to do it for a while, but it takes some chutzpah to tackle Microsoft.
It's been daunting. You know, we wanted to do it for a while, but it takes some chutzpah to tackle Microsoft.
Yep. Well, listeners, Microsoft today is sprawling and massive. It is the world's most valuable company worth over $3 trillion.
Yep. Well, listeners, Microsoft today is sprawling and massive. It is the world's most valuable company worth over $3 trillion.
They have 49 years of history making software for consumers and enterprises, making hardware, gaming systems, gaming studios, Windows apps, iPad apps, Mac apps, operating systems, mobile operating systems, MP3 players, search engines, cloud computing services on cloud computing, programming languages, development environments, the list goes on. But it did not start out that way.