Acquired

The NFL is nearly synonymous with America today. Practically nothing is more quintessentially and universally American than tuning in every Sunday (and Monday, and Thursday… and sometimes Saturdays and holidays too) to watch the world’s most beautiful ballet of violence. It generates the most revenue of any sports league globally and sets new records for team valuations each year. But it wasn’t always this way.
The history of the NFL mirrors America’s own development: scrappy small-town teams rode the successive growth waves of the automobile, TV, the Internet and social media to grow larger than the even the founders’ wildest dreams. Whether you watch football or not, the NFL is one incredible business story, and one that we’ve taken more lessons from over the years for Acquired itself than perhaps any other episode we’ve made.
Note: This is a remastered release of our original January 2023 episode, updated to today's Acquired production standards. It also features a full hour+ followup section at the end covering the seismic shifts in the NFL’s business since the original episode’s release. Much has happened in those three years: Taylor Swift entered the league (via merger 🙂), streaming went mainstream (and took over Thanksgiving and Christmas), sports gambling exploded from 46 million to 76 million bettors, and — in perhaps the most surprising development — private equity finally stormed the gates of the NFL. Oh, and average franchise valuations grew by 60% from $4.5 billion to over $7 billion. Communist capitalism is alive and well!
We're also releasing this episode in advance of Super Bowl LX here in San Francisco, where Acquired is hosting the NFL’s inaugural Super Bowl Innovation Summit!
Sponsors:
Many thanks to our partners:
Vanta
Sierra
Crusoe
Sentry (+ join the list for Sentry & Vercel’s Super Bowl Fan Zone party)
Links:
Innovation Summit details and all Super Bowl LX Week events in San Francisco (note content from the Innovation Summit will be posted publicly the week after the Super Bowl — we’ll update this page with links when available)
America’s Game
Sports Illustrated’s oral history of the famous Joe Namath “pool photo”
All episode sources
Carve Outs:
The Menu
Peyton’s Places
More Acquired:
Get email updates and vote on future episodes!
Join the Slack
Subscribe to ACQ2
Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!
00:00:00 Intro
00:00:37 Welcome to the Remastered NFL Episode
00:06:05 Origins of Football & the Forward Pass (1869-1905)
00:14:34 The Founding of the NFL (1920)
00:41:52 Bert Bell's "Any Given Sunday" Philosophy (1946)
01:03:28 Pete Rozelle Transforms the League (1960)
01:56:34 The Creation of the Super Bowl (1966)
02:09:47 Monday Night Football Invents Modern Sports TV (1970)
02:37:19 The NFL's Business Model Explained
02:39:28 CTE & the Kaepernick Controversy (2016)
02:48:36 Analysis: Playbook & 7 Powers Analysis
03:21:04 2026 UPDATE: Netflix, Youtube, Amazon Streaming, T-Swift, Gambling & New TV Deals
03:57:11 Private Equity Enters the NFL (2024)
04:14:08 Conclusion & Thank Yous 
‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Rolex is a series of paradoxes. They sell obsolete and objectively inferior mechanical devices for 10-1000x the price of their superior digital successors… and demand is stronger than ever in history! Their products are comparable to a Hermès Birkin bag in price, luxury status and waitlist times… yet they produce over 1m units / year (roughly 10x annual Birkin production). They make the most universally recognized and desired Swiss watches… yet their founder wasn’t Swiss and didn’t start the company in Switzerland! If Rolex were publicly traded, they’d almost certainly be among the top 50 market cap companies in the world… yet they’re 100% owned by a charitable foundation in Geneva that (among other things) literally just gives away money to local people in the city.
Tune in for one of the most fascinating and admirable companies we’ve ever covered on Acquired. We had an absolute blast making the episode, and hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
This episode was released on February 23, 2025.

Sponsors:
WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25
Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry
Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25
Links:
The Renaissance of the Swiss Watch Industry - Marc Bridge
HODINKEE - Inside All Four Rolex Manufacturing Facilities
“If you were…” campaign
Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Rolex Study
Episode sources
Carve Outs:
Bluey
Acquired on Armchair Expert
Eleven Reader

More Acquired!
Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
Join the Slack
Subscribe to ACQ2
Merch Store!
© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC

‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Costco is not only Charlie Munger’s favorite company of all time (plus he’s on the board, natch), it’s an absolutely fascinating study in how seemingly opposite characteristics can combine to create incredible company value. For instance: Costco has the cheapest prices of any major retailer in America — and also the wealthiest customer base. They pay their hourly workers 30% above the industry norm (and give them excellent healthcare + 401k benefits) — and are almost 3x more profitable on labor than Walmart. Speaking of Walmart, Costco stocks 40x fewer SKUs than their Bentonville-based rivals — yet sells an average of 15x more volume of each. And oh yeah, practically all of Costco’s C-Suite started their careers as baggers and checkout clerks! Tune in for a mind-bending exploration of one of the world’s most iconic — and iconically unique — companies.
This episode was released on August 20, 2023.
Links:
The Science of Hitting
Warren Buffett’s Costco joke
Episode sources
Carve Outs:
Tifosi sunglasses
Dwells “take off everything”
Jeremy Giffon on Invest Like the Best
Dogpatch
David Lidsky’s great piece on Acquired in Fast Company

Sponsors:
WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25
Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry
Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25

More Acquired!
Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
Join the Slack
Subscribe to ACQ2
Merch Store!
© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC

‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Why has Acquired — seemingly against all odds — “worked”? It's a puzzling question: episodes are four hours long, they come out infrequently, and they usually don’t have guests or video. Hardly the standard-issue playbook for podcasting success! And yet well over a million smart, curious and exceedingly busy humans share their (your!) valuable time with us every month. Why? This is the exact paradox that has been rolling around in the head of Michael Lewis (yes, that Michael Lewis) since he found the show earlier this year.
So we asked Michael to be our guest "interlocutor" and share what he thinks is going on here, while we share ten lessons we've stolen (graciously) from companies we've studied and brought into Acquired itself. He takes us through the entire Acquired journey: how we started, why we've never hired anyone or raised money, how we pick episodes, what our business model actually is, why we focus on quality and enjoyment over maximizing enterprise value, and ultimately why we’re all — you, him, us — kindred spirits together. Oh, and just for fun, we recorded this episode where another special journey began — the garage where Google was founded.
Thank you for an incredible decade together… here's to the next one!

Sponsors:
Many thanks to our fantastic Fall ‘25 Season partners:
J.P. Morgan Payments (you can watch our full show with them at AWS re:Invent here!)
WorkOS
Sentry
Shopify
Thank-yous:
First, to Google for loaning us the garage. The sawhorse table desk, PC and CRT monitor on display in the background were all Google originals courtesy of the Google Founders Collection at the Computer History Museum. So cool!
Second, to our friends at Shep Films for helping us seriously up our game on production quality this episode!
Our Favorite Michael Lewis Books:
Home Game
Moneyball
Liar’s Poker
The Blind Side
The Undoing Project (as referenced by Michael in the beginning, about Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky)
Carve Outs:
Books: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Science, the Endless Frontier by Vannevar Bush
Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase by Duff McDonald
The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel
Emperors of Chocolate by Joel Glenn Brenner
Morris Chang's Autobiography

Podcasts: Against the Rules
Revisionist History
SmartLess
The Daily
The Bill Simmons Podcast
Graham Duncan on Invest Like the Best
Glue Guys

Video: Jay Kelly
The Rehearsal
Doug DeMuro
Tires
F1 The Movie
Andor
Fallout
Severance
Silo

Video Games: Sea of Stars
Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Products: ARTEZA Rollerball Pen 0.7mm Fine
Rotring 800 Mechanical Pencil
Fujifilm X100VI
Uniqlo Socks!
On Running Shoes
Rimowa Luggage

Parenting: Guided Access on iPad
Toy Story
SlumberPod
Bluey Experience in NYC

More Acquired:
Get email updates and vote on future episodes!
Join the Slack
Subscribe to ACQ2
Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!
‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.

Coca-Cola is… sugar water. And somehow it’s also America, Christmas, summertime, friendship and happiness. Today we tell the story of how The Coca-Cola Company amazingly transmogrified a beverage into emotion in all of our collective psyches, and ALSO built one of the most incredible scale economy businesses of all-time. And oh yeah, there’s also cocaine, WW2, Mad Men, Warren Buffett, James Dean, Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, Michael Ovitz, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, McDonald’s and Monsanto. So cozy up to the fire with your favorite images of Santa Claus and Polar Bears and enjoy an ice-cold episode of Acquired — always delicious, always refreshing.
Sponsors:
Many thanks to our fantastic Fall ‘25 Season partners:
J.P. Morgan Payments
WorkOS
Shopify
Sentry — Link to ACQ Cassette Players, use code “audiophile”
Links:
Sign up for email updates and vote on future episodes!
The Hilltop ad / Mad Men finale
Pepsi Challenge commercials
Pepsi’s Michael Jackson commercials
Coke’s Bill Cosby commercials
Two liter bottles inflating
Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Coca-Cola Study
For God, Country, and Coca-Cola
Secret Formula
All episode sources
Carve Outs:
SkiErg
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Claude
Nike Vomero Plus
Hermanos Gutiérrez
More Acquired:
Get email updates and vote on future episodes!
Join the Slack
Subscribe to ACQ2
Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!
‍Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.