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40 Comments

Who's running a podcast for founders?

UPDATE: So many great responses! I'm going to pick just a few people to start with and reach out over email, and then come back to this post and look through the comments again in another couple weeks. Thanks everyone!


I'm thinking about starting an Indie Hackers podcast network.

The idea would be that, if you run an eligible* podcast, I'd help promote your show by…

  • featuring your show and new episodes on the IH website
  • adding your best episodes to the main IH feed from time to time, with an add to go subscribe to your main show
  • tweets and retweets
  • including write-ups about your best episodes in the IH newsletter
  • etc.

It'd also be nice to have a regular (weekly or biweekly) Zoom call where we talk about our shows, hold each other accountable to releasing, and share tips and advice.

What's the catch?

In return, I'd want…

  • some light IH branding somewhere, e.g. in the footer of your website, or a mention in your podcast description, and/or an occasional mention of IH in your episodes, whatever you're most comfortable with
  • login access to your podcast host so I can see your download numbers
  • at some point I might ask you to give IH or Stripe a shout out during an episode (but it's unlikely this will happen any time soon, if ever)

I don't want to split your ad revenue, you can keep all of it. So it should be a pretty good deal! And this would be an at-will thing, so if you ever want to walk away, feel free.

If you're interested or you know someone who'd be a good candidate, let me know below! I'll probably just pick a small handful of people to try this with initially.

Who should apply?

My ideal criteria are…

  • You're already producing a show and have at least 3 episodes I can listen to.
  • You're consistent and in this for the long haul.
  • Your show is somehow unique. I don't want a clone of the IH podcast.
  • Your target audience has a lot of overlap with indie hackers.

In particular, I'd really love to see shows that focus on "what's new," shows with multiple hosts who have good rapport, shows with a female host or two, shows that release 2x/week or more, and shows that feature really strong and opinionated personalities.

But even if you check none of these boxes, apply if you're interested!

  1. 9

    Hey Courtland! I think I'd be a perfect fit for what you're building. I run the Newsletter Crew podcast (https://newslettercrew.com/). I interview newsletter creators and dig deep into how they build, run, grow, and monetize their newsletters. The main goal is to help other newsletter creators with their newsletter businesses. I've interviewed a ton of IndieHackers already including @cbartlett @rosiesherry @frankmeeuwsen @louisswiss @JensLennartsson @brandonthezhang @kintulabs @StefanAllDay @AndrewKamphey @talktohenryj @FalakDigital @elijahmurray and many more!

    I've started doing more community podcasts recently where I get members from the Newsletter Crew community to talk about hot newsletter topics. This week we spoke about if we're in a newsletter bubble. You can find that episode here: https://newslettercrew.com/podcast/ep18-are-we-in-a-newsletter-bubble-with-the-newsletter-crew-community/

    A few other amazing episodes:

    I been running the podcast for over 4 months now and I have an 8 episode backlog too. I have no plans to stop and am in this for the long term. I've also been seeing consistent growth week-over-week.

    Would love to be apart of this!

  2. 9

    Cool Idea! We are interested. @benmann and I run productjourney.fm. We record every week and are 54 episodes in! We definitely have a lot of founders and Indiehackers who listen to us.

    1. 3

      Great podcast!

      Confirmed IH listener and guest :)

  3. 6

    Courtland,
    I run a podcast with @mjwhansen called Software Social. We'd love to join your podcast network! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/software-social/id1525935926
    Our podcast is a casual discussion about business, lightly tackling a new theme each week based on personal experiences. We are unique because Michele runs a very successful SAAS and I'm just trying to get my product off the ground. I think our empathy for multiple stages of the process (idea generation all the way up to running a profitable business) will resonate with the IH audience. We're 10 episodes in, and definitely in for the long haul!

    1. 2

      Amazing podcast! I’m constantly looking forward to new episodes each week. Highly recommend this for all IHers.

  4. 6

    Hey Courtland, I'd love to join the podcast network! @ricklindquist and put out an episode of Startup To Last (https://www.startuptolast.com/) each week.

    1. 3

      Another podcast I listen to :)

      Very interesting and definitely opinionated.

      They need more listeners so they can do more QA podcasts.

    2. 1

      We're also pretty transparent with our metrics and learnings on our Indie Hacker Startup to Last product page.

  5. 5

    Definitely interested! @cspags and I host defaultalive.fm

    There also a whole bunch who could possibly be interested on this list (which I'm sure you're already aware of): https://transistor.fm/podcasts-for-bootstrappers/

    1. 3

      3rd episode will be available tomorrow! :)

  6. 4

    I love the idea @csallen.

    -We've been producing Run With It for over a year and have released nearly 60 episodes. We publish weekly and may move to bi-weekly soon. Yes, we’re committed and in it for the long haul!

    -A big strength of ours is the unique idea: It's kind of like Shark Tank in reverse...

    We interview proven founders who share a business idea with our listeners that the listeners are invited to pursue. We share action steps on how to get started and even offer a mentorship call with our guests to listeners that take serious action. We have gotten great guests from very early on. Our guests repeatedly say they love the format.

