Season 2, Episode 4: SoftBank, Fortress and the Vision Fund
Acquired
Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
4.8 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2018
⏱️ 92 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Acquired dives into the topic on the minds and lips of just about every VC and founder these days: SoftBank’s $93B+ Vision Fund, and its seemingly-overnight rewriting of the rules of venture capital and startup fundraising. Where did this new 800lbs gorilla come from, what are its goals, and what does it mean for the future of silicon valley and the global tech ecosystem? The answer, it turns out, starts with an acquisition, and unfolds into a story no one has yet told and few yet understand. Luckily our heroes are on the case!
Sponsors:
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
Statsig: bit.ly/statsigacquired
Modern Treasury: https://bit.ly/acquiredmoderntreasury
Links:
Carve Outs:
- Ben: eBoys: The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work
- David: Liu Cixin’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy (starting with The Three-Body Problem)
- Bonus: shout out to Brian McCullough’s new podcast the Ride Home, in partnership with TechMeme!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I don't know if it's two and twenty or lower. Yeah. But even if it's lower it's just such a huge amount of money that like well |
| 0:07.9 | feels like you can pay some associates. I have a lot of thoughts here. Welcome to Season 2 episode 4 of Acquired the podcast about technology acquisitions and IPOs. |
| 0:31.0 | I'm Ben Gilbert. |
| 0:32.0 | I'm David Rosenthal and we are your hosts. Today we are |
| 0:36.6 | covering an acquisition that has forever changed the world of venture capital |
| 0:39.8 | private equity and emerging technology companies forever, like I said forever twice there, |
| 0:45.8 | soft bank buying fortress. |
| 0:48.0 | It's so forever, it's doubly forever. |
| 0:50.3 | It's double forever. |
| 0:52.4 | And of course the subsequent creation of the Soft Bank Vision Fund and we will tie up the connection between those two things |
| 0:59.3 | But before we dig in too far |
| 1:01.9 | David I just need to say congratulations on the big news this week with |
| 1:04.9 | the formal announcement of Wave Capital. |
| 1:07.6 | Ah, thank you Ben. Thank you Ben. It's nice to, as one of our listeners pointed out in the Slack not have to be totally coy about what I'm doing anymore. |
| 1:17.0 | We're excited and it'll be fun to build Wave over the next couple years. |
| 1:22.0 | Who knows? Maybe in, you know, next couple years. Who knows? |
| 1:22.6 | Maybe in, you know, a couple years will be bigger than Soft Bank. |
| 1:26.0 | That is not the vision here. |
| 1:28.0 | That you see what I did, see what I did, not the vision. |
| 1:30.5 | It's not the vision for your fund. |
| 1:32.1 | No. |
| 1:33.0 | Awesome to, you know, have that news be out and I'm sure you'll have lots of good opportunities to use that perspective to pepper in good thoughts for future episodes of acquired. |
... |
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