In its first six years from 1998 to 2004, Google built one of the greatest products of all time (and certainly the greatest business of all time) with Search. Then in its next six years from 2005 to 2011, Google built seven (!) more billion+ user products: Gmail, Maps, Drive and Docs, YouTube, Chrome, Android, and Photos — all either started from scratch internally or acquired as startups that were still in their infancy. This six-year period of wild innovation STILL stands unmatched in technology history… no other tech company counts more than four billion+ user products in its portfolio total. And of course, this “Google 2.0” era culminated in the transformation of the very company itself into Alphabet.

So the question we answer today is… how did they do it?? And why? What was the strategy that led a once “pure play” search company into such far flung fields as email, mapping, funny cat videos and operating systems? We unpack the brilliant (and sometimes accidental) strategies behind each product, the simultaneous three-front war Google fought against Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook, and the spectacular failure of Google Plus that nearly destroyed the company's culture — before ultimately setting the stage for both Alphabet and the AI revolution to come.

Sponsors:

Many thanks to our fantastic Summer ‘25 Season partners:

• J.P. Morgan Payments
• Anthropic
• Statsig
• Vercel

Links:

• Sign up for email updates and vote on Fall Season episodes!
• Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat New Yorker article
• Eric Schmidt on stage at the iPhone keynote (!)
• Bill Gurley’s classic “Less than Free” Android post
• Our recent ACQ2 episode with Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor
• Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Alphabet Study
• Episode sources

Carve Outs:

• Bluey x Camp in NYC
• Steam Deck vs Switch 2 (Part 2)
• Claude
• Sony RX100 VII
• Carissimi clothing

More Acquired:

• Get email updates and vote on Fall Season episodes!
• Join the Slack
• Subscribe to ACQ2
• Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!

‍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.

We sit down with Jamie Dimon for a live conversation at Radio City Music Hall, covering the incredible journey from his 1998 firing at Citgroup (where he was widely expected to become CEO) to building the most powerful bank in the world. Today JPMorgan Chase is a juggernaut — the most systemically important non-governmental financial institution in the world, with over twice the market capitalization of its nearest competitor. But it certainly wasn’t always this way! Jamie takes us from his career restart at the struggling Chicago-based Bank One through how he transformed that platform into the foundation for the modern JPMorgan Chase. We dive into the “fortress balance sheet” strategy that has defined his tenure, and cover blow-by-blow Jamie’s approach to the Great Financial Crisis, Bear Stearns, WaMu, First Republic and more. Tune in for an incredible conversation, live from New York City’s most iconic venue!

Sponsors:

Many thanks to our fantastic Summer ‘25 Season partners:

• J.P. Morgan Payments
• Vercel
• Anthropic
• Statsig

Episode image photo credit: Rockefeller Center

More Acquired:

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
• Join the Slack
• Subscribe to ACQ2
• Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!

‍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.

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!

Update: when you finish, check out our Part II episode, "Alphabet, Inc."!

Sponsors:

Many thanks to our fantastic Summer ‘25 Season partners:

• J.P. Morgan Payments
• Anthropic
• Statsig
• Vercel

Links:

• BackRub recreation
• Original Google logo
• Jeff Dean’s resume
• Worldly Partners’ Multi-Decade Alphabet Study
• Episode sources

Radio City Live Show:

• Join us July 15 at Radio City — Ticketmaster: https://acquired.fm/nyc
• July 12 Central Park Run
• July 15 Pre-Show Meetup
• July 15 Afterparty at the Rockefeller Center Rink
• July 16 Encore Event with J.P. Morgan Payments

Carve Outs:

• The Rehearsal with Nathan Fielder (Season 2)
• Your Friends and Neighbors
• Andor Season 2
• Gamecraft Season 3
• Steam Deck vs Switch 2 dilemma

More Acquired:

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
• Join the Slack
• Subscribe to ACQ2
• Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store!

‍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.