Acquisition

172 episodes | 57% corpus coverage

The process of bringing new users into a product's ecosystem through various marketing and organic channels.

Keywords: acquisition, channels, cac, paid marketing

Contents

Deep Dive

Metaphysical Synthesis & Analysis

The Synthesis

Acquisition is the practice of bringing new users into the product. Brian Balfour distinguishes between channels (paid, organic, viral) and the importance of channel-product fit. For PMs, the critical insight is that acquisition without Retention creates a leaky bucket. The best acquisition strategies are those where the product itself drives growth through network effects or viral mechanics.

Metaphysical Foundation

Acquisition is the top of the funnel—the mechanism by which potential users become actual users. It is necessary but not sufficient for growth.

Evolutionary Path

From spray-and-pray advertising to targeted performance marketing to product-led growth, acquisition has become more measurable and product-integrated.

Strategic Interplays

Acquisition feeds Activation and ultimately Retention. It is optimized through Ab Testing and measured via CAC and LTV.

Key Episodes

Brian Chesky

Brian Chesky’s new playbook

1:13:28

Shreyas Doshi

The art of product management | Shreyas Doshi (Stripe, Twitter, Google, Yahoo)

1:31:22

Ray Cao

Product management theater | Marty Cagan (Silicon Valley Product Group)

1:25:15

Dylan Field

Figma’s CEO: Why AI makes design, craft, and quality the new moat for startups |...

1:26:50

Roger Martin

5 essential questions to craft a winning strategy | Roger Martin (author, adviso...

1:22:03

Ethan Smith

The ultimate guide to AEO: How to get ChatGPT to recommend your product | Ethan ...

1:11:56

Elena Verna

10 growth tactics that never work | Elena Verna (Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, Surve...

1:35:10

Mihika Kapoor

Vision, conviction, and hype: How to build 0 to 1 inside a company | Mihika Kapo...

1:40:41

Bret Taylor

He saved OpenAI, invented the “Like” button, and built Google Maps: Bret Taylor ...

1:28:58

Eli Schwartz

Rethinking SEO in the age of AI | Eli Schwartz (SEO advisor, author)

1:55:10

Hamel Husain & Shreya Shankar

Why AI evals are the hottest new skill for product builders | Hamel Husain & Shr...

1:46:33

Hamel+Shreya

Why AI evals are the hottest new skill for product builders | Hamel Husain & Shr...

1:46:33

Brandon Chu

AI prompt engineering in 2025: What works and what doesn’t | Sander Schulhoff

1:37:47

Manik Gupta

Becoming more strategic, navigating difficult colleagues, founder mode, more | A...

1:08:37

Todd Jackson

A framework for finding product-market fit | Todd Jackson (First Round Capital)

1:27:13

Jen Abel

The ultimate guide to founder-led sales | Jen Abel (co-founder of JJELLYFISH)

1:16:05

Nikhyl Singhal

Building a long and meaningful career | Nikhyl Singhal (Meta, Google)

1:25:51

Dharmesh Shah

Zigging vs. zagging: How HubSpot built a $30B company | Dharmesh Shah (co-founde...

1:41:44

Ronny Kohavi

The ultimate guide to A/B testing | Ronny Kohavi (Airbnb, Microsoft, Amazon)

1:23:08

Merci Grace

How to work through fear, give hard feedback, and doing layoffs with grace | Mat...

1:11:08