Special: Amazon Unbound (with Brad Stone)

enMay 27, 2021

Acquired

What is the main topic of Brad Stone's book 'Amazon Unbound'?

How did Amazon's acquisition of Kiva impact fulfillment centers?

What was Jeff Bezos's role in Amazon's history according to the book?

How did Amazon respond to competition from Instacart?

What challenges did the author face in detailing Amazon's story?

What is the main topic of Brad Stone's book 'Amazon Unbound'?

How did Amazon's acquisition of Kiva impact fulfillment centers?

What was Jeff Bezos's role in Amazon's history according to the book?

How did Amazon respond to competition from Instacart?

What challenges did the author face in detailing Amazon's story?

Insights from Brad Stone and James Avery on Amazon's Journey and Advertising Sales: The podcast explores the evolution of Amazon, including its innovative products and the third-party seller system, along with Jeff Bezos' personal endeavors. Additionally, Avery shares his experience of the first sale for Kevel, formerly known as Adzerk.
In a recent Acquired podcast episode, Brad Stone discussed his book 'Amazon Unbound' which details the journey of Amazon since 2013. From Alexa to Amazon Go to the development of the third-party seller ecosystem, the book covers it all. It also delves into the activities of Jeff Bezos outside of Amazon. James Avery from Kevel also shared his story of how he made the first sale for Adzerk (now Kevel) to Stack Overflow in 2010. The creators of the podcast bantered with Brad Stone about his use of an epigraph from Steinbeck's Cannery Row in the book.
Brad Stone Explores Amazon's Impact and Invention System in 'Amazon Unbound': 'Amazon Unbound' delves into the revolutionary invention system of Jeff Bezos and Amazon's profound impact on industry and global economy, highlighting the importance of creating processes and rituals for successful innovation.
Brad Stone's book 'Amazon Unbound' is a follow-up to his 2013 release 'The Everything Store' which explores the impact Amazon has had on the industry and its unanticipated consequences, such as globalization and transportation expansion. The book highlights the system of invention Jeff Bezos created at Amazon which extends beyond just being an inventor to include creating processes and rituals. Stone decided to write the sequel in 2017, realizing the company's expansion with the introduction of Alexa, transportation services, and the rapid growth of its market cap. Writing about constantly changing tech companies comes with risks, as illustrated by Stone's previous book about Uber and Airbnb. Amazon has undergone significant changes since the release of Stone's first book in 2013, creating over a trillion and a half dollars of market cap.
The Everything Store: A Balanced Perspective on Amazon's Success and Concerns.: The Everything Store provides a balanced view of Amazon's success while highlighting concerns about anti-competitive tactics. Despite mistakes, Amazon's logistics networks and AWS have helped the world during COVID-19.
The Everything Store, by Brad Stone, is a book that tells the story of Amazon but can be interpreted differently by readers. Some see it as a cautionary tale, while others admire the company. The author tries to tell a good story without being a critic or a geographer. He also balances Amazon's achievements with some concerns about their anti-competitive tactics and the way they administer the marketplace. The author interviewed many people to get a balanced perspective on how Amazon did through COVID-19, and while they made mistakes, they also helped the world with their logistics networks and AWS. Amazon was receptive to the book but didn't give the author access to Jeff Bezos, which didn't affect the book's quality.
The Untold Stories of Amazon Executive's Relentless Mindset and Impactful Work: Amazon's success is driven by a ruthless, business-focused mindset, where relationships and empathy take a backseat. Interlocking and self-reinforcing businesses, and weaving small advantages into a larger rope, are crucial for growth.
The book 'Amazon Unbound' provides access to stories of Amazon executives like Dave Clark who have had a huge impact but are relatively unknown. Clark, now the CEO of the retail business, grew up in the operations and fulfillment part of the business and devised and executed the whole transportation arm of Amazon logistics. However, he severed ties with his best man who was also his original boss at Amazon, illustrating Amazon's ruthless, relentless, business-focused, competitive mindset where relationships and empathy don't factor in. The book also highlights the concept of interlocking and self-reinforcing businesses, where Prime Video feeds into and reinforces the retail business, and Alexa acts as a consumer application of AWS. Jeff Bezos encourages his executives to think in terms of weaving a rope with smaller advantages.
