Acquired

Our PDF companion for the Walt Disney Company episode is now complete. Charts, tables, and illustrations of key concepts. Let us know what you think! Link to download: https://lnkd.in/gjnZ8Hjd

Announcing the official 2026 Acquired Meetup. San Francisco. With our friends at Sentry. The first 500 to snag tickets will: - Hang with us (Ben and David) - Meet other Acquired listeners - Hear an ACQ behind-the-scenes conversation See you there! https://lnkd.in/ep8cWCsg

Here's the math from our Disney episode. While the "box office gross" numbers sound big for Snow White, Cinderella, 101 Dalmatians, etc... here's what Walt Disney Productions actually received:

In 1944, The Walt Disney Company accidentally created one of the greatest business strategies in entertainment history: they re-released Snow White in theaters seven years after its debut. Because home video didn't exist, an entirely new generation of kids experienced the film for the first time, birthing the "Disney Vault." Disney still relies on this 6-8-year cadence today (more in the form of sequels than re-releases today) to keep their core IP culturally dominant without over-saturating the market. Full episode: https://lnkd.in/gg4QfX_T

The Walt Disney Company accidentally invented entertainment's most powerful business model: the flywheel. And 100 years later, nobody has successfully copied it. Here's how it works, shown through the original 1958 diagram (which…was actually not hand-drawn by Walt!!). Full episode: https://lnkd.in/gg4QfX_T

Today we are announcing our partners for the Fall 2026 Season of Acquired. 1) We're delighted that to share that Sierra is Acquired's Presenting Partner. The product, the team, and the customers that Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor have built is incredibly impressive. We’re proud to partner with a company that is so in-line with the Acquired ethos. https://lnkd.in/gDWkrNBY 2) We're also continuing our partnership with Anthropic. Claude continues to be a go-to part of our research and operations. If you haven't checked it out, we highly recommend it for both individuals and enterprises: https:// link.acquired.fm/claude 3) WorkOS is back as well! We deeply admire the speed, community approach, and commitment to craft that Michael Grinich and the team have. If you have auth needs of any kind, look no further: https://lnkd.in/gh7WUhTC 4) And rounding out our exceptional slate of partners is Sentry. The merry band of wacky, nerdy, and thoughtful engineers over there is making monitoring and debugging better for everyone. If you want to join the millions of other developers, check out https://lnkd.in/g7eVujqy

The multiplane camera is a truly incredible piece of machinery. Walt Disney Productions created this one (the most sophisticated at the world) for the creation of Snow White.

Last week, our friends at Sierra hosted us for a chat with the one and only Bret Taylor in NYC. You can now watch our whole conversation here: https://lnkd.in/gCgATRd3

In the early days, Disney was not a great business. A single bad movie could tank the whole company. (They actually *lost* money for 5 years of the first chart!) But that would all change once Disneyland opened. That combined with the stability of merch and re-releases, Disney was almost never in the red again.

Americans used to go to movie theaters an astonishing 46 times per year — until the birth of television. In the 1950s, television went from just 9% of homes to 90% in a decade, which of course caused the collapse of theater-going. Most Hollywood studios were staying as far away from TV as possible. It was the enemy, causing the collapse of their industry. But over at The Walt Disney Company, Walt did the opposite. He embraced it, timing the transition perfectly as TV adoption skyrocketed in 1954. He also managed to absolutely maximize the impact since his TV show was essentially a giant commercial for the upcoming opening of Disneyland (and also promoting the films they *did* have in theaters... while getting paid by ABC for the promotional content!)