Acquired

We go deep behind the "epic" story of a plucky game developer from Cary, North Carolina (by way of Potomac, Maryland) which, after bootstrapping for its first 22 years, has quietly morphed into an $18b juggernaut that may become the most important technology company for the next evolution of the internet. And oh yeah, its founder, CEO and controlling shareholder? He cares more about land conservation than he does about money, he's beholden to no one and has the firepower of China's biggest internet giant behind him, and he's willing to stare down Apple, Google and anyone else who doesn't support his vision of an open and equal-opportunity internet future in a fight to the death. You'll want to buckle your seats for this one!! 

If you want more Acquired and the tools + resources to become the best founder, operator or investor you can be, join our LP Program for access to our LP Show, the LP community on Slack and Zoom, and our new Book Club live sessions with authors like Hamilton Helmer of 7 Powers and Will Thorndike of The Outsiders. Join here at: https://acquired.fm/lp/ 

Sponsors:
Pilot: https://bit.ly/acquiredpilot24
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24
Crusoe: https://bit.ly/acquiredcrusoe

New! We're codifying our own Playbook notes and takeaways from each episode and posting them on our website. Check it out:  www.acquired.fm/episodes/epic-games

Links:

• MTV Cribs, "Tim Sweeney Edition": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRGUKMKadJ8

Carve Outs:

• Ben's "3 part carve out": 
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bErPsq5kPzE - original video demo of Unreal Engine for filmmaking
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUnxzVOs3rk - Feb 2020, video on "The Volume"
  • https://ascmag.com/articles/the-mandalorian
• David 
  • Asimov's Foundation Series:  https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Asimovs-Foundation-Foundations-Prelude/dp/B01EFDEMS8

Sources: (available on Journal at  https://usejournal.com/app/space/journal:space:project/7efa6d43-a601-4784-8e36-1edda2b1b451 )