Visa (Audio)

To paraphrase Visa founder Dee Hock, how many of you know Visa? Great, all of you. Now, how many of you know how it started? Or, for that matter, *who* started it? Who runs and governs it? Where is it headquartered? What’s its business model? For the 11th largest market cap company in the world, Visa’s history and strategy is almost shockingly unknown. A huge portion of the world’s population uses their products on a daily basis (you might say Visa is… everywhere people want to be), but very few know the amazing story behind how that came to be. Or why Visa continues to be one of the most incredible and incredibly durable business franchises of all-time. (50%+ net income margins!! On $30B of revenue!) Today we do our part to change that. Tune in for one heck of a journey. Sponsors: Thanks to our fantastic partners, any member of the Acquired community can now get: Free access to our episode research on Blinkist, plus our favorite books on Ben & David’s Bookshelf https://bit.ly/blinkistvisa https://bit.ly/BlinkistBookshelf Scalable, clean and low-cost cloud AI compute from Crusoe, and listen to our recent ACQ2 interview with CEO Chase Lochmiller https://bit.ly/acquiredcrusoe https://bit.ly/CrusoeACQ2 Your product growth powered by Statsig https://bit.ly/statsigacquired More Acquired!: Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes https://www.acquired.fm/email Join the Slack http://acquired.fm/slack Subscribe to ACQ2 https://pod.link/acquiredlp Check out the latest swag in the ACQ Merch Store https://www.acquired.fm/store! Links: Burger King rolling out credit cards in 1993 https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1703199359838679042?s=12 Get your BankAmericard MasterCard today! (!?) https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/bankamericard-credit-card/ Episode sources https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H35NSg6BnhtXQo6K78NPzWYSJcUv06YlCigMyOf0axA/edit?usp=sharing Carve Outs: I Think You Should Leave https://www.netflix.com/title/80986854 Mistborn https://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Final-Empire-Brandon-Sanderson/dp/0765377136 Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions. © Copyright ACQ, LLC