Google

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

Venturecapital, Ma, Investing, Acquisitions, Startups, Vc, Investment, Business, Technology

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2025

⏱️ 220 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We tell the story of the single greatest business ever created: Google search. From its origins as a Stanford research project called BackRub, Google became the front door to the internet. Today it’s an essential service for over half the world, and one that generates more profit than ANY other US company — more than Apple, Microsoft, or Berkshire Hathaway.

But it wasn’t always so obvious. When Larry and Sergey began working on BackRub in 1996, search was a backwater industry in silicon valley. Existing search companies were eking out a living as vendors to the then-dominant “portals” like AOL and Yahoo. Google’s come-from-behind success was the result of three massive step-function leaps forward in algorithms, infrastructure and business model… some invented by Google and some borrowed (and perfected!) by them.

Today, things are not so obvious once again for Google. Despite earning more profits than all of its big tech peers, its stock trades at significantly lower multiples — a $1 trillion or more discount to Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia. Investors are concerned that AI will render Google’s beautiful business model obsolete, even though Google also basically invented modern AI and continues to lead on many dimensions. This episode begins a multi-part series where we dive into the full history that led us to this point. Tune in and enjoy!

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‍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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, David, last episode we are doing in our studios before Radio City.
0:04.2	Oh, that's right.
0:05.3	How do you feel?
0:06.7	We're about to go from like the stage of one, very, very small audience of one to the very, very big stage.
0:13.7	Where if we make a mistake, no one will notice.
0:15.7	Yeah.
0:16.0	And we just re-record it and it's like it never happened.
0:18.1	We should try that at Radio City.
0:19.5	Just be like, ah, strike that. All right, let's take that again.
0:21.3	Yeah, hey, this is authentically acquired, you guys.
0:23.2	This is how we do it.
0:23.9	You're going to look at the inside.
0:25.8	Probably not, though.
0:27.1	All right, let's do it.
0:28.5	Let's do it.
0:29.1	Who got the truth?
0:32.1	Is it you?
0:32.9	Is it you?
0:33.6	Is it you who got the truth now? Is it you? Is it you? Is it you?
0:39.6	Sit me down, say it straight.
0:42.0	Another story on the way who got the truth.
0:46.0	Welcome to the summer 2025 season of Acquired, the podcast about great companies and the stories and playbooks behind them.
	...

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