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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteBen Gilbert planned to move from managing director and general partner to venture partner at Pioneer Square Labs (PSL) on January 1, 2024, making more room for Acquired, the company-history podcast he co-hosts with David Rosenthal. The change did not mean leaving PSL: Gilbert said he would continue serving on portfolio-company boards and helping source talent and companies in Seattle’s startup ecosystem.
Why Gilbert changed roles at PSL
In a November 7, 2023 report, GeekWire described Gilbert’s decision as a response to the demands of holding two substantial roles at once. “At some point earlier this year, I became certain that two extremely demanding jobs was going to be too many,” he told the publication.
Gilbert said he wanted to devote more attention to Acquired. He called it “one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that you just have to pursue.” He also said the work involved in producing the show was making it difficult to do his best work as a general partner.
What the venture partner role meant
The announced transition changed Gilbert’s emphasis, not his connection to PSL. He was to step away from the managing director and general partner role while retaining specific ways to contribute to the firm and its portfolio.
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- Continue serving on boards of PSL portfolio companies.
- Help find talent and companies in Seattle’s startup ecosystem.
PSL co-founder and managing director Greg Gottesman welcomed the arrangement, saying, “It is in our DNA here at PSL to work with obsessed founders.” The available announcement describes the planned role and duties; it does not establish Gilbert’s current status at PSL beyond that announcement.
Why Acquired demanded so much time
Acquired is a long-form podcast about companies and their strategies. GeekWire’s November 2023 account said episodes typically ran three to four hours. For deep dives such as Nike and Costco, Gilbert and Rosenthal each spent about 100 hours a month researching, plus roughly 20 hours listening to and editing an episode. These are the figures GeekWire reported at the time, not a current measurement or a standard workload for every episode.
Gilbert described the practical overlap between the show and his work with founders: “There’s no doubt that I’m able to help founders think through issues where I can say, ‘Hey, I’ve just done 100 hours of research on a company that had a similar problem in the past and here’s how they solved it.” He was illustrating how a particular research effort could inform a founder conversation, not describing a standardized investment service.
How Acquired describes its work now
Acquired’s own pages, accessed October 7, 2026, describe a production process built around deeply researched company histories. Its About page calls the show a “conversational audiobook,” describes episodes as four-hour deep dives, and displays the publisher’s claims of “10 years. 220 episodes. Over a million listeners.” The page’s text includes “may 2025”; those figures are Acquired’s own statements, not independently audited audience measurements.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →On its Press page, Acquired says episodes take over 200 hours to research and that it releases roughly eight episodes a year. Those are also the show’s own descriptions, accessed October 7, 2026. They should not be treated as directly comparable to GeekWire’s 2023 estimates, which describe time spent by each host on cited deep dives and editing.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the 2023 audience figures show—and what they do not
GeekWire reported in November 2023 that Acquired had more than 450,000 monthly listeners and ranked No. 1 in technology shows on Apple Podcasts and Spotify at that time. These are dated figures from the report, not a statement of the podcast’s current audience or chart position. Acquired’s later About-page audience claim uses different wording and appears on a publisher-controlled page, so the two figures should not be read as a like-for-like trend.
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