🇺🇸 United States Episodes

Ron White is a stand up comedian and actor, best known as a charter member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joining me on the podcast this week is Jeff Ptak, head of global manager research at Morningstar.  Jeff’s role puts him in the unique position to discuss the state of active management because he gets to see mutual funds from both the bottom-up, through deep diligence on investment strategies and firms, and top-down, using Morningstar’s data to assess industry-wide trends.  Jeff is one of my favorite myth busters and discuss different variables for assessing active managers and mutual funds, but we also cover his favorite punk rock bands.   Please enjoy!   For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to investorfieldguide.com/ptak/ For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

Topics covered include: Brian’s history working across “both sides of the aisle” as both a startup founder and corporate development leader at a big company, how perspective from each informs the other, and the importance of learning “customer empathy” How Microsoft approaches M&A from an organizational perspective, and the importance of fit with the company’s product roadmap How Brian approaches strategic investments at Microsoft, and the evolution over time of the Microsoft (and large technology companies as a whole) perspective on investing in other companiesBalancing the tension between partnering and investing, and what criteria Brian thinks about when evaluating companies Microsoft’s investment in Facebook in 2007 (at a then-crazy-seeming $15B valuation), and more recently Foursquare,  Mesosphere,  CloudFlare and othersThe current state of the tech M&A landscape, and the emergence of private equity as tech company acquirers Potentially changing corporate and foreign tax structures and how they impact acquirers’ thinking around deals (or not!) How Microsoft tracks and evaluates success of acquisitions over time, and lessons learned from successes and failures The increasing number of operating companies (technology and otherwise) looking to invest in startups, and how that landscape has evolved over time Sponsors:WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierraSentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryAnthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25 Followups:  Snap Inc.’s rumored IPO filing — and bonus discussion of how VC’s and other investors think about “exiting” their investments in companies that have gone publicHot Takes: Amazon Go!  The Carve Out: Ben: OK Go - The One Moment David: UC Berkeley Oral History with Sequoia Capital founder Don ValentineBrian: Om Malik’s recent piece in the New Yorker: Silicon Valley Has an Empathy VacuumMore Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC

"We throw around words like 'crisis' very easily, but this is a global crisis, and it is of historic proportions," says current U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken about the refugee crisis (for which he and his department mobilized a response...

James Hetfield is a musician, singer and songwriter known for being the co-founder, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and main songwriter for the American heavy metal band Metallica. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eddie Yoon, author of "Superconsumers" and growth strategy expert at The Cambridge Group, explains how companies can find their most passionate customers and use their invaluable insights to improve products and attract new customers.

Hank Shaw is a former restaurant cook and journalist, Hank Shaw is the author of three wild game cookbooks as well as the James Beard Award-winning wild foods website Hunter Angler Gardener Cook(http://honest-food.net/). His latest book "Buck, Buck, Moose" is available now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nature is the ultimate complex system, of course — but with today’s technology, it’s now provided us with an “incredible toolkit” of different molecules that material scientists can treat like Legos to make some really interesting products. One of th...

This week we explore a rare and underappreciated skill through the lens of an incredible story. My guest is Eric Maddox, whose name you probably don’t know but won’t soon forget. Just trust me that you need to listen to this entire episode, and listen carefully—because that is what the episode is ultimately all about: how to listen to others, with care and empathy, in the age of distraction. Sometimes it’s fun not to know what’s coming and be surprised, so I won’t say anymore. After the episode, you can learn more about Eric at Ericmaddox.com. On his wall, Eric has a framed Cuban cigar, he starts his story by explaining the significance of that cigar. Enjoy this episode, and try Eric’s method. It has worked wonders for me. Please enjoy!   For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to investorfieldguide.com/maddox/ For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

Tom Segura is a stand-up comedian, and hosts his own podcast with his wife, Christina Pazsitzky called Your Mom's House available on Spotify. His "No Teeth No Entry" tour starts in 2017, tickets are available at http://tomsegura.com now. Powerful Hoodies - http://www.youngjamie.com/shop/powerful-hoodie-black Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Clearly disruption plays out not just in business but also in politics. Whether it was the Scottish national party, recent election campaigns, or local school boards, people grew and organized communities online all last year through NationBuilder --...

Clayton Christensen, professor at Harvard Business School, builds upon the theory of disruptive innovation for which he is well-known. He speaks about his new book examining how successful companies know how to grow.

Joey “CoCo” Diaz is a Cuban-American stand up comedian and actor. Check out his special coming out December 8 on Seeso called "Sociably UnAcceptable" using code "JOEY" for a free 2-month trial. Joey also hosts his own podcast called “The Church of What’s Happening Now" available on Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My guest this week is one of the reasons that this podcast exists.  Josh Brown is a financial advisor and the CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management. He is also the creator of TheReformedBroker.com, a blog about markets, politics, economics, media, culture, and finance that has become one of the most widely-read sites on the financial web.  He is the author of Backstage Wall Street and Clash of the Financial Pundits. Josh was instrumental in finding me an audience years ago when he shared one of my research pieces with his rapid base of fans.  This conversation includes a look at his journey, what he’s learned along the way, and most importantly, his top five, dead or alive.   Please enjoy!   For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to investorfieldguide.com/brown/ For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

Kevin Smith is a filmmaker, actor, comedian, public speaker, comic book writer, author, and podcaster. His latest movie "Yoga Hosers" is now available on Netflix. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"We live in a world where we use millions of variables to predict which ad you're going to click on. Whether or not you deserve to get a loan. What movie you might watch next. But when it comes to our bodies and even serious diseases, we want to redu...

Topics covered include: Marvel’s corporate origins as "Timely Publications”, created in 1939 by pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman in NYC, with the publication of Marvel Comics #1Creation of enduring characters such as Captain America, the Fantastic 4, Spider Man, The X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk and moreAdoption in 1961 of the "Marvel Comics” brand, and writer-editor Stan Lee’s transition of the company towards focusing on edgier characters and stories targeted at older audiences Marvel’s first sale in 1968 to the Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation (later Cadence Industries)The company’s “turbulent” corporate history through the 1980’s and associated mergers, acquisitions and lawsuitsMarvel’s reinvention as a film-focused media company in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s with the launch of Marvel StudiosDisney’s ultimate acquisition of the company for $4.2 billion in August 2009, during the depth of the great recession Marvel's—and in particular Marvel Studios’—performance since the acquisition Sponsors:WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierraSentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentryAnthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25Followups:  People like Spectacles!   Hot Takes: Shoutout to  Hightower & VTS merging  The Carve Out: Ben: WestworldDavid: OverdriveMore Acquired!Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodesJoin the SlackSubscribe to ACQ2Merch Store!© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC

Tom Papa is a comedian, actor, writer and television/radio host. Check out his new special "Human Mule", debuts on EPIX on December 9 at 8pm. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joe is joined by Brendan Schaub, Bryan Callen, and Eddie Bravo to watch the fights on December 3, 2016. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lee Camp is a stand-up comedian, writer, actor, and activist. He is the host of the weekly comedy news show "Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp" on RT America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices