In 2002, John MacFarlane and his co-founders began tinkering on what was then an ambitious idea: create a new way to enjoy music throughout the home, without wires. At the time, streaming and the iPod were brand new, and smart speakers were over a decade away. But the team at Sonos engineered a top-quality wireless sound system, and–with many fits and starts ... Show More
Apr 27
Shep and Ian Murray: Vineyard Vines. A Stale Product Transforms into a Lifestyle Brand.
In the late 1990s, Shep and Ian Murray looked at a shrinking category–men’s ties–and saw an opportunity: a necktie isn’t just functional. It’s expressive. It can signal identity, taste, aspiration. With no fashion experience and no outside investors, the Murray brothers started m ... Show More
1h 8m
Apr 23
Advice Line with Eric Ryan of Method returns
Today’s callers: Christina from California wonders how to build trust with her fragrance brand formulated without allergens. Then, James, also from California, assesses how he can create more brand awareness for his kids' flip flop company. And Ben from Florida evaluates whether ... Show More
40m 18s
Aug 2018
Season 3, Episode 3: The Sonos IPO
Ben and David are (almost) live on the scene covering the plucky Southern California “camera company”… uh wait, wrong episode… we mean *speaker* company’s IPO! Continuing the long Acquired tradition of analyzing companies at the intersection of music, tech and business, we discus ... Show More
1h 41m
Nov 2022
How Bose compete with AirPods — and why it’s in more cars than ever, with CEO Lila Snyder
Bose is one of the most recognizable audio brands in the world: it was famous for the Wave radio in the 80s, it invented noise cancellation, you can see its logo on NFL sidelines every Sunday, and of course there are the popular consumer products like the QuietComfort headphones ... Show More
1h 16m
Aug 2021
Make it epic, w/will.i.am
<p>What can entrepreneurs learn from a genre-crossing, multi-platinum musician? How to take a big opportunity — and leverage it into something epic. From his earliest days as a founding member of the Black Eyed Peas, will.i.am learned from mentors how to not only identify big opp ... Show More
43m 5s
Dec 2020
Hey, Mr. DJ: Super Hi-Fi’s AI Applies Smarts to Sound - Ep. 132
Brendon Cassidy, CTO and chief scientist at Super Hi-Fi, uses AI to give everyone the experience of a radio station tailored to their unique tastes. Super Hi-Fi, an AI startup and member of the NVIDIA Inception program, develops technology that produces smooth transitions, inters ... Show More
36m 3s
Sep 2022
Rewind: How big companies kill ideas — and how to fight back, with Tony Fadell
This episode was originally published on May 3rd, 2022.
Tony Fadell was instrumental in the development of the iPod and iPhone at Apple and then co-founded Nest Labs, which kicked off the consumer smart home market with its smart thermostat in 2011. Tony sold Nest to Google for ... Show More
1h 16m
