Acquired: A Podcast Where Capitalism’s Legends Come to Life
The trending podcast brings business achievement to life.
Written by Robertas Bakula
Those who wish to discover the fascinating world of business legends and value creation should check out Acquired, the podcast that celebrates the epic tales of corporate greatness.
What began as a niche podcast has now become a monthly phenomenon with more than six hundred thousand listeners. Acquired offers meticulously researched 3–4 hour dives into the minds and methods behind tech giants like Microsoft and Nvidia, sports leagues like the NFL and NBA, retailers like Walmart and Costco, luxury conglomerates like LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) and Hermès, financial powerhouses like Berkshire Hathaway and Benchmark, and others. But these are not dry summaries or financial reports. Exhibiting rare admiration and even moral esteem toward business that it rarely receives, Acquired hosts David Rosenthal and Ben Gilbert deliver epic tales of value creation.
“I think corporations are the biggest and best nonfiction stories of our day. . . . If you’re looking for a story like the legends of old, it’s Apple and Microsoft and LVMH. That is the arena in which people pursue greatness,” Rosenthal told the Wall Street Journal.1 He’s right. In the past, people looking for inspiration would turn to the greats on the battlefield, like Alexander the Great or Napoleon, great artists like Michelangelo or da Vinci, or great minds like Aristotle, Plato, Galileo, or Newton. But the producers of wealth went unnoticed until the advent of capitalism. Acquired righteously places businessmen — the heroes of our age — on a pedestal.
Take Visa, for instance. You have one in your wallet, but do you know what Visa does, how it came about, and what makes it special? Acquired will guide you through how Visa invented “one of the greatest business models and revenue generators of all time,” unifying competing banks into a global network, making e-commerce possible, and today processing “$14 trillion . . . an almost meaninglessly large number” of global trade volume. It is literally your “entry pass to commerce.” As Rosenthal said, “This is . . . an insane story.”2
Now consider a luxury brand that rejects economies of scale and mass production methods, limits its supply, focuses on hand craftsmanship, barely engages in marketing, trains its craftsmen for two years before allowing them to create their first product, and passes knowledge through generations — all while being owned by a family rather than a conglomerate for 187 years. You might think it’s a niche corner boutique. But it turns out to be a $200 billion company revered for its quality and craftsmanship. After untangling how Hermès made this possible, Gilbert aptly reacts: “Yeah, it’s nuts.”3
Even the operation of a retail warehouse — something hardly anyone considers exciting — turns into a “hero’s journey” on Acquired. Consider Costco. It turns over its inventory faster — about twenty seven days on average — than it needs to pay its suppliers (thirty days). This means Costco essentially has $0 tied up in inventory. To a passive observer or a small grocery store focused on perishables that require quick replacement, this might seem like just another business fact. But to Rosenthal, who sees how miraculous of a business feat it is for a warehouse like Costco to be “capital light,” it is an object of reverence: “You know what? I’m in. I capitulate . . . I am in love with this company.”4
Acquired righteously places businessmen — the heroes of our age — on a pedestal.
In a culture where sentiment towards big business is almost exclusively negative, such affection makes Acquired unique.5 Rosenthal and Gilbert celebrate making money. They call a businessman like Sol Price (creator of Price Club, progenitor of Costco) a “GOAT” because by creating a membership club, he circumvented a stupid law that prohibited retailers from selling goods to the general public cheaper than manufacturers wished. And while the U.S. government is reprehensibly suing Google for its dominance in online search and advertisement, Acquired hosts recognize Google’s “search as monetized by an ad-based auction” for what it is — “one of the world’s true marvels” and “one of capitalism’s greatest discoveries.”6
While Acquired directs moral approval where it is lacking, Rosenthal and Gilbert don’t always hit the mark.
For instance, in labeling a unique and creative business model like Visa’s, where “competitors [band] together to create more value than they could alone,” Acquired hosts tragically choose “communist capitalism.”789 They correctly identify innovative models of cooperation in pursuit of a unified goal, which is all they mean by “communist,” as truly amazing. Yet Rosenthal and Gilbert hesitate to attribute it to capitalism alone, even though hesitation is unnecessary. Only freedom under capitalism allows such innovation in governance structures. It’s indefensible to conceptualize a uniquely capitalist achievement by invoking an ideology defined by coercion, not cooperation, and responsible for almost one hundred million deaths and unmeasurable misery in the world.
Similarly, Acquired hosts muddy their salute to Costco executives with poorly chosen framing. Unlike many famous business leaders, Costco executives care little about their public profile. The Costco team are heroes, Rosenthal and Gilbert conclude, because they are “just a group of people who spent their life’s work all working at the same combined company just trying to improve the model in small ways,” with little “personal ambition.”10 Once again, Acquired hosts correctly identify something praiseworthy: how persistently dedicated to real achievement rather than public perception the Costco team is. Yet by mistakenly construing silent dedication as a lack of personal ambition, they undercut their own praise. Dedicating a career to making the company one believes in the best it can be is nothing if not personally ambitious.
Such occasional missteps in framing their evaluations impair their otherwise profound tribute to business. Nevertheless, Rosenthal and Gilbert bring to life the most important stories of modern civilization. Through Acquired, hundreds of thousands of people can now gain a deep appreciation of our modern-day legends and the heroes behind them.
Cohen, Ben, “The Smartest People in the Room Are Listening to the Same Podcast,” Wall Street Journal (May 10, 2024).
Dunn, A., and A. Cerda, “Anti-Corporate Sentiment in U.S. Is Now Widespread in Both Parties,” https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/17/anti-corporate-sentiment-in-u-s-is-now-widespread-in-both-parties/.
“Microsoft Volume II,” Acquired, season 14, episode 6 (July 21, 2024).
“Benchmark Part II: The Dinner,” Acquired, season 11, episode 5 (September 21, 2021).
This is great. Thank you for the podcast recommendation and for pointing out the potential package-deal traps, and the importance of avoiding them.