Berkshire Hathaway Part II
Acquired
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
4.8 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 21 December 2022
⏱️ 182 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Part II of our Berkshire Hathaway Trilogy (!), we pick up the story with Warren wandering in the woods of Omaha, searching for his life's next chapter after retiring from the professional investing business at the top of his game at age 39. How does he emerge from those woods anew, transforming from Ben Graham's cigar-butt cocoon into the butterfly collector of Berkshire's wonderful businesses? (Spoiler: Charlie Munger.) And how did one rotten-to-the-core business nearly bring it all down — everything he'd ever worked for — in the span of one terrible week? Tune in!
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Sponsors:
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
Statsig: bit.ly/statsigacquired
Modern Treasury: https://bit.ly/acquiredmoderntreasury
The Charlie Munger Playbook is available on our website at https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/berkshire-hathaway-part-ii
Links:
- Chuck Rickershauser's corporate flow chart: (left half) (right half)
Carve Outs:
- The Sopranos: https://www.hbo.com/the-sopranos
- Macklemore on Armchair Expert: https://armchairexpertpod.com/pods/macklemore
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Yes, how many grams of sugar are in this normal looking size bottle of cherry coke is that 20 ounce it is 20 ounce. Yep |
| 0:12.9 | 40 nope |
| 0:15.7 | 50 70 in a 20 ounce bottle. There's 70 grams of sugar |
| 0:21.8 | 70 grams of sugar in |
| 0:24.1 | 120 ounce bottle |
| 0:25.9 | Wow, I can't believe they still sell this stuff |
| 0:30.0 | Welcome to season eight episode six of acquired the podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks behind them |
| 0:48.4 | I'm Ben Gilbert and I am the co-founder and managing director of Seattle based Pioneer Square Labs and our venture fund PSL ventures |
| 0:56.0 | And I'm David Rosenthal and I am an angel investor |
| 0:59.8 | based in San Francisco and we are your hosts |
| 1:04.6 | On our last episode we told the story of Warren Buffett in the years of running his own partnerships those 12 years leading up through |
| 1:13.3 | 1969 when he shut it down after his best year ever and returned all the money to his investors |
| 1:20.5 | Today, we will pick up right where we left off telling the story of the declining suit liner manufacturer that he bought |
| 1:27.8 | Berkshire Hathaway |
| 1:29.1 | Today's story is one of an investment style in transition from a focus on cigar butts to a focus on |
| 1:36.7 | wonderful businesses |
| 1:38.0 | Much of which was inspired by the man. We've only briefly mentioned so far Charlie Munger |
| 1:43.6 | Now you may be thinking to yourself boy |
| 1:45.7 | It'll be really great to get the other half of the Berkshire story to understand where they are today |
| 1:52.0 | Unfortunately, you should know David and I better than that |
| 1:55.7 | We were foolish to think that we could tell the whole Berkshire story in a mere two episodes |
| 2:01.2 | So this episode is our empire strikes back |
... |
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