Revealing Amazon's Unique Structure and Connections: Amazon's interlinked businesses, including AWS, support its retail success through scalability and efficiency. The company also hosts exclusive, lavish events to network with industry elites and promote its brand.
Amazon's unique structure lies somewhere between a conglomerate and a normal business that expands into adjacent markets. The interlocked businesses operate in a cloud of opaque and hidden connections to exploit assets, advantages, and interlinking customer needs. AWS is an essential tool for Amazon's retail business as it is the primary customer and beta tester, ensuring scalability, and cost-efficiency. Jeff Bezos hosted a secretive campfire event for the last 10 years in Santa Fe and Santa Barbara, inviting the literary and Hollywood elites flown in private jets. Amazon pays for the whole event, including bags of swag in hotel rooms, individual counselors, a networking event, hikes, and talks given by speakers.
Amazon's Focus on Relationships and Content Bundles for Success: Amazon's success stems from its emphasis on building strong relationships and offering quality content through Prime. While their profitability is uncertain, the company continues to expand into new markets and adapt to changing global climates to achieve its goals.
Amazon's success relies on building strong relationships within literary and entertainment communities and offering a bundle of important content through Prime. Despite sinking billions of dollars into video and international ventures, the jury is still out on their profitability. However, with the emergence of IMDb TV and the success of their presence in larger Indian cities, it is evident that Amazon tends to move in these directions and monetizes later. Bezos' vision to succeed in two out of the three major countries-US, China, and India-reflects how Amazon adapts to the changing global political and economic climate to achieve its goals.
Amazon's Attention to Competition and Interdependence with Google: While Amazon prioritizes customer obsession, it still pays attention to competition and adapts to stay ahead. Additionally, its dependence on Google is evident in actions such as launching in Mexico without Google search advertising.
Although Amazon obsesses over its customers more than it does over its competition, the claim that Jeff Bezos doesn't pay attention to competition is disingenuous. The book covers various instances where Amazon had to respond to competition, such as launching Prime Now as a response to Instacart's success and even studying Flipkart's methods. The interdependence between Amazon and Google is also highlighted when Amazon launched in Mexico without Google search advertising, which ultimately proved to be unproductive. Amazon had to turn on Google AdWords after a tragic event because the news kept popping up. In conclusion, while Amazon focuses mainly on its customers, it does pay attention to its competition and responds accordingly.
Amazon's Struggle with Grocery Stores and the Dark Side of Marketplace: Amazon's attempts to imitate Instacart failed due to grocery stores' own experiments. Though facing competition from overseas sellers, Amazon's focus on customer satisfaction and curated selection of branded items continues to attract customers.
Amazon's attempts to emulate Instacart failed since grocery stores didn't want to work with them as they had their own experiments, AmazonFresh, that seemed like a threat to them. However, Instacart benefited from being a technology platform for other grocery stores. Amazon's Marketplace faced a dark side with a wave of competition from overseas sellers who aren't paying taxes, don't have the same labor costs, and are sometimes the manufacturers with no brands or markups on prices. Additionally, some of these sellers used black hat tactics like stealing IP and bots with fake reviews. Despite this, Amazon's focus is always on customer satisfaction and Marketplace's curated selection of branded items at a high price keeps attracting customers even though they might also opt for the extensive selection and low prices of unbranded products.
Amazon's Evolving Strategy and Marketplace Challenges.: Amazon's extensive services create challenges for traditional brand holders, but competition in the marketplace is emerging, especially from Chinese manufacturers and larger aggregators like Thrasio. Amazon's attempts to expand and accommodate diverse constituent groups have created political controversy.
