Special: Amazon Unbound (with Brad Stone)

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

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

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2021

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Brad Stone joins us to discuss the making of the modern Amazon, and how it's morphed from the "flywheel company" of The Everything Store into a set of interlocking and self-reinforcing businesses that extended both wider and deeper into the global economy than anyone ever imagined. (except perhaps Jeff Bezos) Is Amazon the Standard Oil of our time, or maybe something much, much bigger? Tune in as we dive in!

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Topics covered:

When and why Brad decided The Everything Store needed a sequel
The process of writing the book and access he got at Amazon, including S-Team executives like Dave Clark
The evolution of Amazon's core strategy from the flywheel into a set of "interlocking and self-reinforcing businesses", and how Brad landed on that as the key theme for the book
Amazon's culture and the evolution from "Jeff-bots", and its embodiment in S-team members and company leaders beyond
Amazon's investments in Video and why Bezos was ahead of the pack in realizing its strategic importance (including the rumored as-of-recording MGM deal)
Amazon's secretive "Campfire" event and why Amazon does it despite its very un-Amazon price tag
Brad's take on the future of three major Amazon business lines: Video, International and Marketplace / 3rd Party Sellers
Amazon and Bezos's intense focus on competitors, despite the "theater" of their mantra to only focus on customers
The Bezos "lapses of judgment" in 2018-19 and what it was like reporting on all the craziness around it
Tracking down the "voice of Alexa" Nina Rolle, and Bezos's relationship with Elon!

Links:

Amazon Unbound (on Amazon, natch): https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Unbound-Invention-Global-Empire/dp/1982132612/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, yeah, no, I mean, I've been a fan of the podcast from the early days.
0:04.2	Oh, thank you.
0:05.2	And my gosh, did we do Amazon Zappos?
0:07.8	Uber and DD.
0:09.0	Uber and DD, that's right.
0:10.7	I don't know that I told you guys this.
0:12.2	I booked an Airbnb just to get better Wi-Fi because the place I was living in Paris had crappy Wi-Fi.
0:19.6	So I had this really awkward message with the host, so I was like,
0:24.4	I just want to come for an hour, but it's not what you think. I swear.
0:30.0	That's what I mean, just book a love hotel for podcasting.
0:46.1	Welcome to this special episode of Acquired, the podcast about great technology companies and the
0:51.2	stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert, and I am the co-founder and managing director
0:56.0	of Seattle-based Pioneer Square Labs and our venture fund, PSL Ventures.
1:00.3	And I'm David Rosenthal, and I am an angel investor based in San Francisco.
1:05.8	And we are your hosts.
1:08.3	On today's show, we are sharing our most recent book club discussion with you all.
1:12.8	We were fortunate enough to have repeat acquired guest Brad Stone join us to talk about his most
1:18.5	recent book, Amazon Unbound.
1:20.8	Brad is the best.
1:22.7	Yeah. This book is the successor to Brad's first book, The Everything Store.
1:28.1	It is about everything that has happened at Amazon since 2013, including Alexa,
1:32.8	Amazon Go, third party sellers, well, the further development of the third party seller ecosystem
	...

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