Unicorns and ratchets and lawsuits, oh my! Our heroes dive into the history of Jack Dorsey’s famous “other” company, Square. Was the Square IPO a canary in the coal mine signaling doom & gloom for the so-called unicorn companies of the early 2010’s, or a mispriced and misunderstood diamond in the rough? Acquired weighs in.
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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC
Topics Covered Include:
- Square’s deep origins in the early 90’s in St. Louis, MO with the initial meeting of its co-founders, Jack Dorsey & Jim McKelvey
- McKelvey’s side glass blowing business and the “inspiration” for Square that came much later in the late 2000’s
- The complicated involvement of Washington University (in St. Louis) professor Robert Morley, who had worked for years developing payment card reading technology
- The company’s early meeting with Scott Forstall at Apple, and its “significant” impact on the its name and design
- The real disruptive innovation of Square and its business model (hint: not just building a mobile card reader)
- Square’s massive payments deal with Starbucks in 2012 and its impact on the company
- The evolution of Square’s business from a simple card reader to cloud-based Point of Sale (PoS) system and entire suite of merchant tools & business management services
- The drama leading up to Square’s IPO (including at Jack Dorsey’s “other” company, Twitter), dynamics and narratives affecting its pricing, the effect of IPO “ratchets”, and the company’s performance over the ~2 years since
The Carve Out:
Jack “2fish” Fischer, NASA Astronaut, talks about life on the International Space Station… while on board the International Space Station. This podcast was recorded during a live event on Aug 10, 2017. HWHAP Episode 6.
Acquired dives into the legendary acquisition of Ben Horowitz & Marc Andreessen’s “second act” software company Opsware, from a perspective never before heard—HP’s side of the story! Our heroes are joined by Michel Feaster, who led both the acquisition for HP and then the Opsware product as part of the integrated company afterward under Ben Horowitz. Today the tables have turned: Michel is the Co-Founder and CEO of Seattle-based startup Usermind, and Ben Horowitz sits on her board on behalf of A16Z. This episode is not one to miss!
Sponsors:
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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC
Topics covered include:
- Opsware’s early history and origins as Loudcloud, the “second act” of internet wunderkind Marc Andreessen and Netscape product manager Ben Horowitz
- Ben’s first person telling of the Loudcloud/Opsware history in The Hard Thing about Hard Things, as well as the great Wired “period piece” covering Loudcloud’s launch in August 2000
- The importance of timing, and Loudcloud’s too-early vision of—essentially—AWS before AWS (including eerie parallels between the metaphor Andreessen used to describe Loudcloud during the company’s first press briefing, and Jeff Bezos’s description of AWS at YC nearly a decade later)
- Creation of the “Opsware” tool inside of Loudcloud to automate deploying and configuring servers within Loudcloud’s data centers
- Loudcloud’s meteoric rise, crash following the burst of the internet bubble, and hard pivot as a public company into Opsware—now an enterprise software company selling datacenter tools
- Michel’s role in HP’s evaluation of the company as an acquisition target, and process leading to its $1.6B acquisition in July 2007
- Integration of the company into HP’s culture and sales channel
- The creation of Ben & Marc’s “third act”, the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, and what it’s like for Michel now having Ben as an investor on her board at Usermind
The Carve Out:
Randy “Komrade” Bresnik talks about what astronauts have to study, know and endure to be successful in space. Bresnik recalls his astronaut training experiences and moments of his previous spaceflight. HWHAP Episode 5.
Dr. Takiyah Sirmons, food scientist, talks about space food: what it is, how its packaged, and what happens to an astronauts palate after living in space for several months. HWHAP Episode 4.
Acquired trains its lens on the “second or third best acquisition of all-time”, Priceline’s 2005 purchase of Booking.com. Our heroes are joined by friend-of-the-show and former Jetsetter & Room 77 CEO Drew Patterson to help understand how this little-known startup from The Netherlands grew into the largest travel company in the world, with nearly $8B in annual revenue. Was this deal even better than Instagram??? We debate, hotly.
Sponsors:
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© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC
Topics covered include:
- The biggest startup you’ve never heard of (in the US), Booking.com, and its parent company Priceline (yes, the William Shatner Priceline)
- Booking’s founding in Amsterdam in late 1996: by recent college graduate Geert-Jan Bruinsma
- Skift.com’s Definitive Oral History of Online Travel
- The travel industry’s GDS’s (“Global Distribution Systems”) and the development of Sabre
- How Bruinsma raised the initial money for Booking: by emailing anyone he know who had an email address
- OTAs (“Online Travel Agencies”) and how they operate; the “merchant model” versus the “agency model”
- The role of search in online travel
- Bill Gurley on Conversion: The Most Important Internet Metric of All
- Expedia’s early flirtation with Booking, and decision not to acquire the company
- Priceline head of M&A Glenn Fogel’s vision for how powerful the agency model for OTAs could become in Europe
- Priceline and Glenn’s 2004 acquisition of Active Hotels in the UK, followed by the 2005 acquisition of Booking for $133M and the combination of the two businesses into Booking.com
- Booking’s incredible growth in the decade since the acquisition, from less than 20M room-nights to over 500M, and $7.8B in revenue in 2016
The Carve Out:
Dr. John Charles, Chief Scientist of the Human Research Program at the NASA Johnson Space Center, talks about what happens to the human body in space. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough gives a first hand account of landing from space. HWHAP Episode 3.
Anne Roemer, Manager of the Astronaut Selection Office at the NASA Johnson Space Center, talks about the new Astronaut Class of 2017: who they are, what they bring to the table and why these 12 people were chosen out of more than 18,000 applicants. The 2017 class also plays “2 Truths and a Lie.” HWHAP Episode 2.
Ben & David cover the creation of the gaming world’s equivalent of the 70’s rock supergroup: the 2008 merger of Blizzard and Activision. We tell the story from the Blizzard perspective, tracing the history of one of the most innovative companies in the business from humble beginnings at the hands of UCLA undergrads, to surviving multiple acquisition rollups (including at one point being owned by the French national water company), to joining ultimately with Activision to form the largest gaming company in the world, all while inventing multiple game genres that define the industry as we know it today.
Sponsors:
More Acquired!
© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC
Topics covered include:
- Blizzard’s founding in 1991 as “Silicon & Synapse” by recent UCLA grads Allen Adham, Frank Pearce, and Mike Morhaime
- The team’s first projects making ports for other games, including Battle Chess on the Commodore 64
- Early success on the Super Nintendo with Rock & Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings
- Origin of the Real-Time Strategy game genre (“RTS”) and Blizzard’s fist mega-hit, Warcraft
- Blizzard’s crazy corporate ownership changes over the years
- Development of further legendary game franchises like Diablo and Starcraft, along with sequels to Warcraft and the rise of the rise of player modding
- Emergence of the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre (“MOBA”) from the Warcraft III modding community, and its growth into one of the biggest sectors in the games and esports industries today
- Blizzard’s role in developing the concept of online gaming, from early hacks to play against friends to World of Warcraft and Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (“MMORPG’s”)
- The 2008 merger with storied gaming company Activision
- Growth and success since the merger, including the launch of new game franchises Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch
The Carve Out:
Dan Huot, Public Affairs Officer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, talks about the International Space Station: what it is, how it works, what it’s made of, and why it’s there. HWHAP Episode 1.
