About the Show
Acquired tells the stories of great companies.
The show has been ranked the #1 Technology show on Apple Podcasts, and has built a passionate audience with a 5-star rating across thousands of reviews. Episodes — which are better described as "conversational audiobooks" — are now downloaded by over 200,000 unique listeners in the first 180 days, and have an estimated 250,000+ subscribers across all podcast players.
Acquired began in 2015 as Ben and David's passion project to explore what made great acquisitions successful. It quickly outgrew its name, expanding to chronicle and analyze the entire journey of enduring institutions. Acquired is a depth-first podcast; episodes are often 3-4 hours long.
Episodes occasionally feature guests, such as the founders/CEOs of Twitter, Zoom, Atari, Electronic Arts, Sequoia Capital, Venmo, Recode, Superhuman, Mozilla, Digg, Solana, Oaktree, CAA, and all five Benchmark partners.
If you're interested in sponsoring an upcoming season, drop us a line.
- Dan Shapero, COO, LinkedIn
"Big fan of the show. I'm a paying Acquired LP."
- Garry Tan, CEO, Y Combinator and Founder, Initialized Capital
"You understand. You actually do your homework and you have a sophisticated understanding of the intricacies. You're like the Stratechery of podcasting."
- Kevin Hartz, Co-Founder and Chariman of Eventbrite
"I loved your two-part a16z series. It's spectacular. Just awesome."
- Brian Koppelman, co-creator, "Billions", "Rounders"
"That was a great interview. You guys are very talented."
- Kara Swisher, The New York Times
"I've become a genuine fan of the Acquired podcast."
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt
"I realized my favorite thing about @AcquiredFM isn’t the depth or breadth. It’s the fact that @gilbert and @djrosent are FANS, and not too cool to flaunt it. It’s awesome to just be a fan of something. We need more of that energy."
- Shu Nyatta, SoftBank (@snyatta)
"Current obsession: The @AcquiredFM podcast. Each episode feels like a crash course in business reporting."
- Ben Mullin, WSJ (@BenMullin)
The Audience
Listeners are Entrepreneurial
- 71% work in the technology industry
- 40% of Acquired listeners are C-level or VP-level executives.
- 45% work at a startup (privately-held, high-growth)
- 23% are currently company founders (plus an additional 12% were previously)
- 44% aspire to be a company founder in the future
Listeners are Technical and are Often CEOs
By Global Geography
- 69% primarily English-speaking countries (US, UK, Canada, Australia/NZ)
- 12% Rest of Europe
- 15% Asia
- 4% Rest of World
By U.S. Market
- 24% Bay Area
- 11% New York
- 8% Los Angeles
- 7% Seattle
- 4% Boston
- 4% Chicago
- 42% Other
Sponsors Include
Sponsorship Impact
“We've been blown away by the quality and attention to detail of your read-outs, and the amount enthusiasm we're hearing from the Acquired community. We'd be very interested in partnering again on future seasons.”
- Travis Hedge, Co-Founder, Vouch (Season 8 Sponsor, returned for 10 & 12)
“I really can't say enough about how great this year's sponsorship was. I remember y'all saying that your hope was to make it more than worth the price, and that certainly was the case for us.”
- Jon Carden, CMO, Fundrise (Sponsor of Season 9, returned for Season 11)
“When I was doing this [$100m] fundraise, many investors said that they heard about us from Acquired podcast. Great great job and big fan!!”
- Tom Okman, Co-Founder and CEO, Nord Security (Sponsor of Season 9)
After a well-known business bank that focuses on technology companies sponsored the show, we asked 688 of our listeners to describe the sponsorship impact:
- 23% (155) of respondents answered, “I'm more likely to choose [sponsor] as my company's bank in the future after hearing about them on Acquired”
- An additional 20% (133) of respondents answered, “I'm not sure if I'm any more likely to choose [sponsor] as my company's bank or not, but I do look more favorably on the company now”
- A full 22 people (3.2%) answered, “My company is a client of [sponsor], and Acquired had some impact on that.”
Some of our favorite quotes:
- “When founding a new startup, I used [sponsor] specifically because of Acquired.”
- “Most podcasts who have sponsors suck. The ones showcased here are actually appropriate and have good insights.”
- “I really think that this has elevated [sponsor] for me. Honestly, they weren't on my radar previously. Their longevity with the show also says a lot.” (From a former VP of a Fortune 500 company)
- “You guys do a great job of presenting them in an intriguing way, that caused me to do more research on their company.”
- “I love that the Q&A is relevant to startups. This is one of the few podcasts where I actually listen to the sponsors rather than skipping ahead.” (From the Head of Marketing at a startup)
- “I really trust the sponsors that David and Ben bring in. I would be much more likely to pay attention to this endorsement as compared to a larger podcast network.”
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