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I really enjoyed the depth that Startup Podcast/Gimlet Media went with Dating Ring. In my opinion, there's a lot of great content you can cover in an hour but it's hard to cover new content given how many other podcasts there are.
I get it, this is VC content marketing after all, you need people to believe that applying to YC, taking funding and going the VC route is the smart move for their company. However, if you can't find a way to break the monotony I can't imagine lots of people sticking with it.
General ideas: - If you want to tell stories, I like the idea that someone else mentioned, going multi-episode deep with a single company.
- If you want to be useful, things like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHzvmyMJEK4 are super valuable. YC would be nice, but I was going to start a company regardless. Learning what YC could or would do for me if I got in isn't valuable. Learning stuff that I can and probably should do with or without YC is super useful (which engenders me to like your brand).
- Have founders talk about tactics which helped them or consider a tactical episode once every N weeks? Amongst startup podcasts there's a lot of theory (platitudes?), "build something people want", "work harder", "software is eating the world" which is good and has it's place but there's a glut of it in the podcast/startup world. While chatting with YC partners after Startup School this year, the tactical advice was the stuff that stuck with me. I heard multiple tactical ideas repeated several times, things like "Get a phone number if possible, it's much better than email. Early founders under estimate phone calls." or "If you do cold email, you need to be sending 100 emails a day." and each time it was said, the group of people listening was surprised.
- 1:1, Qasar gives some of the most brutal but realistic responses to business ideas and whether or not they can be scaled quickly. I think he'd be a fun guest.
Craig, I really enjoyed the podcast, I am actually working my way through all of the old episodes during my commute. I would really like to hear from founders that are still running the business and are still profitable. Something like how posts on indiehackers.com but with more detail would be interesting.
In case it wasn't clear in the post, we aren't going to only interview people affiliated with YC. So feel free to suggest people/projects that come to mind.
I'd like to hear from Founders who have very interesting stories and journeys to share. I do not care if their products got traction,flopped or big hit. All I want to get is how can we as listeners can learn from their success or failures. Thanks for doing this.
I'd love to hear "office hour"-style stuff. Somebody who's having a problem, you work on solving it together, then maybe in a month you do a retro on how it worked. Might be cool to wait enough time that the episode has a "before and after" in the same episode.
Cool. We can definitely do that. Any particular size or type of company that interests you?
But to be specific - I think that small companies in make-or-break times would be most interesting. Also, everything looks easier in retrospect, but understanding the thought process and how they are balancing different options would be interesting to me.
Hey Craig, I love podcasts, and as a matter of fact host one myself called Veni Vidi VC. Despite the shameless plug, I would love to hear from successful YC founders who have had exits. The entire process is fascinating to me, including: - building a company - raising funds, and - making it ready to be absorbed as part of a corporation or better yet, becoming a public company Infact, all founders from every startup i…
K. Can you be more specific? Is it the post-exit stuff that's most interesting? Personally, I want to avoid telling stories that have already been widely documented.
Also would love to hear about YC projects that are not that famous - OpenAI, Smart Cities project, etc.
Editas Medicine (http://www.editasmedicine.com/).
Or people from similar companies. Gene editing startups, essentially.
I listened to all of the previous episodes and enjoyed the podcast. I'm glad you're getting it started back up. My only negative feedback would be that by the end it felt similar to what investors say about demo day. All of the companies stores were packaged up with a bow on them to the point that basically every story was the same by the end of the episode. I get it, this is VC content marketing after all, you need…
Re: tactics. Maybe we just choose one particular topic per tactics episode and drill down on relevant strategies?
I guess we can include Qasar ;)
I'd love to hear "office hour"-style stuff. Somebody who's having a problem, you work on solving it together, then maybe in a month you do a retro on how it worked. Might be cool to wait enough time that the episode has a "before and after" in the same episode.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cool. We can definitely do that. Any particular size or type of company that interests you?
I think the thing I'm looking for is relatability. There are many podcasts that idolize startups and founder life. The Dating Ring's podcast did the opposite and showed vulnerability. To me, that's why it was an interesting learning experience. But to be specific - I think that small companies in make-or-break times would be most interesting. Also, everything looks easier in retrospect, but understanding the thought…