Acquired Episode 17: Waze
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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

**Sponsors:**Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24)Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta)Crusoe: https://bit.ly/acquiredcrusoe)

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!