Standard Oil Part I

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

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

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2021

⏱️ 133 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It's time. We dive into the *original* American capitalist mega winner, Standard Oil, and its legendary founder John D. Rockefeller. This company and man almost defy characterization -- Elon, Bezos, Gates, Buffett... they've got nothing on old John D. Not only was Rockefeller the wealthiest person in modern human history, his company wrote the blueprint for today's corporations and everything we now know about business and capitalism. Pull up a chair and get ready to hear how this hillbilly, nobody kid from the sticks grew up to became the richest person in the world, creating a legend along the way that would become the American Dream...

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Links:

Episode sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X7oskTGkPX_rIKqZFlN49USR20Ii6C9p2SJCGzEXHLU/edit?usp=sharing

Carve Outs:

There Will Be Blood: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469494/
Deadwood: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348914/
SB Nation's Secret Base Atlanta Falcons series: https://youtu.be/Lx_ORMhpmoU

‍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	So, history and facts going up through 1890.
0:25.7	Welcome to season 9 episode 4 of Acquired.
0:29.1	The podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks behind them.
0:33.5	I'm Ben Gilbert and I'm the co-founder and managing director of Seattle based Pioneer
0:37.2	Square Labs in our venture fund PSL Ventures.
0:40.4	And I'm David Rosenthal and I am an angel investor based in San Francisco.
0:46.3	And we are your hosts.
0:48.6	Today's episode is 150 years in the making.
0:52.3	David somehow we miss this IPO if or when it happened.
0:56.9	Can we still get secondary shares?
0:58.6	I think it might be a spin off or something like that at this point.
1:02.6	At least the standard oil that we will cover today never IPO'd.
1:08.7	It was privately held the whole time.
1:10.6	It's financials were kept very secret.
1:13.1	That must be why we have missed it until now, David.
1:15.8	Truly.
1:16.2	Yeah, must be.
1:18.3	Well, this episode on standard oil is of course the oil monopoly founded in the 1870s by John D.
1:25.2	Rockefeller, the wealthiest person in modern human history, embarrassingly until I had started
1:31.4	to do the research.
1:32.2	I didn't realize the oil and standard oil did not refer to gasoline at least until much,
1:37.4	much later in the life of the company.
	...

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