Cold Call

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If and How to Scale the Acquired Podcast Feb 03, 2026

Show notes

Founded in 2015 by co-hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal as a hobby, the business podcast Acquired had become their full-time jobs by 2023, and they managed all aspects of the company. By telling in-depth stories of companies, the podcast had doubled its audience year over year, reaching one million listeners per episode. And they’d grown without a strict release schedule or relentless optimization.

Still, they felt pressure to scale. They took 2025 to evaluate the podcast’s success to date while determining if, and how, it should change its well-established and revenue-generating processes. Because maintaining the balance of work, life, and family they’d achieved was an important priority too.

How did they determine a way forward? They join Harvard Business School Professor Shane Greenstein and host Brian Kenny to discuss the case “The Acquired Podcast: Scaling the Mic.”

How Italian Luxury Brand Golden Goose Determined Its Next Phase of Growth Jan 20, 2026

Show notes

In 2025, Golden Goose, the Italian luxury brand known for its handcrafted, distressed sneakers, was at a turning point. Under CEO Silvio Campara, the company had grown from cult favorite to global player, with $650 million in revenue and a loyal following. What should drive its next phase of growth?

Should Golden Goose double down on its signature sneaker business, grow into a full lifestyle label with ready-to-wear and accessories, or expand into new international markets?

Harvard Business School Professor Juan Alcacer and entrepreneur Alexandre Daillance discuss their co-authored case, “Golden Goose: Reshaping Luxury,” with host Brian Kenny. They explore how the company has challenged fashion norms by embracing imperfection, co-creating with customers, and rethinking what it means to scale a luxury business.

How Equitable Confronted Its Inertia After 160 Years in Business Jan 06, 2026

Show notes

Equitable, a 163-year-old financial services firm, serves more than five million clients across three main lines of business: retirement planning, wealth management, and asset management. Spun out of French insurance giant AXA in a 2018 IPO, Equitable’s leadership team was excited to be out on its own but quickly realized that to overcome inertia and remain relevant, the company’s ways of working would need to change.
In 2019, CEO Mark Pearson launched an effort known internally as New Ways of Working, or NWOW, aimed at helping the firm become faster, more accountable, and more adaptive in a highly competitive and regulated industry. Several years in, the effort sheds light on core leadership questions: What does true cultural change look like? What makes it last? And how do leaders bring skeptics along? Harvard Business School Professor Das Narayandas joins Pearson and COO Jeff Hurd to discuss the case “New WOW at Equitable: A New Way of Working.”

Climate Rising: Extending Apparel Lifespan with ThredUp Dec 23, 2025

Show notes

With the holiday season upon us, and thrifting a major trend, we’re sharing an episode of Harvard Business School’s Climate Rising podcast that’s focused on extending product life, reducing waste, and the growing role of resale in the circular economy.

Climate Rising is all about what businesses are doing, can do, and should do to confront climate change. In this episode, “Extending Apparel Lifespan,” HBS Professor Mike Toffel talks to ThredUp CEO James Reinhart about why ThredUp chose to build a national logistics and technology platform for resale. They also talk about how the company partners with big brands to run their own resale channels and how AI and automation are reshaping the industry. It’s an insightful conversation for anyone interested in sustainability or circular business models.

Inside Coinbase’s Mission-First, Remote-First Bet Dec 09, 2025

Show notes

In 2020, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase made two bold organizational moves: going fully remote and banning political discussion at work. These decisions, aimed at reinforcing a mission-first culture, were supported by a written, codified approach to company values and a hiring philosophy designed to attract talent aligned with that mission. In this episode, Chief People Officer L.J. Brock joins case author and HBS professor Charles Wang and host Brian Kenny to discuss how Coinbase’s strategy, explored in the case “Mission First at Coinbase,” raises critical questions about focus, inclusion, and attracting top talent in a volatile industry.

BrandBastion Mixes AI and Human Judgment to Build Trust at Scale Nov 25, 2025

Show notes

Jenny Wolfram founded BrandBastion in 2013 after noticing that many companies’ social media pages were teeming with spam, hostile messages, and unanswered comments—all of which chipped away at customer trust. She built an AI-powered platform, supported by human moderation, to help brands manage comment sections at scale, respond quickly to customers, and protect their reputation.
Wolfram joins the company’s Head of Operations and Finance, Vesa Rikkinen, Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Julian De Freitas, and host Brian Kenny to discuss the HBS case “BrandBastion: Managing Online Brand Communities.” They explore key decisions brands face, including when to step in and respond to customers online, and how to make the case for investing in moderation.

