Have you heard the one about the girl in the bush? If not, you’re going to want to tune in to this episode for that story and some of the most practical and honest career advice we all need to hear ri...Show More
On this episode, Scott Page, 5x Author and Professor of Complex Systems at the University of Michigan explains the power mental models have in how we view the world, discover creative solutions and so...Show More
At 27, Sara Blakely was selling fax machines and desperate to reinvent her life. So she came up with Spanx — hosiery that eliminates panty lines — and set to work building her business. See Privacy P...Show More
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched their photo-sharing app with a server that crashed every other hour. Despite a chaotic start, Instagram became one of the most popular apps in the world. See P...Show More
At age 22, Whitney Wolfe helped launch Tinder, one of the world's most popular dating apps. But a few years later, she left Tinder and filed a lawsuit against the company alleging sexual harassment. T...Show More
Nicolas Jammet and Jonathan Neman met at Georgetown University in 2003 and quickly bonded over their frustration at the lack of healthy food on campus. So during their senior year, along with a third ...Show More
Behind every successful business is a hidden back-end business powering it behind the scenes. No one knows this better than Jenn Hyman, CEO of Rent the Runway. RTR is known for creating a glamorous "c...Show More
Some products are vitamins and some are painkillers – the best, though, are both. This is what Clara Shih, founder and CEO of Hearsay Systems, learned when she launched her software startup. To surviv...Show More
In your company’s darkest moment, remember: You CAN pivot from failure to success. But only if you slash and burn everything that isn’t working. Slack’s Co-Founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield has twic...Show More
If you want to grow your business, your goal isn’t to beat the competition — it’s to escape the competition altogether. No one knows this better than Paypal founder Peter Thiel. “Competition is for lo...Show More
No organization that’s entirely closed – or entirely open – can scale as successfully as an organization that combines both. Yes, organizations that are open invite a bit of chaos – but that chaos bre...Show More
That constant roar of customer feedback? Be thankful for it. It holds all the secrets to your success, if you learn how to read the signs. Listen to what users say, sure. But also watch what they do a...Show More
Malcolm challenges his assistant Camille to the Law School Admissions Test. He gets halfway through, panics, runs out of time, and wonders: why does the legal world want him to rush? Learn more about...Show More
“Equal protection of the laws” was granted to all persons by the 14th Amendment in 1868. But for nearly a century after that, women had a hard time convincing the courts that they should be allowed to...Show More
Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon chats about growing up in Queens, what he learned from Abe Lincoln, and how he went from losing his job to becoming one of the top bankers in the w...Show More
In this second episode, we talk to Ajay Banga about his family history growing up in India, what he learned from his parents’ struggles, and how he gambled a promising career at Nestle to go down a pa...Show More
Helen Lee Bouygues, founder of the Reboot Foundation, believes that a lack of critical thinking is responsible for many business failures. She says organizational leaders often rely too heavily on exp...Show More
Therese Huston, Ph.D. and author of "How Women Decide," offers research-based tips for both men and women on how to make high quality, defensible decisions -- and sell them to your team.
You know Malcolm Gladwell's “10,000-Hour Rule.” But did you know that, according to David Epstein, it doesn't work? That's what Epstein argues in his new book, “Range: Why Generalists Triumph In A Spe...Show More
We all face fork-in-the-road moments in our lives. In his 2005 bestseller “Blink,” Next Big Idea Club curator (and this episode’s guest interviewer) Malcolm Gladwell famously argued that snap judgment...Show More
Clayton Christensen, professor at Harvard Business School, builds upon the theory of disruptive innovation for which he is well-known. He speaks about his new book examining how successful companies k...Show More
Ben and James discuss Microsoft’s acquisition of GitHub. Note: This is the last episode of the season; Exponent will return in the fall Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on a new site by visitin...Show More
Ben and James discuss Disney’s recent announcements on streaming and what it says about not just TV but strategy broadly in the Internet era. Links Ben Thompson: Disney and the Future of TV — Stratech...Show More
Ben and James discuss why different types of media have responded to the Internet with varying degrees of success. Presented by MailChimp Links Ben Thompson: The Great Unbundling — Stratechery Chris D...Show More
Ben and James discuss the state of bundles in 2020, including Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Microsoft, and Apple. Links Ben Thompson: 2020 Bundles — Stratechery Ben Thompson: The Great Unbundling — Stratec...Show More
Ben and James discuss the question of YouTube, why it’s similar and different from Facebook, and why engagement is both alluring and a potential problem. Links YouTube Executives Ignored Warnings, Let...Show More
Ben and James discuss Amazon, Walmart, and groceries, Google Cloud versus AWS, and why understanding value chains helps evaluate business opportunities. Links Ben Thompson: The Value Chain Constraint ...Show More
Ben and James discuss Apple News as it is today, where Apple wants to take it in the future, and why publishers should push back. Links Ben Thompson: The Cost of Apple News — Stratechery Ben Thompson:...Show More
