"You can call it paranoia, or you can call it innovation. The language doesn’t matter if the feeling is the same. This is all an experiment I’m running eight years in: How do I update my mindset to want to approach things by activating the pleasure center more than the pain center? I’m more likely to move away from pain and towards pleasure. So why don’t I make innovation a game and bring play to, literally playfulness, into it? I see too many founders burn out because they have lost playfulness...
Oct 21, 2019•1 hr 8 min
We're joined by Stanford professor and senior advisor to Airbnb, Uber, Stitch Fix, and Wave Capital, Ramesh Johari, who is one of the world's leading experts in marketplaces. Ramesh has been advising David and his partners at Wave since day one, and we're super excited to bring his incredible experience and insights to all of our ACQ2 listeners. In this conversation we dive deep into nearly every aspect of starting, building and then operating a marketplace at scale. Whether you are a marketplac...
Oct 03, 2019•1 hr 12 min
Ben and David discuss the newest development in the venture ecosystem, startup studios, through the lens of Pioneer Square Labs (which Ben cofounded in 2015). David manages to trick Ben into sitting on the other side of the table and being interviewed about how PSL works, how he and his partners started it, and what lies ahead! For more information, check out http://psl.com . Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra...
Sep 15, 2019•55 min
Ben and David couldn’t agree on a topic for this LP episode with the clock winding down to our recording going live... so we decided to “do it live” and commentate on our Twitter feeds haha (and discuss your survey feedback). We hope you enjoy this fun slice of randomness, and we’ll be back with more actionable interviews and company-building topics very soon! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra...
Sep 03, 2019•48 min
We dive into one of the most critical components of company building, recruiting product leaders (and executives in general), with Andrew Abramson of Riviera Partners -- one of the most elite search firms in Silicon Valley. We cover first how companies and founders should think about recruiting senior leaders, from knowing when you're ready to work with search firms. Then we dive into the other side, how product managers should think about managing and progressing in their own careers toward sen...
Aug 17, 2019•51 min
“If you look at the firms that were traditionally the early-stage ventures firms, the Series-A firms, and you look at their fund sizes and their firm sizes and compositions, it’s changed significantly in the last ten years. Your typical early-stage venture fund was a $250M Series A fund. Now your typical early stage fund is anywhere from $500M to 1B.” In this episode, Ben and David dive into the evolution of Seed Funds and how early-stage investing has changed in the last two decades both for in...
Jul 29, 2019•44 min
Could I see myself or my wife working for/with this CEO? Would I quit my job and go work for this person? That’s the crux of it. If you’re a CEO out raising money, that is the lens with which you should view every interaction with a VC. You should come across in such a personally compelling way that they’re drawn to you. That’s the bar they are holding you to. The right amount of diligence is a great topic to think about, whether a company is ready for investment or not. This episode was made fo...
Jul 07, 2019•58 min
“There’s often a desire to keep adding features because ‘Oh wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this or that?’ The reality is if a customer is only spending five minutes with your product, they’re only going to interact with a very tiny subset of your feature set. And so, you’re better off usually improving something that 80% of [customers] interact with that is really core than things around the edges that are more functionality.” - Phil Kimmey We are very excited to be joined by Phil Kimmey, on...
Jun 13, 2019•50 min
“Uber, pre-IPO, had raised more money than Lyft’s current market cap. And now, because they raised 9B in an IPO, they’re close to total money ever raised to being 2x of Lyft’s current market cap. It’s an outlier in every way.” Ben & David reflect on what they’ve learned from the APLUSS IPOs so far, what’s ahead for Uber and Lyft, and tackle some longstanding listener questions. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM Lin...
May 30, 2019•56 min
[on Uber’s Early Organizational Structure] “Uber always thought about it as a twin-turbine plane: maybe for a short period of time, you could operate on one engine. But if you want to operate at full efficiency, you need both engines working in tandem and working effectively together.” Brian Tolkin, (@briantolkin) We’re super excited to be joined by Brian Tolkin, one of Uber’s first ~100 employees who built their “Product Ops” organization and then went on to lead Product Management for UberPOOL...
