We’re joined by the legendary Nolan Bushnell, founder not only of Atari, but also the only person ever to hire Steve Jobs, the recipient of Sequoia Capital’s first-ever investment, and the creator of Chuck E. Cheese, the canonical GPS navigation arrow, and a little project that would go on to become Pixar. We cover it all in this special episode!Sponsors:<ul><li>WorkOS: <a href="https://bit.ly/workos25">https://bit.ly/workos25</a></li><li>Intapp: <a href="https://bit.ly/intappceleste">https://bit.ly/intappceleste</a></li><li>Sentry: <a href="https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry">https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry</a></li><li>Anthropic: <a href="https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25">https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25</a></li></ul> More Acquired!<ul><li><a href="https://www.acquired.fm/email">Get email updates</a> with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes</li><li><a href="http://acquired.fm/slack">Join the Slack</a></li><li><a href="https://pod.link/acquiredlp">Subscribe to ACQ2</a></li><li><a href="https://www.acquired.fm/store">Merch Store</a>!</li></ul>© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC Links:<ul><li>Spacewar!, the first video game: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar!">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar!</a> </li><li>The meaning of Atari: <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/atari">https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/atari</a></li><li>Nolan’s current project, St. Noire: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/St-Noire-Hosted-Cinematic-Exclusive/dp/B07P693BG1"> https://www.amazon.com/St-Noire-Hosted-Cinematic-Exclusive/dp/B07P693BG1</a></li></ul>

The WeWork “Acquisition” (with Dan Primack)

Every company has a story.

Learn the playbooks that built the world’s greatest companies — and how you can apply them.