Why has Acquired — seemingly against all odds — “worked”? It's a puzzling question: episodes are four hours long, they come out infrequently, and they usually don’t have guests or video. Hardly the standard-issue playbook for podcasting success! And yet well over a million smart, curious and exceedingly busy humans share their (your!) valuable time with us every month. Why? This is the exact paradox that has been rolling around in the head of Michael Lewis (yes, that Michael Lewis) since he found the show earlier this year.So we asked Michael to be our guest "interlocutor" and share what he thinks is going on here, while we share ten lessons we've stolen (graciously) from companies we've studied and brought into Acquired itself. He takes us through the entire Acquired journey: how we started, why we've never hired anyone or raised money, how we pick episodes, what our business model actually is, why we focus on quality and enjoyment over maximizing enterprise value, and ultimately why we’re all — you, him, us — kindred spirits together. Oh, and just for fun, we recorded this episode where another special journey began — the garage where Google was founded.Thank you for an incredible decade together… here's to the next one!Thank-yous:First, to Google for loaning us the garage. The sawhorse table desk, PC and CRT monitor on display in the background were all Google originals courtesy of the Google Founders Collection at the Computer History Museum. So cool!Second, to our friends at Shep Films for helping us seriously up our game on production quality this episode!Sponsors:Many thanks to our fantastic Fall ‘25 Season partners:J.P. Morgan Payments (you can watch our full show with them at AWS re:Invent here!)WorkOSSentryShopifyOur Favorite Michael Lewis Books:Home GameMoneyballLiar’s PokerThe Blind SideThe Undoing Project (as referenced by Michael in the beginning, about Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky)Carve Outs:Books: The Name of the Wind by Patrick RothfussScience, the Endless Frontier by Vannevar BushLast Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase by Duff McDonaldThe Art of Spending Money by Morgan HouselEmperors of Chocolate by Joel Glenn BrennerMorris Chang's AutobiographyPodcasts: Against the RulesRevisionist HistorySmartLessThe DailyThe Bill Simmons PodcastGraham Duncan on Invest Like the BestGlue GuysVideo: Jay KellyThe RehearsalDoug DeMuroTiresF1 The MovieAndorFalloutSeveranceSiloVideo Games: Sea of StarsKirby and the Forgotten LandProducts: ARTEZA Rollerball Pen 0.7mm FineRotring 800 Mechanical PencilFujifilm X100VIUniqlo Socks!On Running ShoesRimowa LuggageParenting: Guided Access on iPadToy StorySlumberPodBluey Experience in NYCMore Acquired:Get email updates and vote on future episodes!Join the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.
Chapter 1: What is the significance of the 10-year anniversary for Acquired?
Happy 10 years. Happy 10-year anniversary, Ben. It's crazy it's been 10 years. I know. Here we are. I brought you down here to Silicon Valley to record our 10-year anniversary holiday special here.
Chapter 2: Why did they choose to record in the Google garage?
I wanted a special place.
Yeah, what are we doing?
You keep teeing up.
Like, oh, just come down. Oh, we'll just record it here. And clearly, we're not at your house.
I was actually thinking we should try and find the Silicon Valley house, the Ehrlich Bachmann Aviato.
It's Aviato.
Aviato. Aviato. Now, the reason I brought you down here is I booked us a very special place to record. It's actually right over here. It's a house.
Is this the Google house?
It's the house.
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Chapter 3: What lessons have been learned from Acquired's journey?
We should talk about where we are now, too. And we are sitting in the Google garage. Yes. I mean, I don't know exactly. I'm not sure exactly what happened in the Google garage.
So this was the office. It's a nice idea. Like, literally... Susan Wojcicki lived here. This was her house.
She had just bought the house.
And was looking to sublet part of it, like just make some extra money on other people using the house.
And posted a bulletin notice on the Stanford campus that there was space available here.
And so Larry and Sergey's first desks, when they got kicked out of Stanford's offices, were right there. I actually think this actual door desk sawhorse is the one that they were using, because Google pulled it out of storage for us.
So I'm at this camp with a lot of kind of well-known people. And a prominent CEO says to me, have you listened to Acquired? And I didn't know what he was talking about. And I went and listened. I can't remember what I listened to first. I think it might have been the Morris Chang episode. But I had about eight different reactions to it, all positive.
