Acquired Episode 17: Waze
Acquired - A podcast by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal
Join the Acquired Limited Partner program! https://kimberlite.fm/acquired/ (works best on mobile)
Topics covered include:
- Community Showcase: the Nexcast podcasting platform from listener Brian Sanders, along with their podcast chronicling the team’s journey building the company
- Waze’s origin in cofounder & CTO Ehud Shabtai’s desire to hack his portable GPS navigation unit
- Waze CEO Noam Bardin’s retrospective blog post on the Waze journey
- Waze’s Palo Alto office and the bizarre Silicon Valley phenomenon of tech companies being located in retail storefronts
- Apple’s ill-fated launch of Apple Maps as part of iOS 6 at WWDC 2012, Apple’s subsequent apology letter, and Scott Forstall’s ultimate ouster from the company
- The climax of the mobile platform wars… which it turns out Apple and Google both won
- Apple, Facebook, and Google all vying to acquire Waze throughout 2013
- Google’s renewed design ethos under Larry Page
- Ben and David spontaneously agree (surprise) to create on a new category of acquisition for the show
- The increasing strategic value of data and data assets as technology enters the age of machine learning
- The coming mega trend of autonomous vehicles, and the role Israeli startups are playing in it (including the globalization of startups & innovation)
- The disruptive power of network and data-based business models
- Emergence of native as *the* definitive advertising medium on mobile, including ability to close the advertising loop via location-based products and services
The Carve Out
- Ben: Weezer’s “Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori” on Song Exploder
- David: Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why” TED Talk
Followups:
- None this week… coverage of Instagram Stories to come next time!
