Steve Ballmer

Right. And it's still, I don't think, a very big team even today.

Yep. Obviously, Brad Silverberg, who we mentioned a bunch. It was very fun seeing after spending some time talking with Brad and texting a lot with him to see the end of the Windows 95 announcement after Bill and Jay Leno are done for Brad to sort of come out and finish it off. It's fun. It's like watching a time machine, watching that thing. It's really cool.

Yep. Obviously, Brad Silverberg, who we mentioned a bunch. It was very fun seeing after spending some time talking with Brad and texting a lot with him to see the end of the Windows 95 announcement after Bill and Jay Leno are done for Brad to sort of come out and finish it off. It's fun. It's like watching a time machine, watching that thing. It's really cool.

Soma, Soma Segar at Madrona is someone that David and I love crossing paths with in the Seattle entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Soma, Soma Segar at Madrona is someone that David and I love crossing paths with in the Seattle entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Yep. And lastly, huge thank you to Steve Ballmer. To be honest, it was a little bit surreal chatting and hearing about his experience over the whole thing because, I don't know, there's nobody, including Bill Gates, that bleeds Microsoft more than Steve Ballmer. And his just unabashed, pure pride in what they built is infectious.

Yep. And lastly, huge thank you to Steve Ballmer. To be honest, it was a little bit surreal chatting and hearing about his experience over the whole thing because, I don't know, there's nobody, including Bill Gates, that bleeds Microsoft more than Steve Ballmer. And his just unabashed, pure pride in what they built is infectious.

Totally. And I mean, to be frank, I had a very opposite strategy in mind, but I was a new hire out of college, individual contributor PM. And, you know, it was still the Windows company then. And Steve was championing the Windows strategy. And I was a guy working on Office for iPad. Well, with that, our huge thank you to JP Morgan Payments, ServiceNow, and Pilot.

Totally. And I mean, to be frank, I had a very opposite strategy in mind, but I was a new hire out of college, individual contributor PM. And, you know, it was still the Windows company then. And Steve was championing the Windows strategy. And I was a guy working on Office for iPad. Well, with that, our huge thank you to JP Morgan Payments, ServiceNow, and Pilot.

You can click the link in the show notes to learn more about any of those great partners of Acquired. If you like this episode, I was thinking of ones to recommend. It would be pretty funny to go listen to the forethought acquisition, given all of this context. I mean, it's a short episode when David and I were not good at this yet, and we did our very best.

You can click the link in the show notes to learn more about any of those great partners of Acquired. If you like this episode, I was thinking of ones to recommend. It would be pretty funny to go listen to the forethought acquisition, given all of this context. I mean, it's a short episode when David and I were not good at this yet, and we did our very best.

But it is from our early days, and it covers overlapping source material.

But it is from our early days, and it covers overlapping source material.

Yep. If you are new to the show and looking for great recent episodes that we've done, I highly recommend the Visa one as discussed earlier in sort of the network of networks idea, if you haven't heard that, or perhaps the Nintendo or Nvidia episodes, all of which will be right up your alley if you liked this one.

Yep. If you are new to the show and looking for great recent episodes that we've done, I highly recommend the Visa one as discussed earlier in sort of the network of networks idea, if you haven't heard that, or perhaps the Nintendo or Nvidia episodes, all of which will be right up your alley if you liked this one.

Yep. If you want to know every time an episode drops, get hints at the next episode topic, and get episode corrections and follow-up, you can sign up at acquire.fm slash email. Come discuss this episode with everyone else who's chatting about it at acquire.fm slash Slack.

Yep. If you want to know every time an episode drops, get hints at the next episode topic, and get episode corrections and follow-up, you can sign up at acquire.fm slash email. Come discuss this episode with everyone else who's chatting about it at acquire.fm slash Slack.

And if you're looking for another episode, go check out our second show, ACQ2, where we will have actually some very awesome tech CEO guests coming out over the next month or so that are absolutely worth watching. listening to especially if you're interested in semiconductor and tech history. Now, if you want some sweet Acquired merch, go to acquired.fm slash store.

And if you're looking for another episode, go check out our second show, ACQ2, where we will have actually some very awesome tech CEO guests coming out over the next month or so that are absolutely worth watching. listening to especially if you're interested in semiconductor and tech history. Now, if you want some sweet Acquired merch, go to acquired.fm slash store.

And with that, listeners, we'll see you next time.