ACQ2 by Acquired Undoing a $5 Billion Acquisition and Building a Durable Standalone Plaid (with Plaid CEO Zach Perret)
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May 27, 2025 
In this engaging discussion, Zach Perret, CEO of Plaid and co-founder of the fintech powerhouse, shares his insights on navigating tumultuous market conditions and the company's near $5 billion acquisition by Visa. He reveals how Plaid dodged a bullet, pivoted to diversify its offerings amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and expanded into fraud detection and alternative credit systems. Zach emphasizes the transformation of Plaid into a robust financial services player and the critical role of adaptability in the evolving fintech landscape.
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Emotional Visa Acquisition Announcement
- The Visa acquisition announcement caused a surge of emotions including anger, joy, and tears among Plaid's team.
- CEO Zach Perret recalls it as one of the hardest all-hands meetings he ever conducted due to the emotional complexity.
Walking Away From Visa Deal
- Plaid decided to walk away from the $5.3B Visa acquisition after DOJ sued to block it, understanding it would delay closing by two years.
- CEO Zach Perret calls this the hardest all-hands meeting, where he had to break the news to employees who expected a payout.
Building API Without APIs
- Plaid identified early on that consumers own their financial data and must be able to permission it despite banks lacking APIs.
- They built screen scrapers to access data outside banks' infrastructure, facilitating fintech app growth before API adoption.