    -We have had several Indie Hackers guests on our show including: @DavidHauser, Chad Pytel, @garrettdimon, @mattverlaque, @louisswiss, @dmitryprdude and @czue (Cory actually let us know about this post and suggested we connect with you :) Our audience is primarily early-stage entrepreneurs or those ready to get started.

    -Some of our favorite recent episodes to check out:

    Audio-Driven Workouts with Colin McIntosh

    Performance Review Software (for Remote Teams) with Cory Zue

    Lesson Plans as a Product with Rob Fitzpatrick

    We have two hosts, myself and @chrisjustin. We are both successful independent entrepreneurs. We're committed to continuous improvement with the podcast. We just brought on the podcast producer for Mixergy a few months ago who actually found us through a post on Indie Hackers.

    With regards to the regular Zoom call we are totally up for that. I have created something similar that's been going on regularly (Business Podcast Mastermind). We have begun inviting speakers to talk about how to grow listenership, revenue opportunities, etc. We have started to stream the Zoom call on FB and YouTube and have invited outside audience participants. Members of that group include Henry Lopez of the How of Business Podcast (50K downloads/month) and Rob Greenlee (Veteran podcster, VP of Content and Partnerships at Libsyn, Chair of the Podcast Academy) I'm happy to discuss merging that group with whatever you have in mind. It could be a nice synergy.

  7. 3

    Hello Courtland,

    Nice initiative. I would like to check if my show is eligible. I'm still noob at this. I'm recording casual chats with indie hackers and putting it on YouTube. It's available also as an audio only version on all major podcast platforms.

    The thing I wanted to make different is to bring the actual faces to the audience. Hence the video format. Not twitter handles or corporate profile pictures. I think it creates a better feelings about the guest. Other thing is that I also talk in those episodes. Heck, I even get suggestions that other podcasts are letting guests talk more so I should start too, but I didn't want to make yet another podcast interview with plain questions and letting my guest to do all the talk. I want to give my opinions, no matter how amateur they are.

    I've already mentioned IH in few episodes voluntarily, because I'm really recommending it. My guests are, so far, from IH (Arvid Kahl, John Saddington, Andrew Kamphey, Krupali Patel, Pete from No CS Degree, Lena Sesardic, Danny Postma, Alex West) and we talk about things that overlaps with IH audience. Only 5 episodes are released, next 3 are recorded. It's released every Friday

    You can take a look at my YT channel
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMgspYM8ZN0FGtF8Kd7TwLQ

    or a podcast on anchor fm
    https://anchor.fm/bruno-talks-with

    I'm definitely new into all of this, maybe doing some things wrong, but would definitely like to participate. Especially being part of those closed group to learn from each other.

  8. 3

    Hey. Although I don't (currently) publish a podcast, would love to included as I'm looking for ways to move PodHunt forward in the industry and I think I could get some great insight as to what's needed.

    Anyhow, if you'll have me, I'd be honored to be included!

    1. 2

      Hey @mubashariqbal I just saw PodHunt and the service looks quite amazing.
      I would love to discuss more about it and see how we could collaborate with the new service I started (https://speakhub.io / https://app.speakhub.io)
      The goal of both services is similar: an attempt to solve podcast-discovery. Let me know if you are up for a chat and we can set something up. Cheers!

      1. 1

        For sure!

        Send me a DM on Twitter or my email is in my profile page.

  9. 2

    Hey Allen, I've recently launched a podcast (6 published episodes so far).

    Unique: I interivew founders, CEOs and CTOs, mostly in the mobile app space. The first 6 episodes include people from Speechify, Tattoodo, Revolut, etc.

    Consistent & long haul: As this is only a side-project for me, I will publish an episode once a month.

    Audience: Most of my audience is

    • US / Canada
    • 83% male
    • 35% 23 - 27 year old, 29% 28 - 34 year old
    • interested in tech, startups and IH of course :D

    My knowledge: I'm the CMO at Reflectly (top 10 iOS Health & Fitness app in the US) and author of 2 best-selling courses about marketing on Udemy.

    https://anchor.fm/dariusmora

  10. 2

    Awesome comments content creators! Man, it'd be sick to build a podcast streaming network on web3 tech e.g. IPFS and monetize natively with crypto.

  11. 2

    Hey Courtland, amazing idea.

    We are currently running a weekly podcast known as SaaS Council Podcast (powered by https://pitchground.com) where we talk about the nitty-gritty about SaaS industry and the most common problems that we see:
    https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/saas-council-podcast/id1529117923

    It's a weekly show, so we upload an episode a week. However, very soon, we will be pushing 2-episodes a week and, will be scaling up from there.

  12. 2

    Hey Courtland,
    I host a podcast where I interview the world’s most brilliant and interesting startup founders and investors.
    https://samkamani.buzzsprout.com/
    The only thing is that I am extremely picky about the guests I select for my podcast.
    Please let me know if you are interested.
    Cheers
    Sam

    1. 1

      Sent connect request on FB

      1. 1

        Awesome, I also connected with you on LinkedIn

  13. 1

    Hey Courtland. I think the podcast that I'm a cohost for might be worth considering. The show is called The Process is Black and White (https://www.theprocessisblackandwhite.com/). The show is mostly a weekly update show (ala Art Of Product) but we think that we have a cool niche and format.