Ben and James continue to discuss the differences between platforms and aggregators, including Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Netflix, Amazon, and Uber. Presented by WordPress.com: Get 15% off on...Show More
My guest this week is Sarah Tavel, a general partner at Benchmark, working alongside past guests Bill Gurley and Chetan Puttagunta. Sarah has a long history as both an investor and as an operator. Sh...Show More
My guest today is Ben Thompson. Ben is the author of my favorite business strategy newsletter called Stratechery. He’s also the host of the exponent podcast, and now the Dithering, a podcast he recent...Show More
My guest this week is Daniel Ek, the founder and CEO of Spotify. In my conversations with Daniel, I’ve found him to be one of the most interesting and thoughtful business leaders in the world. You’ll ...Show More
My guest this week is John Chambers. John was the CEO of Cisco from 1995 to 2015 where he helped grow Cisco from $70 million to $40 billion in annual revenue. In this conversation we discuss the best ...Show More
Please take the 2019 Acquired Survey. It takes 5-10 minutes, helps us immensely, and you may win a pair of new AirPods or a free 1-year subscription to the LP show! http://acquired.fm/survey We wrap ...Show More
In the second episode of our APLUSS(Z!) IPO saga, we dive into the history behind the planet’s largest non-social social network, Pinterest. From The Pirates of Silicon Valley to the bloggers of Salt ...Show More
mm recommended:
Really insightful history and analysis about the consumer breakout app TikTok. Did not know it was a US-first company that started as Musical.ly even thought I’ve heard of them. Origin story included ...Show More
Acquired dives into the history behind storied venture firm Sequoia Capital and its legendary founder, Don Valentine. Part 1 tells Don’s story, starting from humble beginnings born to uneducated paren...Show More
Caterina Fake was on her way to life in academia as a Renaissance literature scholar when the tech world came knocking. She co-founded Flickr, the hugely popular photo-sharing site, and started a hand...Show More
When Andrew Mason started Groupon 10 years ago he was in his mid-20s, fresh out of grad school, and running a company for the first time ever. Within 2 years Groupon was called the fastest growing com...Show More
In 2004, two former Paypal engineers, Jeremy Stoppelman and Russ Simmons, were spit-balling new internet ideas. Out of their brainstorm came a site where you would email your friends asking for local ...Show More
Kimberly Kalb is the Head of Marketing & Growth at Houseparty, an app that takes the group chat to the next level with group video chat. Kimberly has a background in entertainment media technology, h...Show More
Want actionable advice from a founder who has built multiple tech companies and has invested the time to be open, introspective, and transparent about lessons learned? In this episode (which original...Show More
Casey Winters is the Growth Advisor in Residence at Greylock Partners. Casey got interested in growth via his background in marketing and his holistic approach to helping Apartments.com achieve quick...Show More
Stitch Fix founder and CEO Katrina Lake talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the future of fashion, how the company has changed in the past nine years, and the rarity of female tech CEOs. In this ep...Show More
Andy Carvell is the author of the Mobile Growth Stack and a Partner at Phiture, a mobile growth consultancy. Andy began his career as a mobile game developer with Nokia, where he created several game...Show More
The media industry as a whole struggles to build a loyal audience for their brands. But theSkimm, which covers big national and global stories of the day, launched about six years ago with email newsl...Show More
The Co-founder of Benchmark Capital & Wealthfront explains the most important goal of a startup: how do you find product-market fit? As the man who coined the term, he’s the expert—and in this episode...Show More
Nextdoor today is worth more than $2 Billion and is used by 250,000 neighborhoods throughout the world. Silicon Valley types had doubts about their approach, but Sarah offers valuable ideas for findin...Show More
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moores is the most influential book on technology go-to-market ever written, and for good reason. In this episode, Mike Maples Jr from Floodgate talks to Geoffrey Moore ...Show More
Osman Rashid, co-founder and original CEO of Chegg, talks about how Chegg’s startup team of misfit rebels navigated through a crazy sequence of near-death experiences…one day at a time…and lived to te...Show More
Outgoing New York Times CEO Mark Thompson talks to Recode’s Peter Kafka about the eight years he spent transforming the paper from an ad-based business to one supported by subscribers; his views on bi...Show More
Recode's Peter Kafka chats with Morning Brew CEO Alex Lieberman about his ambitious path from business newsletters to full-fledged media company and why he's looking closely at models like Complex and...Show More
Recode's Peter Kafka and Rani Molla break down everything you need to know about NBC's new upcoming streaming service, Peacock, and share their thoughts on how it will fair against its competitors. F...Show More
Forerunner Ventures founder and managing partner Kirsten Green talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about the thinking behind her investments in companies like Dollar Shave Club and Glossier; the messy cu...Show More
With over 100 million members, Prime is the engine that’s made Amazon a retailing juggernaut and one of the largest companies in the world. Jason Del Rey explores how Prime came to be, why it’s so eff...Show More
20 years ago, Srdja Popovic was part of a revolution — literally. He was a founding member of the Otpor! movement that ousted Serbia Slobodan Milsovic from power in 1999. It’s easy to characterize soc...Show More
Twenty years ago, Steve Jobs had an idea: he wanted to build an Apple store. Something sleek and iconic and unlike anything else in retail. But he had no idea how to do it. So he called someone who mi...Show More
Ryan Hoover (@rrhoover) has always been a product person. In a few short years, Ryan built an audience of tech enthusiasts from scratch and grew it into the massive and impactful community known as Pr...Show More
This is a series about what happens when someone who knows nothing about business starts one. It's called StartUp. In episode one, Alex Blumberg botches his pitch to Silicon Valley billionaire C...Show More
with Andrew Chen (@andrewchen), Jeff Jordan (@jeff_jordan), and Sonal Chokshi (@smc90) Growth is one of the most top of mind questions for entrepreneurs building startups of all kinds (and especially...Show More
with Andrew Chen (@andrewchen), Jeff Jordan (@jeff_jordan), and Sonal Chokshi (@smc90) Once you have users, how do you keep them engaged, retain them, and even "resurrect" or re-engage them? That's t...Show More
with @annieduke, @pmarca, and @smc90 Every organization, whether small or big, early or late stage -- and every individual, whether for themselves or others -- makes countless decisions every day, un...Show More
Aba is back to host this episode with Jessica Lessin, journalist, founder, and editor-in-chief of The Information. Founded in 2013, The Information breaks exclusive stories and publishes deeply report...Show More
Bozoma Saint John (@badassboz) is the Chief Brand Officer at Uber. Until June 2017, she was a marketing executive at Apple Music after joining the company in its acquisition of Beats Music. In 2016, ...Show More
After moving from Chicago to L.A. last year and taking the helm of the Snap Inc. brand, Kenny has been flexing his innovative storytelling master-skills for both users and partners in the Snap communi...Show More
Today we’re talking to Erin Wayne, or @Aureylian as she’s known on the internet. Six years ago, Erin was brought on as the first pure community hire at Twitch. If you know Twitch, you’re likely obse...Show More
Today we're talking to Courtland Allen, the founder of Indie Hackers, a primarily online community for independent entrepreneurs. By “independent” I mean these are people who are building businesses t...Show More
Today we’re talking to Camille Ricketts (@camillericketts), the superstar Head of Marketing for Notion. If you know what Notion is, you are likely obsessed with it. But if you don’t, here’s our be...Show More
Today we’re talking to Jay Herratti, the Executive Director of TEDx. TED gave its audience the chance to co-create with them through TEDx, volunteer hosted events of TED like talks that happen in com...Show More
Today on the show we welcome Laura Nestler. We refer to Laura as the “community unicorn” as she is the Global Head of Community at DuoLingo and spoke at Startup Grind’s Bevy summit earlier this year. ...Show More
Advertising has changed a lot. From jingles and magazine spreads to…. short films and well, what isn’t an ad, today? Once the internet came along, attention started to get fractured — and so did clien...Show More
This month, J.Crew went bankrupt. But not before inventing a whole new way of thinking about promises to lenders.
In 2005, an anonymous list of the best unmade scripts in Hollywood shook up the movie biz. This episode: how a math-loving, movie nerd solved Hollywood's script problem. | Subscribe to our weekly news...Show More
In an era of peak television, screenwriters and their talent agents are fighting over the money. In April, 7,000 screenwriters fired all their agents on the same day.
Something incredible happened in India about six months ago. The government declared most of the paper money invalid. Demonetization they called it. Today, we meet the man who came up with the plan.
Free is a powerful concept. Everybody likes free things, but free can backfire. On today's show: What happens when you take something that is free, and give it a price?
HQ will last forever, right? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
This episode we are partnering with Square! Square makes it easy for your business to accept payment, and so much more! Check out this week's sponsor at square.com/go/hustle! Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) aka...Show More
Sunil Gupta, Harvard Business School professor, has spent years studying successful digital strategies, companies, and leaders, and he's made Amazon and its legendary CEO Jeff Bezos a particular areas...Show More
The story of how the Endangered Species Act went from unanimous passage under a Republican president to becoming a deeply partisan wedge. The act was passed to protect big, beloved animals like bald e...Show More
In this episode, Kevin Eikenberry joins me for a conversation about the importance of how you frame a problem when you communicate and work with others to solve the problem. This was a lively and enga...Show More
The runoff Senate elections in the state of Georgia have been big news, and a driving force behind the scenes for Democrats is Stacey Abrams. She's a lawyer, politician, author, and founder of Fair Fi...Show More
with @billcarr89 @cbryar @smc90 When you hear stories about Amazon's famous "invention machine", we often hear about things like: Memos, six pages exactly and no powerpoints at al! Or, the idea of "w...Show More
A disagreement on Twitter leads to a Skype call
To succeed in the modern business environment, you need to strut your stuff: to cultivate a personal brand that supports career growth. No one represents this better than Tyra Banks. As a model, a pro...Show More
After emigrating from Nigeria to the US to attend college, Tope Awotona worked as a door-to-door salesman and eventually set out to become a tech entrepreneur. He launched a series of e-commerce busi...Show More
mm recommended:
Great interview with the CMO of SiriusXM and Pandora. Honest and pragmatic conversation about getting into a position of leadership, how to manage your career, how it's not all about you and more gems...Show More