Listen with us: Acquired Podcast
The Acquired podcast talks about technology acquisitions that actually went well. The two host, Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, both work with investing and mentoring startups. This background has given them an insight into the startup community and driven them to create a podcast talking about accusations from Twitch to LucasFilms. In the latest episode, the duo discuss Snapchat and the failed acquisition from Facebook, and I know this purchase didn’t go well, but the story behind Snapchat is fascinating. Both the guys discuss the story of the company, rate the acquisition, and talk about the future that may have been.
The Facebook/Snapchat combination never happened instead, Snapchat benefited from Facebook’s attempted clone of the product. The guys saw Snapchat’s denial of the purchase as a benefit for the companies investors and allowed the company to keep their core values of privacy. The world where Snapchat was owned by Facebook may have looked bleak. Facebook would have collected information from Snapchat users to let advertisers target users carefully, but luckily Snapchat today treats ads a lot like TV advertisements. Of course, there’s more that Ben and David talked about, and you can listen to them on your favorite podcast app.
The guys have produced 11 podcasts on 11 different accusations ranging from PayPal, Siri, Bungie, all the way to Pixar and LucasFilms. The episodes are 40 mins to an hour long, but with the amount of information that’s packed into sometimes feels like they could go for longer. The guys do a lot of research and provide listeners with links to legal documents, news articles, and other links to back up their discussions.
If you’re interested in startups or an entrepreneur, the Acquired podcast is a must listen. They’re also building a Slack community around the podcast where you can discuss the latest episodes, suggest new ones, or just talk with like-minded folks. Go check them out and rate them 5-stars, and don’t forget to tell them we sent you!
Tell us in the comments below which episode is your favorite, only after you’ve beinged listen to all 11 episodes.