Amazon's algorithms, software, and human care and curation scaled the exploding hoverboards and self-destructing sneakers systems. Chinese manufacturers with low-cost structures willing to play by the rules and build legitimate brands are posing a legitimate battle. Amazon Marketplace sellers are being aggregated by bigger players like Thrasio. Shopify is serving the needs of brand holders who want to sell directly and have a relationship with their customers. Amazon is doing so much now in serving so many constituencies that they can't do it all. The request for helipads by Amazon in Long Island City and Crystal City that were part of HQ2 instituted political backlash backlash in New York. Jeff Bezos had taken helicopter lessons and was seeing Lauren Sanchez, a helicopter pilot.
The Wild Story of Jeff Bezos and the National Enquirer Explored in "Amazon Unbound: Explore the bizarre world of Jeff Bezos and his scandal with Lauren Sanchez in "Amazon Unbound," which includes helicopters, yachts, Twitter bots, and fake selfies. Learn how one author uncovered the story amidst positive feedback and legal sponsorship.
The book 'Amazon Unbound' covers a tangled, bizarre story centered around Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez, and the National Enquirer. The story involves a his-and-hers Bell Textron state-of-the-art helicopter, a superyacht, Saudi bots on Twitter, and explicit selfies that turned out to be fake. Brad Stone, the author, had a great time researching and reporting on the story and received positive informal feedback. Perkins Coie, a premier, technology-focused international law firm, is the official legal sponsor of the special episodes of Acquired. The book also briefly mentions Nina Rolle, the voice of Alexa, but the journalistic approach to that topic is not discussed in this segment.
Tracking Down the Voice of Alexa and Suggestions for Amazon's Business Model: Synthetic voices start with voice actors or actresses recording scripts, and AI produces the voice. Amazon should focus on physical retail opportunities in supermarkets and abandon their recognition technology due to societal discomfort about bias in algorithms.
To track down the voice of Alexa, Brad used his knowledge that synthetic voices start with voice actors or actresses recording scripts, and then AI produces the voice. Through networking, Brad found out that GM Voices likely did Alexa. He had some candidates and found Nina Rolle through her website, where he recognized her voice. Though neither Amazon nor Nina Rolle confirmed it, Brad had a good signal that she was Alexa. Brad also discussed Amazon's missing pieces in the business model, where he thinks they could have moved faster on physical retail in the opportunity to supermarkets without the obsessive focus on finding a distinctive technology solution. Additionally, Brad suggests that Amazon should abandon their recognition technology due to societal discomfort about the bias in those algorithms.
Jeff Bezos' Impact on Amazon's Innovation and Future: Jeff Bezos' risk-taking and willingness to fail publicly have driven Amazon's success. His departure may affect the company's flexibility, and his rivalry with Elon Musk is significant. Blue Origin's future remains uncertain.
Jeff Bezos' willingness to take risks, be inventive, and allow himself to fail publicly has fueled Amazon's innovative process. As the founder and CEO, Bezos has inspired and sponsored big ideas for the company that have led to their success. However, his departure as CEO may impact the leeway and flexibility that Amazon has enjoyed with investors. Additionally, the rivalry between Bezos and Elon Musk is real, as they have different philosophies and approaches. Bezos' ownership and remote operation of Blue Origin may have yielded dysfunctional outcomes, but only time will tell if the company can achieve success and momentum in the future.
Amazon's Path to Efficiency and Leadership: By acquiring Kiva, Amazon automated systems and created efficient fulfillment centers, while also developing future leaders like Dave Clark. Despite challenges, the company continues to expand and innovate in various industries.
Amazon's acquisition of Kiva allowed them to automate systems and make fulfillment centers incredibly efficient, while also furnishing Dave Clark with leadership credentials to continue growing inside the organization. The book on Amazon's history covers the entire arc of the company, which made it challenging to figure out what to include and what not to include. However, the author highlights the importance of keeping Jeff Bezos at the center of the action, which was the main narrative challenge. Despite the antitrust scrutiny, Amazon might acquire MGM in the next couple of days to increase their output of movies in their catalog. Brad Stone's book 'Amazon Unbound' is available at local bookstores, Barnes & Noble, and on Amazon as an ebook, hardcover, or audiobook.

