Walmart

Acquired

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

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

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2022

⏱️ 180 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We kick off Season 11 with the incredible story of the retail “granddaddy of them all” Walmart, and its founder Sam Walton. Once you study Walmart, you realize just how deep its heritage runs through Amazon and so many iconic modern companies we cover on Acquired. This episode was an absolute blast, and we even uncovered a new addendum to the hallowed “focus on what makes your beer taste better” playbook theme!

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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	I love how this book is called Made in America and the Sony story is made in Japan.
0:04.6	Like, I don't know who stole from who there or if it was just the natural title they both chose and did even consider it, but it's amazing.
0:12.1	Ah, so, so great.
0:30.8	Welcome to season 11, episode one, the season premiere of Acquire.
0:36.8	It's a podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks behind them.
0:41.2	I'm Ben Gilbert and I am the co-founder and managing director of Seattle-based Pioneer Square Labs
0:46.0	and our venture fund PSL Ventures.
0:48.5	And I'm David Rosenthal and I am an angel investor based in San Francisco.
0:54.0	And we are your hosts.
0:56.3	When we did our Sony episode, we discovered that many Steve Jobs'isms
1:00.4	really started as Akio Marina'sisms.
1:03.3	And in all of the research for today's episode, we learned that many of the mental models and quotes
1:08.0	ascribed to Jeff Bezos were really the original thoughts of Sam Walton.
1:13.2	But of course, that is also not entirely true either since Sam Walton's greatest gift was the ability to
1:20.5	digest, learn, adapt, test and integrate new ideas from others.
1:26.8	Today, we explore Sam's creation, which ushered in a new era of American retail and now global
1:33.5	retail from the post-World War II period all the way to today.
1:38.0	Some astonishing stats on the company is the largest by revenue in the world,
1:43.4	doing nearly $600 billion dollars a year in sales.
1:47.9	Although Amazon is close behind now.
1:50.4	It's true. It is the world's largest employer, other than public entities like governments
1:55.4	employing nearly 2.3 million people around the world. It is still controlled by the Walton family
	...

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