How the Acquired podcast grew to millions of downloads

Since their first episode in 2015, David Rosenthal and Ben Gilbert have doubled their listeners yearly. Their top-ranked business and technology show has done episodes on Costco, Berkshire Hathaway, LVMH, Porsche, Taylor Swift, Nintendo, and Sony. They've proven they can tell "the stories and strategies of great companies." Additionally, they've interviewed business greats like Charlie Munger, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. Justin Jackson sat down with David Rosenthal to talk about how the @AcquiredFM podcast got started, why it attracted so many fans, the secret to its consistent growth (without going viral), and how it attracted advertisers and sponsors (like JP Morgan). They also discuss going full-time on the show and why they switched their podcast hosting to Transistor.fm. 👉 You can try Transistor podcast hosting free for 14 days: https://transistor.fm/?via=youtube Key moments: 0:00:00 A breakout year for Acquired 0:01:45 What is the Acquired podcast about? 0:02:40 How the Acquired podcast got started (origin story) 0:07:23 How Ben and David's co-hosting relationship works 0:09:00 The 3 big goals that made them want to start Acquired 0:11:38 How did listeners respond to the first episodes? 0:14:55 The best reason to start a podcast 0:15:30 The secret to how Acquired attracts new listeners 0:18:13 How they got featured in Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, and Spotify 0:24:18 How they got their first podcast sponsors (and why it wasn't about making money) 0:27:58 Why they give podcast advertisers a white glove, 11-star experience 0:34:13 How to get more word-of-mouth referrals for your podcast 0:37:00 Acquired's unconventional approach to podcast ads 0:41:54 How the Acquired podcast's growth machine works 0:48:05 Why their NVIDIA podcast episode went viral 0:50:48 Why they switched from Libsyn to Transistor for podcast hosting 0:57:18 The rise of the "independent, boutique podcaster." 1:02:27 "The future of podcasting doesn't belong to Gimlet, NYT, NPR..." 1:06:22 David Rosenthal's advice to aspiring podcasters Links: 👀 Case study: https://transistor.fm/customers/acquired/?via=youtube 🎧 Listen to Acquired in your favorite podcast player: https://lnk.to/ILp63e 👀 Read their profile in @FastCompany: https://www.fastcompany.com/90927453/acquired-number-1-tech-podcast-sensation 💻 Video editing by @PhreeagentCreativeMedia