A Kapwing 20VC Interview: A Masterclass for Podcasting

I’ve long admired the Twenty Minute VC podcast. What I didn’t realize is that Harry Stebbings (the host) and his team do a huge amount of work behind the scenes to make the quality of the show so high. In this article, I want to share some of the best practices that Stebbings puts into his show for other Podcasters trying to share stories and do interviews with high-profile people.

What goes into a great podcast episode

I’ve had other interview hosts who send some prep questions ahead of my time and are flexible with scheduling, but I’ve never had a host as thorough, communicative, and prepared as Harry Stebbings was for our interview. Since he talks to high-profile people who don’t have much time, he’s mastered the art of capturing great content from a condensed timeframe.

Some things that Stebbings did that I think great podcast hosts should do:

• Connected through a gracious, warm introduction. