#108 with Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal - Brainstorming with the Acquired Podcast

**Shaan Puri** (0:00)
All right, everyone, we have a quick ad for HubSpot, but I want to let you know, I actually use HubSpot and I use their sales tool, which is what this ad is for. HubSpot sales platform, it makes it just easier to sell stuff, to do it faster, to look at your pipeline, to see what sales are going to happen. Just prospect to cold outreach and get more customers faster and easier. Plus, it's easy to learn and free to start. So you guys can check it out, hubspot.com/sales.

**Shaan Puri** (0:25)
And this is for our podcast, correct? Or this is going on your podcast or both?

**Ben Gilbert** (0:29)
Good question.

**David Rosenthal** (0:30)
Like, we're open to whatever.

**Shaan Puri** (0:31)
Yeah, I think we should record it and see what fits. But like by default, I think it'll definitely work on our feed. If you guys feel good about it on your feed, I think great. It's dual purpose.
I love it. Okay, are we rolling then?
Quick, quick intros. So I've actually never met you guys, but like I think most people for this podcast, I've heard you guys talking. And actually, just say like five words into your mic. Your mic setup is like godly. I don't know if it's your voice or your mic, but something is perfect.

**David Rosenthal** (1:14)
It's all Ben. If I were running the tech side of Aquired, we would still be talking into our MacBooks.

**Ben Gilbert** (1:22)
Yeah, but fortunately, we have David's dulcet tones and buttery voice that complete the equation.

**Shaan Puri** (1:29)
And Ben, you have the soundproof panels in the background and stuff like that. I just roll out of bed and push go and see if it works. All right. So we have David and Ben here with us. These guys host the Aquired podcast, which is, we'll talk a little bit about that. So you do that.
You're also venture capitalist, from what I understand, if I remember correctly, from the podcast. Correct. And the podcast, so I used to listen to a bunch of it at the beginning, because I'll tell you a funny story. We have a guy in our office at our startup named Jason.
And Jason is great in all these different ways. He's super enthusiastic. He's a go-getter. He'll make shit happen. He's very creative.
But the one thing that Jason was always kind of the punching bag in the office was he would always say the wrong, like he would always have his facts wrong. So he would be like, oh, you know, that's, you know, they got bought by this company and we're like, no, it was this other company or they raise this number. And it's like, nope, that's not the right number. So he was always like getting fact checked.
And then one day Jason started coming in with just these knowledge bombs. And we were like, that's not right. Wait, that is right.
And I was like, how did you know that backstory? Like, did you research this? Like, I didn't understand. And then I realized the secret. He was listening to y'all's podcast. And he was, you know, basically what you guys do is you tell the story of great kind of acquisitions in tech history.
And you go through kind of like very methodically, you like research it well and you tell a very good linear story with no plot holes. And so Jason all of a sudden had this superpower where he was telling these perfect renditions of what went down. And I was like, what the fuck is going on? And so that's what I was like, OK, what's this podcast that you listen to? So I listened to a few of them. I haven't listened recently. I know you guys been pumped out a ton of them.

**David Rosenthal** (3:13)
You get we got back in because we're not just acquisitions anymore. We realize these stories like we were limiting ourselves with just acquisitions because we'll get into this.

**Shaan Puri** (3:20)
What did you expand to?

**David Rosenthal** (3:21)
You know, acquisitions are a limited part of the universe. So we just did Epic Games.
We did SpaceX like those.

**Shaan Puri** (3:28)
So it's just like success story in addition to acquisition story type of thing.

**Ben Gilbert** (3:31)
Yeah, the goal is that we tell the story of like the obviously a very deep story of any any sort of great company, but then also try and understand the playbook of why it worked.

**Shaan Puri** (3:42)
Right.
I love I loved them. I've listened to a bunch where you had like a three parter and I'm like, oh man, this is so deep. I love it. And then I was like, and then I sort of switched my habits in general, where I was like, okay, I don't want to get smarter. I just want to escape. So now my podcast listening is like I need junk food. That's how I listen to my podcast now. And so I just go for like more entertainment, less information. But I know there's a bunch of people who listen to this that would actually really dig that because they want to hear the stories. They want the real information.