Conflicts of interest aside, it sounds like a poor use of time for most startups, who are presumably building something and would want to be targeted with their marketing; I'd expect only a small number to have a good potential customer base in the podcast set.<p>There way be like a lifestyle/influencer founder angle for certain people that could get you the attention of similarly minded VCs, personally I think thats a lame strategy.
I'm running a startup. We certainly do NOT need a podcast - we have a physical product, and since we're only 2 people, we don't have the time to produce a podcast, let alone the time to do a podcast <i>well</i>. We have a product to make, and customers to make it for. We're not even in tech - so there's very little content that I can utilize for more than one episode, or more than 20 minutes. I can tell my story, the company's value-prop, where we're at, and where we want to be in about 5 minutes tops. Probably less now that I think about it.<p>Honestly, I don't get why everyone is hopping on the podcast bandwagon. It makes no sense - just because someone has something interesting to say once doesn't mean they have something interesting to say every week going forward, especially if they aren't someone with a wealth of experience over multiple decades.<p>One of my neighbors produces a podcast for fun, and it's admittedly low budget and not his primary focus, he just enjoys it. I went on once to talk about my experience in AI, and I realized that I'm incredibly awkward on camera and can't often speak clearly enough to get a point across efficiently, so going on once and seeing myself fumble around spectacularly was definitely a learning experience, and probably good for me.<p>What freaked me out, though, is how people reacted to it. The episode probably had 20-30 views on YT or whatever platform he posted it on, but some of the responses, (both written and short-form video) were outright disgusting. This got me thinking - why do people care so much about what 2 random people are talking about, especially when those 2 people have no deep expertise on such a subject? Do people have nothing better to do with their time? Do people not have the ability to discern between a low-budget setup with 2 guys just talking about their experience versus someone who has spent decades in a particular industry or sector? And if they do, why react so strongly?<p>Seeking "engagement" is cancerous.
I appreciate this idea. Podcasts have the unique quality of allowing your company culture to subtly permeate the airwaves on which they're consumed. I listen to above/board by Paul Jarvis and Jack Ellis who are building Fathom Analytics. Besides discussing the business behind the product and the technical challenges, I can sense how much it means to them to bootstrap an independent business and to be a real alternative to the Google products we all loathe. This is the kind of information you can't reliably communicate through landing page copy. The human voice has subtlety no marketing text could or should ever want to express.<p>If this is a window into the soul of a business, then it's a competitive advantage in a world of brands eager to be perceived as authentic. There's still lots of room for manipulation, but it becomes harder to fake when you're recording a show.
Wow. Every comment so far here disagrees with the idea that startups should have podcasts.<p>I don't think every startup needs a podcast, but my startup has a podcast and actually it's been great for us. Many people in our industry actually recognise us as the people who do The Reinsurance Podcast rather than the people who write the reinsurance software.<p>Our podcast has definitely helped establish us as an authority in the reinsurance industry. I believe our podcast was actually the #1 podcast in Bermuda at one point.
I'm skeptical of the audience for such a podcast. Also, seems like it would require a lot of time that could be used to focus on the actual business. Sure, maybe you could assign someone in marketing to run it, but even then I would make sure it didn't take up too much of that person's time. And for startups with low headcounts, I'm not sure there is such a "marketing" person.
we're just two bootstrapped cofounders and my cofounder has been doing a lot of user interviews to understand our potential customers' needs and improve our product [1]<p>we soon realized these interviews had a lot of gold nuggets which we had to share with the world, so we started publishing these on youtube [2]<p>since then it's naturally evolved into a podcast series and we think this initiative actually made a big difference for us. ymmv<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7077280355241594880" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7077280...</a><p>[2]: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@algora-io">https://www.youtube.com/@algora-io</a>
The major (and only?) claim the author has in favor of starting a podcast is that listeners jump in to share free consultation.<p>I don't know. It doesn't seem like a good reason to start a podcast. But if you have the time and motivation to do a podcast, and make it a good podcast for your listeners, I guess it could be a nice side effect.<p>The better way to go at it would be to note down the problems beforehand, find an expert and plan an episode around them.