    My cohost and I are both trying to move from Wantrepenuer to Entrepenuer. Me, in the SaaS space (following the stair step approach) and my cohost aspires to build a community market. Each week we read some chapters of a book (not always business but it is fairly often) and reflect on the reading along with our updates. The last Tuesday of the month, we bring in another entrepreneur to the chat.

    We started the show as a direct response to this summers BLM protests as we felt it was important that folks from the white and black entrepreneurial communites learn from each other and share information. We feared that the storeis some black businesses aren't being told in real time, the way that many IndieHacker types are. A lot of the 'Here's how to build a SaaS business' information applies to someone starting a VC backed firms, or landscaping businesses.

    We'd obviously love to be considered, but we'd be thrilled to have you as a guest as well. Thanks for all you do!

  14. 1

    Hey Courtland, would be great to join the podcast network!

    I run https://www.pulsiondigital.com/podcast/ a digital marketing podcast focused in founders and entrepreneurs. But it's in spanish :)

  15. 1

    I've got a couple to submit.

    The first is a weekly masterminding & discussion show I do with @justinvincent. It's called Reactor and this is probably the best episode so far: https://reactor.am/podcasts/16

    The second is my own called Code and Bootstrapping. I update it in bursts. The best episodes so far are the interview with @arvidkahl and my solo episode on automation.

    Both of these podcasts are on my IH profile and both regularly mention IH.

  16. 1

    Sign me up. I host the Beyond Normal Podcast, highlighting minority owned businesses and founders. The conversations allow them to bring awareness entrepreneur journey while giving perspective to listeners thinking about starting their own business.

    https://beyondnormal.buzzsprout.com/

  17. 1

    Founders podcast by @DavidSenra is a must listen for me. He reads a biography every week of different (primarily historical) founders.

  18. 1

    Hi @csallen! That sounds very cool and I'd love to be part of the Indie Hackers podcast network with my Podcast "Leap Takers": https://www.leaptakers.com/

    I interview up-and-coming entrepreneurs, makers, & investors in European Tech. Every episode retraces the journey of a featured guest, with the goal to uncover the origin story of their projects, and to extract advice , resources & tips for (aspiring) entrepreneurs, makers, and anyone that wants to "take the leap" in their life.

    • 19 episode are published so far (I started in June 2019)
    • I produce one episode / month. Avg. length of 40min.
    • Past guests included Anne-Laure Le Cunff (@anthilemoon) of Ness Labs, Gonz Sanchez of Seedtable, Holger Seim of Blinkist.

    This sounds like a great initiative and I'd be also very curious to exchange with fellow podcasters in regular Zoom calls. Light IH branding and/or shout outs are also no problem.

    Sorry I'm 1 day late to this, but would still be great to be part of this :)

  19. 1

    Cool Initiative Courtland! I created a speakhub (https://app.speakhub.io) for listeners to discover independent creators and niche audio content.

    The goal of speakhub is to increase audio content listening from all the amazing creators out there who are often overlooked by spotify, google, apple podcasts (which tend to be focused on the top 200 or so). In future, speakhub also wants to create a revenue model for podcasters which is not ad-dependent (but subscription driven).

    For podcasters: Your content is served unmodified from your RSS feeds (including all the ads you may have). All stats about listens are reported by the stats system set up on your podcast host.

    I think with the IH podcast network, your goals are very well aligned with speakhub's vision. I would love to discuss more and find ways to collaborate in this effort.
    In the meantime, feel free to take a look at the platform here https://app.speakhub.io (Its a web-app with native integration to google home)
    Cheers and looking forward!

  20. 1

    I would love to help! Please check my website! www.remotenewsservice.com

  21. 1

    Hey Courtland, I'm running the Tech Lead Journal (https://techleadjournal.dev) show. I'm not sure whether my show meets your ideal criteria, but I'd love to explore if the show is interesting for you. So far, I have 7 episodes and publish new episode weekly.

  22. 1

    One day when I grow up, I'll have a podcast :)

  23. 1

    Here's mine http://baib-podcast.com

    I'm 80+ episodes in. I talk about what I'm working on. Mostly, my book and running the Open Podcast Community. I might start interviewing people.

  24. 1

    Love this idea Courtland. Your commitment towards the community always amazes me :) I run Steal My Marketing Podcast, done 3 episodes. Last week in Interviewed Pete from No CS Degree. Would love to join the network. :)

  25. 1

    Been running one for about 3 years, not for founders though. Would love too listen and feature!

  26. 1

    Interesting idea and good luck. Have a show that fits into some of those requirements but not all. Just search for "the business of digital podcast" and you will find it in Google or any player really.

  27. 1

    I love this idea! I've been binging the IH podcast over the last month or so and have been on the hunt for other podcasts that scratch a similar itch. A network like this would help people like me discover other good content producers.

  28. 2

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

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