Acquired
Episode 9: Writely (Google Docs)
Every company has a story.
Learn the playbooks that built the world’s greatest companies — and how you can apply them.
Show Notes
Ben and David continue the cloud productivity saga with Google Docs. They examine the suite of acquisitions made by Google with a focus on Writely in 2006. They tackle:
The nuts and bolts of the Upstartle (company behind Writely) acquisition, founded by Sam Schillace, Steve Newman and Claudia Carpenter.
SaaS offerings in cloud productivity today.
Was this a good idea for Google?
Google's future bets.
A new section: The Carve Out!
Sponsors:
WorkOS: https://bit.ly/workos25
Intapp: https://bit.ly/intappceleste
Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry
Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25
More Acquired!
Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
Join the Slack
Subscribe to ACQ2
Merch Store!
© Copyright 2015-2026 ACQ, LLC
This episode is not processed yet. Sign in to queue the transcript and make it useful for search and Q&A.
Sign in to queue transcript (1 credit)
Free to start
Skim the episode first,
Skim the episode first,
then decide if it is worth listening.
Sign up with Google in one click. 10 transcript credits included. No card needed.
Google sign-in · No credit card · 10 free transcript credits