And I thought, it's kind of amazing what you all are doing. So then from July until now, I've listened to maybe 10 of the episodes, which is a lot of hours of listening time. The first thing that struck me, could not believe you were getting away with a four-hour podcast. And... And I couldn't believe that even after four hours, I was still looking for even more.
That you created the environment with the podcast that I tried to create with the book. You grabbed the listeners. Like I try to grab a reader and get them to the state of mind where they'll let you take them anywhere and teach them about stuff that they don't even know they want to learn about. I think if we're doing this as a 10th anniversary sort of celebration, I'm honored.
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Chapter 4: How has the podcasting landscape changed over the years?
It ended up becoming huge.
This kind of broad curiosity about things other than business and technology. I hear it in your program. I hear it in your podcast. So what I'm thinking of in my head is Kahneman and Tversky. I wrote a book called The Undoing Projects. And you could see two people. And then it got me thinking about collaboration. And I've had exciting collaborations with people.
And the feeling I get is this person is bringing out a better version of me, which is why I asked if your spouses were threatened, because Kahneman and Tversky's spouses were –
Threatened is too strong a word, but they were very aware that the relationship that was the most important in their lives was with, not with their spouse, but with... I got this sense from the Undoing Project that Kahneman and Tversky's relationship was very intense.
Mm-hmm. I don't know that I would describe our relationship as... You know it was.
Argumentative. Yes, it was. And competitive. It was not competitive. Danny Kahneman was always felt at risk of being dismissed, thought the lesser partner. There was a status difference between the two of them. Right going into it. Everyone in the world thought Amos was the smartest person they'd ever met. You two didn't ever have any of that. Not for me. But you said you felt like a fraud.
I think I felt lesser. There were a lot of things when we started doing Acquired where we were doing this business analysis podcast, but I didn't know finance.
Which is funny because you've become more the keeper of the analysis on Acquired, and I'm more the keeper of the story.
It's different, though, than a difference in status. I don't feel that you or I have ever felt we had a difference in status. And the number of fights we've had or real tension we've had is like two, three ever in 10 years. I mean, it's weirdly none.
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Chapter 5: What advertising strategies do you use for Acquired?
So I asked you how many acquired could be created in just your space. What percentage of the advertising revenues do you think you're hoovering up? in the way you're hoovering them up. In business podcasts? B2B, the B2B, the kind of people you will accept as your sponsors. How many times over?
Chapter 6: Why don't you expand Acquired into more shows?
Fortunately, there are a lot more people who want to sponsor Acquired than... That's what I mean. How many more are there?
A lot. We're probably three or four X oversubscribed on people who really could convert on becoming sponsors if we said, sure, we'll take you.
How come you don't spawn an extra acquired or two? Why don't you create the next use?
Chapter 7: How do you ensure quality over quantity in your episodes?
Then we're not acquired. Then we're not us. I see. Do less.
Then we become CEOs.
Right.
Chapter 8: What are the key lessons learned from your podcast journey?
We do not want to build a company. No, it's funny. There's a line that you don't have bosses. Yeah. You have incentives. Yeah. But you don't have bosses.
And we're not other people's bosses.
That's my life, too. I have a lot of incentives. I have no bosses. When you're in any kind of creative thing... There is this benefit to not just following the financial incentives and not trying to kind of like milk every last penny out of it. And to creating scarcity, not just for the sake of the scarcity, but for the sake of the quality. And only do it if it's great.
If you only do it, it's a long-term strategy. I mean, it's not that I think all my books are great. I don't write them, though, unless I think they're going to be great. Yeah. I just don't.
Well, why would you allocate it? Let's say you have a portfolio of however many more years you think you're going to write, 20, 30. Why would you allocate, you know, I don't know how long. A year. A year and a half.
Why would you blow a slot on a bad book? That's a gaping hole. I'll give you a reason why some people might. A publisher offers me a gazillion dollars to write a book about X. I know the book's going to suck because it's not actually a good idea for a book. And it's not going to be fun to do because all the fun is in it may be great.
Is there any chance any of those dollars make your life better at this point?
No, zero. So this is the thing people miss. What is Lane Kiffin going to get out of an extra couple of million dollars going to LSU from Ole Miss? The average athlete is taking a few million dollars more to move his wife and kids from one family, one city that loves him and that he loves to some strange place where everybody's going to be unhappy.
People do this all the time. All dollars do not have equivalent value. No. The marginal dollars have way smaller value than the early dollars.
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