Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 9 hours ago

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What do Hermes, Ferrari, Apple, and Google have in common? They leaned into what made them weird.

Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, hosts of the Acquired podcast, joined WorkOS CEO & founder Michael Grinich for a live conversation at Acquired Unplugged in San Francisco. 230 episodes in, 10+ years of studying the greatest companies ever built — they share what separates enduring businesses from the rest, how they research and produce some of the longest episodes in podcasting, and how they're using AI to do it.

Topics covered:

• The pattern across every great company they've studied
• Why "be weird, but be right" is their framework for outlier success
• How they curate their audience and their sponsors
• Their six-week production process, and how Claude fits into it
• What they've said no to (and the one constraint they finally broke after 10 years)