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Photo Credit: Mark Zuckerberg by Jeff Sainlar / Meta

‍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.

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enJuly 22, 2024

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The Biggest Thing We’ve Ever Done:

San Francisco. September 10, 2024. Mark your calendars.

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** Future capabilities of biometric payments are under development; features and timelines are subject to change at the bank’s sole discretion.*

enJune 04, 2024

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enApril 22, 2024

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enMarch 18, 2024

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In luxury, there’s Hermès… and there’s everyone else. Stewarded by one French family over six generations, Hermès sells the absolute pinnacle of the French luxury dream. Loyal clients will wait years simply for the opportunity to buy one of the company’s flagship Birkin or Kelly bags. Unlike every other luxury brand, Hermès:

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J.P. Morgan Payments
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NVIDIA GTC (Code "ACQUIRED" for 20% off)

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Visuals for:
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- 00:45: Chaine d'ancre, “Chain of anchors”
- 00:49: Jeu des Omnibus et Dames blanches, “White ladies at play”
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- 00:57: The Hermès oranges
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- 01:07: Grace Kelly photo in LIFE Magaine
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enJanuary 22, 2024

Holiday Special 2023

Ben has some big news. Actually, double big news! On what has become a holiday tradition here at Acquired, we cozy up to the fire to do our annual review of the show “in public”. We reflect on what can only be described as an absolutely mind-blowing 2023 (LVMH! Jensen! Costco! Charlie! Half a million plus listeners!) and look ahead to some big things cooking for 2024. Plus as always, we wrap with extended carve outs (joined this year by some surprise guests) for anyone still shopping for those holiday perfect gifts.

Huge thank you to everyone for making 2023 an amazing year again here in Acquired-land, and cheers to even greater things to come in 2023!

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Thanks to our fantastic partners, any member of the Acquired community can now get:

Your product growth powered by Statsig (and listen to our ACQ2 interview with CEO Vijaye Raji)
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Mark Leonard and David Senra’s holiday book recommendations on Blinkist, plus our favorite books on Ben & David’s Bookshelf

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Links / Extended Carve Outs!

enDecember 18, 2023

Visa

To paraphrase Visa founder Dee Hock, how many of you know Visa? Great, all of you. Now, how many of you know how it started? Or, for that matter, who started it? Who runs and governs it? Where is it headquartered? What’s its business model?

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Free access to our episode research on Blinkist plus our favorite books on Ben & David’s Bookshelf
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enNovember 27, 2023

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Qualcomm

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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.

enMay 18, 2023

Stratechery (with Ben Thompson)

Ben Thompson joins Acquired to discuss the business of Stratechery itself and celebrate 10 years (!) of the internet’s best strategy analysis destination. Even beyond Stratechery’s enormous impact itself on business and tech over the years, Ben’s work inspired a whole generation of business content creators — this show very much included — and it was super special for us to give the Acquired treatment to one of our own heroes. We cover the full history of Ben pioneering the subscription internet media business model (indeed SubStack’s seed round pitch was “Stratechery-in-a-box”), and how + why he’s evolved the business since and is now doubling down both on podcasting and a broader vision of the Stratechery Plus bundle… including for the first time content not made by Ben himself! Tune in and enjoy.

If you want more Acquired, you can follow our public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!).

Sponsors:
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Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24
Crusoe: https://bit.ly/acquiredcrusoe

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enDecember 06, 2022

Nvidia Part I: The GPU Company (1993-2006)

He wears signature leather jackets. He can bench press more than you. He makes cars that drive themselves. He’s cheated death — both corporate and personal — too many times to count, and he runs the 8th most valuable company in the world. Nope, he's not Elon Musk, he’s Jensen Huang — the most badass CEO in semiconductor history. Today we tell the first chapter of his and Nvidia’s incredible story. You’ll want to buckle up for this one!

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This episode has video! You can watch it on YouTube.

PSA: if you want more Acquired, you can follow our newly public LP Show feed here in the podcast player of your choice (including Spotify!).

Links:

Shoot to Kill: https://www.forbes.com/global/2008/0107/070.html?sh=261e2068d077
Episode sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wt5jSpqjsRuYU00pq_ABWTM0iJ68hjMceF9XrreYPko/edit?usp=sharing

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Starting Strength: https://startingstrength.com
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enMarch 28, 2022

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi dropped by the Acquired studio for an Eats delivery, so we broke out the cameras and asked him to hang out for a wide-ranging conversation. :) We talk about his 20 years working with Barry Diller, starting his career at Allen & Company, how the Uber CEO search process ACTUALLY went down… and oh yeah, the massive transformation that’s happened at Uber over the past few years. When Dara took over the company it was bleeding huge sums of cash, losing share to competitors and embroiled in one of the biggest corporate controversies in recent memory. Fast forward to today and it’s turned cashflow positive while also having tripled revenue to over $30B (on $120B in GMV) and solidified its rideshare dominance in the US. And in perhaps the biggest change, it’s done it all while staying out of the headlines. Tune in!

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