Apollo Global Management’s Business Model Transformation Nov 11, 2025

Show notes

Apollo Global Management has transformed itself from a traditional private equity giant into an insurance-fueled credit powerhouse—thanks to its acquisition of life annuity issuer Athene. CEO Marc Rowan makes a bold bet that an asset-heavy model, which is backed by hundreds of billions in long-term insurance liabilities, can drive repeatable, superior returns and propel Apollo’s assets under management to $1.5 trillion. However, public markets award Apollo a multitude on its earnings that is far lower than asset-light peers like Blackstone, which highlights important trade-offs. Harvard Business School professor George Serafeim joins host Brian Kenny to discuss the questions raised by the case, Apollo Global Management, and explore what Apollo’s transformation reveals about business-model innovation and risk management in today’s rapidly evolving private markets ecosystem, and what it means to be a modern investment firm.

Inside India’s Energy Transition: Tata Power’s Net Zero Strategy Oct 28, 2025

Show notes

Tata Power stood at the forefront of India’s energy transition. The firm’s long history was deeply intertwined with the country’s development. As Mumbai’s power needs increased, Tata Power built out thermal assets across India, and while thermal power generation remained Tata Power’s mainstay, the firm slowly started diversifying. By 2024, Tata Power was India’s largest private power producer by installed capacity with annual revenues of $7.4 billion. In 2020, Tata Power boldly announced a commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050, concurrent with a complete phase-down of thermal capacity. It later brought this commitment forward to 2045.

To prepare for declining revenues from thermal power generation, it was actively expanding its renewable business, but stakeholders had concerns about Tata Power’s ambitions. Was the firm’s decision to sacrifice potentially high returns in thermal power generation financially imprudent, or did it position the firm well as India inevitably accelerated its energy transition?

In this episode, host Brian Kenny welcomes Harvard Business School Professor Vikram Gandhi and Tata Power CEO Praveer Sinha to discuss the case Tata Power and India’s Energy Transition, and how India’s largest private power producer is reimagining its future.

They explore how the legacy energy company should allocate capital between proven thermal assets and emerging renewable technologies, and what lessons the company’s journey offers for leaders navigating disruption, investor expectations, and the balance between profits and purpose.

Tim Ferriss at a Career Crossroads: How Should He Shape His Next Chapter? Oct 14, 2025

Show notes

In April 2024, writer, podcaster, and entrepreneur Tim Ferriss—known for his hugely popular podcast “The Tim Ferriss Show” and NYT-bestselling books like The 4-Hour Workweek—found himself at a crossroads. Although his podcast was generating millions annually, he questioned the sustainability of podcasting and his own competitive advantage given the increasingly saturated market and the advent of AI tools and video-centric formats. Plus, he had built his career on anticipating cultural shifts in knowledge work, health, and media consumption while making early angel investments in companies like Uber, Shopify, Facebook, and Twitter. But his podcast’s reliable cash flow also funded his science-focused foundation, so making any shifts would be very consequential.
He faced a difficult choice: innovate from within his proven format, pivot to entirely new ventures—possibly in film, premium consumer products, or venture capital—or risk a slow decline by maintaining the status quo. Complicating matters further was Ferriss’s desire to start a family, a goal he prioritized above all business ventures. Every month of indecision narrowed his window for successfully transitioning.

Senior Lecturer Reza Satchu and Tim Ferriss joined Cold Call host Brian Kenny to discuss the case, “Tim Ferriss: What Might This Look Like If It Were Easy?” in front of a live audience on October 7, 2025 in Harvard Business School’s Klarman Hall auditorium. Using “The Founder Mindset” framework from the course created by Satchu, they explore testing assumptions, calibrating risk, and how to choose the next path in the face of multiple options—which can often lead to inaction.

How Dollar Tree Plans to Thrive Despite Breaking the Buck Sep 30, 2025

Show notes

For 35 years, Dollar Tree, a discount retail chain selling general merchandise, had held its fixed price point steady, pricing all of its household items, food, stationery, books, seasonal items, gifts, toys, and clothing that made up its diverse and ever-changing assortment at $1.00. While all other dollar store chains had raised prices over the years to keep up with inflation, Dollar Tree had never budged on its price. However, in late 2021, the company announced that Dollar Tree was “breaking the buck” and raising prices on all goods to $1.25.
Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Jill Avery and host Brian Kenny discuss whether the retail chain could remain relevant to its price sensitive shoppers through smart marketing, pricing, and branding strategies in the case, “Dollar Tree: Breaking the Buck.”

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