在这期Acquired节目中，Ben Gilbert和David Rosenthal在Stratechery成立10周年之际采访了其创始人Ben Thompson。他们深入探讨了Stratechery的历史、策略和发展历程，从最初“一个身在台湾、无法接触到信息的人”的简陋起点，到如今影响着科技行业最高层对话的强大平台。 采访一开始便回顾了Ben Thompson的早期经历，他建立了多个博客，并通过积累过往内容来建立信誉。Ben强调了内容创作的持续性和规律性对于订阅制业务的重要性。他认为，订阅者付费购买的是持续、高质量内容的承诺，而不仅仅是单独的文章或节目。这种方法让创作者可以预先获得资金，而不是通过微交易或广告进行投机性竞标。 Ben分享了他在微软和苹果公司的工作经历，以及这些经历如何影响了他对公司文化和战略的理解。他指出，文化可以成为强大的协调工具，但当公司需要改变方向时，也会成为一种约束。他透露了他最初创办Stratechery的动机，源于他渴望分析战略与技术的交叉点，他认为这是市场上的一个空白。他讨论了他决定采用订阅模式的决策，灵感来自于John Gruber的Daring Fireball，并且得益于Stripe的出现，同时也考虑到进入一个规模有限的赞助帖子广告市场。 对话转向了Stratechery的早期阶段，包括最初网站遇到的困难，通过电子邮件传递内容的决定，以及最终John Gruber链接到该网站时的突破，这极大地增加了流量和知名度。Ben解释了他通过订阅和建立忠实受众来实现用户收入最大化的策略。他还强调了建立强大品牌和在人群中脱颖而出的重要性，并批评了Substack缺乏视觉独特性。 Ben指出了依赖社交媒体进行增长的局限性，特别是Twitter上链接的自然触达率下降。他讨论了他扩展到播客领域的决定，他认为这是Stratechery让内容尽可能易于访问的使命的自然延伸。他承认播客可能减缓了订阅用户的增长，但对客户流失管理有益。Ben解释了他将Stratechery与Dithering和Sharp Tech等其他播客捆绑销售的策略，以增加订阅的价值。 对话转向了聚合理论，这是Ben Thompson开发的一种商业框架。他反思了撰写关于聚合理论书籍的时机，并承认他的分析存在过时的可能性。他分享了他对Meta的看法，认为尽管面临苹果隐私政策变化和元宇宙计划带来的挑战，该公司总体上走在正确的道路上。Ben还提供了他对台积电和亚马逊战略的见解。 最后，Ben重申了他通过互联网创造经济机会的热情，并表达了对Stratechery的成功以及它给予他的自由的感激之情。他承认未来会面临挑战，但他希望下一个十年能够带来更大更好的成就。

In this episode of Acquired, Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal interview Ben Thompson, the founder of Stratechery, on the eve of its 10-year anniversary. They delve into the history, strategy, and evolution of Stratechery, from its humble beginnings as "some guy in Taiwan with no access" to a powerhouse influencing the technology industry's conversations at the highest levels. The interview starts by acknowledging Ben Thompson's early beginnings, starting multiple blogs, building a back catalog to establish credibility. Ben emphasizes the importance of consistency and regularity in content creation for subscription-based businesses. He believes that subscribers are paying for the promise of consistent, high-quality content, not just individual articles or episodes. This approach allows creators to fund their work upfront, rather than speculatively bidding for money through microtransactions or advertising. Ben shares his experience working at Microsoft and Apple, and how it influenced his understanding of company culture and strategy. He notes that culture can be a powerful tool for coordination, but also a constraint when companies need to change direction. He reveals his initial motivations for starting Stratechery, driven by a desire to analyze the intersection of strategy and technology, a gap he perceived in the market. He discusses his decision to pursue a subscription-based model, inspired by John Gruber's Daring Fireball and made possible by the emergence of Stripe, but also feeling there was an unscalable sponsored-post advertising market to get into. The conversation moves to the early days of Stratechery, including the initial struggles with the website, the decision to deliver content via email, and the eventual breakthrough when John Gruber linked to the site, which dramatically increased traffic and awareness. Ben explains his strategy of maximizing revenue per user through subscriptions and building a loyal audience. He also stresses the importance of building a strong brand and standing out from the crowd, criticizing Substack's lack of visual distinctiveness. Ben addresses the limitations of relying on social media for growth, particularly the decline in the organic reach of links on Twitter. He discusses his decision to expand into podcasting, which he sees as a natural extension of Stratechery's mission to make content as accessible as possible. He acknowledges that podcasting may have slowed down subscriber growth but has been beneficial for churn management. Ben explains his strategy of bundling Stratechery with other podcasts, such as Dithering and Sharp Tech, to increase the value of a subscription. The conversation shifts to aggregation theory, a business framework developed by Ben Thompson. He reflects on the timing of writing a book on aggregation theory and acknowledges the potential for his analysis to become outdated. He shares his views on Meta, arguing that the company is broadly on the right track, despite the challenges posed by Apple's privacy changes and the metaverse initiatives. Ben offers his insights into the strategies of TSMC and Amazon. Ben concludes by reiterating his passion for creating economic opportunities through the internet and expressed his gratitude for the success of Stratechery and the freedom it has given him. He acknowledged there would be challenges, but was hopeful that the next decade would lead to bigger and better things.