Short monologue arguing that established companies routinely buy growth (acquisitions) rather than relying solely on organic development. Speaker cites energy firms (Exxon, Shell, BP) and tech companies (Amazon, Apple) as examples—noting Apple bought Maps and Siri and has acquired over 120 companies—and claims buying scale can be faster and often cheaper than building it.
And they look at you like, well, if this works, why isn't everybody doing it? Not realizing that everybody is literally doing it? Like, right down the street from me, you have Exxon, Shell, bp. Right? Because I'm in the Energy City. All of them have a floor in their building of people dedicated to do what? Go and buy other companies. There's no such thing as this sort of unicorn growth thing thing. Even Amazon. Amazon started buying companies they didn't grow organically. Apple came out with the macintosh in, what, 1984. By 1988, they've already purchased a dozen companies. To date, it's over 120 companies. They didn't invent maps. They bought it. They didn't invent Siri, they bought it. So you identify the growth you want and then say, hey, if I'm going to scale, I'm going to buy the scale. Just go buy it. And when you figure out how the financial aspect of that purchase works, it's usually cheaper than starting one anyway.