May 05, 2019•45 min
Ben & David take their turn at the "power ballad" of VC blogging/podcasting, explaining how venture term sheets work. From valuation to pro rata rights to founder vesting, we leave no stone unturned in this episode. If you're a founder, work at a startup, or are considering doing one of those someday, this episode is for you! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast: Acquired.fm @AcquiredFM Links from the Show: Acquired LP: Lyft Episode Acquired ...
Apr 09, 2019•1 hr 8 min
We’re joined by Upfront Ventures partner Kevin Zhang to discuss the evolution of both Upfront as a venture firm and the LA tech ecosystem more broadly. We cover the journey from Upfront’s founding as “Global Retail Partners” in 1996 to its place today as the premier and largest tech investor in Southern California. We talk about rebranding the firm and choosing Upfront as a name, launching the Upfront Summit, what LA is "good and not good at", and Kevin’s thesis around gaming as a great place fo...
Mar 28, 2019•1 hr 6 min
“80% of the worlds workforce doesn’t sit at a desk, and 95% of the world’s software is built for people who sit at a desk. Once people build software for the other 80%, the size of the addressable market that could be created could dwarf what we currently have, which is pretty humbling to think about.” Jake Saper, Emergence Capital (@jakesaper) We dive deep into the nitty gritty details of SaaS investing and company building with the best in the business, Jake Saper from Emergence Capital. Emerg...
Mar 05, 2019•1 hr 24 min
We continue the conversation with Emily White, covering topics including her career path, what it was like working with Sheryl Sandberg for so many years, her time at Snap, her experience serving on public company boards, and how she operates as an investor now at Anthos Capital. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Feb 26, 2019•31 min
As promised in our holiday special, we dive into the past, present and future of clean energy funding, with the absolutely perfect guest: the former Obama administration Assistant Director for Entrepreneurship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Doug Rand. This episode was totally eye-opening for us, and we hope inspires many of you to think about energy and climate through an entrepreneurial lens. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Links: ARPA-E: https://arp...
Feb 11, 2019•1 hr 6 min
Ben and David talk about some of their current investment theses at PSL and Wave, as well as how VCs think about themes and theses in general. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Links: Greg McAdoo “Wave” talk at Startup School 2008 https://youtu.be/fZ5F2KhMLiE The Myth of the Job Hopping Millenial https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/7/11/17559484/gig-economy-jobs-rooted-rootless-moving-job-hopping-millennials...
Jan 28, 2019•43 min
Ever wondered what's really going on during the Monday Meetings of your friendly neighborhood VC firm? Ben and David take you behind the scenes to discuss structure (especially how the management company works), staffing, LPs, and most importantly decision-making and motivations for VC firms and their partners. Whichever side of the table you're on, we hope you find this episode useful! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra...
Jan 14, 2019•1 hr 14 min
Ben and David continue the Acquired holiday tradition. Happy holidays to everyone! Note: we apologize for David’s sound quality... we’re still working out the kinks on our mobile recording setup. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Extended carve-out links: Books: David: Broken Earth trilogy https://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B01947LZ8A Ben: eBoys https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC1HTG/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 Article: David: “My Dad's Friendship With Charles ...
Dec 21, 2018•1 hr 35 min
Ben and David discuss “the art of the pitch” through the lens of fundraising for seed-stage companies, but the takeaways are also (hopefully) applicable far beyond! Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra Links: Sequoia pitch deck template: https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/writing-a-business-plan/# Don Valentine talk at GSB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKN-abRJMEw Jim Goetz talk at GSB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnmYSze9M2g...
Dec 02, 2018•1 hr
Ben and David are back for episode #3, with special guest Dan Hill . Dan discusses: - How his startup, Crashpadder, got acquired by Airbnb - Why Airbnb succeeded, and why marketplace businesses in the US have an advantage in early growth - How they decided on growth metrics at Airbnb - How his new company, Alma , is making charitable giving simple Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra...
Nov 19, 2018•55 min
Ben and David are back for episode #2, diving into the most elusive early-stage investing and company-building topics: product-market fit. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Nov 05, 2018•1 hr 4 min
Kicking off ACQ2 (formerly known as the LP Show) and diving into some jargon-y VC vocab. Sponsors: Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Oct 21, 2018•51 min
