Introducing ‘Breaking Ground,’ our very own podcast
A new show about the apps and services we are building here at Breaker.
The first episode features our founders, Erik & Leah, with subsequent episodes to come featuring other members of staff and some special guests.
We’ve been tossing around the idea of starting a Breaker podcast for a while now. That is, at least since I joined the team last April. I fully intended to act on the idea and record some tape while the team was together in San Jose last June, but simply never found the time. The project took a backseat for the next few months until opportunity struck again this past February at our staff retreat and hack week.
As the sole podcaster on staff, I took on the task of planning and recording the show for my hack week project. Armed with a pair of USB microphones, numerous dongles, and a glass of water, I holed up within a spare bedroom in our Indio-based AirBnB. Here I set up a less-than-ideal recording space and, over the course of a late evening, captured some tape with the team. This audio makes up the first several episodes of Breaking Ground, the first of which you can hear today.
Why does Breaker need a podcast?
Look, we know we’re not the first business to start a podcast about ourselves. I’ve listened to a lot of these over the years and I’d like to think I’ve learned a thing or two about how to make a Breaker-specific show that’s interesting to hear.
With Breaking Ground, I want to get right down to the meat of what’s interesting about Breaker. In my opinion, that’s our small-but-scrappy team and what it takes for us to actually build an app that thousands of podcast fans use to listen to their shows on a daily basis.
One of the podcasts I hope to emulate is Build Your SaaS, an audio journal of founders Jon Buda and Justin Jackson as they build Transistor.fm, a podcast hosting service. What I like about their show is that they don’t stray from talking about the tough stuff. You know, the roadblocks and pitfalls that have the potential to actually break their business. The candidness they share with their audience appeals to me as a fan and user of their product. Rather than pontificate about the road to success, I want to record a living documentary for Breaker, failures and successes alike. More than anything, I want to bring a comparable level of openness to the users of Breaker, both potential and current.
Who can we expect to hear from?
As host, you’ll be hearing a lot from me. That’s for sure. Apologies in advance. I’ll be joined each episode by whoever is most fit for a given topic.
In most cases, you’ll hear from a member of our staff about a feature they are working on. In others, it might be a user of Breaker who came up with a great idea that we ended up implementing in the app. I’d bet we’ll even have on a podcaster, developer, or otherwise influential friend of the show that cares to share their thoughts on Breaker or the podcasting industry at large. We’re not limiting anything, so the guest list is open.
What can we expect to hear about?
With the variety of guests we plan to have on Breaking Ground, you’re going to be getting updates on Breaker from multiple angles. We plan to talk about not only the features we’ve shipped, but the ones we’re working on as well. We’ll dive into the origins of those ideas and what steps are taken to ship them.
Breaker has a fast development cycle, which means we’re always working on something new. I can promise you that as long as that remains true, the conversations you’ll hear on the show won’t get stale.
What’s the release schedule like?
As the host of several active shows, I know that there are two monumentally important aspects to publishing a podcast: Consistency and Sustainability.
I think it will take some time to discover exactly what our limits are for this show. We are busy building an app, after all. While we settle into a groove, we’ll deliver episodes as they make sense. We are certainly not going to record weekly if there isn’t anything new or interesting to share. We respect your time too much to bring filler to your queue.
Is the show a Breaker exclusive?
Nope! We decided that there is more opportunity for user acquisition to keep the show freely available to anyone, Breaker user or not. You can subscribe anywhere you like.
Production Notes:
The quality of the audio we captured in February doesn’t exactly match my absurdly high standards, but hey — I did promise you everything, warts and all. I think episodes we record going forward are going to sound a lot better now that we’re back in our respective homes and offices where things are more controlled and comfortable. I’m hoping to collect some better portable equipment for future in-person recordings as well. Like our software, this show will only get better over time.
