Not Boring (with Packy McCormick) - Extended Cut

1. DRDavid Rosenthal0:00

   Okay, we gotta get you over 100K. This episode is a failure if we don't get you over 100K subscribers.

2. PMPacky McCormick0:04

   Right, so let me, let me timestamp where we are right now, just so we know what we need to do. [chuckles] So we are at eighty-eight thousand four hundred and sixty.

3. DRDavid Rosenthal0:12

   Oh, we can so do that.

4. BGBen Gilbert0:13

   Oh, we'll juice this. [laughing]

5. PMPacky McCormick0:16

   [laughing]

6. SPSpeaker0:16

   Who got the truth? Is it you, is it you, is it you? Who got the truth now? Is it you, is it you, is it you? Sit me down, say it straight. Another story on the way. Who got the truth?

7. BGBen Gilbert0:33

   Welcome to season nine, episode six of Acquired, the podcast about great technology companies and the stories and playbooks behind them. I'm Ben Gilbert, and I am the co-founder and managing director of Seattle-based Pioneer Square Labs, and our venture fund, PSL Ventures.

8. DRDavid Rosenthal0:48

   And I'm David Rosenthal, and I am an angel investor based in San Francisco, and I am back, sort of, from paternity leave. [chuckles]

9. BGBen Gilbert0:59

   An, a, an abbreviated, partial, ongoing paternity leave.

10. DRDavid Rosenthal1:02

    Yeah, you know, we're, we're making it work, but-

11. BGBen Gilbert1:05

    And we are your hosts. [chuckles] Well, today we have a first for Acquired. We are covering a business that is only one person, Not Boring, the newsletter-gone-media-and-investment empire run by Packy McCormick. I did some research last night. Not Boring is the number one Substack newsletter on business. If Packy decided to switch to the technology category, from everything I can tell, he would be number one there, too. In fact, even in the crypto category, there are only two newsletters with more reach, and they've existed much longer. Not Boring is only a year and a half old. The Not Boring story isn't just impressive because of its explosive growth. Packy is reinventing the media business model, and simultaneously, the startup investing business model. He's done all this with a very distinct personal flair, writing in a unique, whimsical voice that makes us all just wanna have fun and play the great online game. And we're very lucky that he is a part of our liquid super team here at Acquired, so he could join us today, live, to help tell the story. Welcome, Packy.

12. PMPacky McCormick2:13

    That was amazing. Thank you, Ben and David. Great to be here.

13. BGBen Gilbert2:18

    I was doing my best, uh, my best Packy impression, trying to write, you know, whimsically in the unique style you've cultivated.

14. PMPacky McCormick2:24

    It was beautiful. [chuckles]

15. DRDavid Rosenthal2:26

    Got some good buzzword bingo in there with Not Boring piece titles over the y- I wanna say years, but it hasn't been years. It feels like years.

16. BGBen Gilbert2:33

    I had two-

17. DRDavid Rosenthal2:33

    Feels like you've always been here.

18. BGBen Gilbert2:34

    I had two more. I cut them. It, it, it turned into just, like, a long series of Not Boring titles. Anyway, Packy, uh, we do have to let you know, this is not gonna be all softballs. We're gonna, like, actually do the, the full Acquired deep dive here, if that's okay with you.

19. PMPacky McCormick2:48

    I mean, Acquired is... I think, particularly for the first year when I wrote about SoftBank, when I wrote about Tencent, when I wrote about all these companies, like, getting deep, the work that you did to, to go deep on those companies was hugely instrumental in being able to write those pieces. So I would expect nothing less than the full Acquired treatment.

20. BGBen Gilbert3:07

    All right, let's do this. Well, listeners, we have a huge announcement, a gigantic, exciting piece of n- news, uh, to share with all of you today. For the 98% of you out there who have not joined the Acquired LP community, we are opening up every single episode of the LP Show back catalog to you today. We have created a new public podcast feed in Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, called the Acquired LP Show. Very creative. That is right, that includes our series on VC fundamentals and our startup deep dives on pricing, marketplaces, SaaS investing with top investors and founders. And in fact, we are about to drop an episode that, right there in that feed, where I interview 15-year president of Blue Origin, Rob Meyerson, on how he sees the space landscape today. Now, of course, members of the paid LP community still get great benefits, like exclusive access to new episode for two weeks before we drop it in the public feed, the ability to join LP calls, Zoom, book club, you know, all this stuff. But if you aren't an LP and you really wanna start getting these episodes, you can click the link in the show notes or go search Acquired LP Show wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe.

21. DRDavid Rosenthal4:19

    Thank you to all of our LPs for being on this journey with us, and, um, we are very excited to now share all this content more broadly. There's some good stuff. Man, uh, Ben, you interviewed Joseph Gordon-Levitt the other day [chuckles] on the LP show.

22. BGBen Gilbert4:32

    Super fun, yeah. [chuckles]

23. DRDavid Rosenthal4:34

    So fun. [chuckles]

24. PMPacky McCormick4:35

    You guys kind of look alike.

25. BGBen Gilbert4:36

    Uh, we've gotten that a few times.

26. DRDavid Rosenthal4:38

    [laughing]

27. BGBen Gilbert4:38

    I, uh, uh, since Joe is a professional Hollywood actor, I take that as a great, unbelievable compliment, so thank you, Packy.

28. DRDavid Rosenthal4:46

    Ben, you've g- you've got a future in, uh, in video.

29. BGBen Gilbert4:48

    [chuckles]

30. DRDavid Rosenthal4:49

    [chuckles] All right.

Episode duration: 3:05:50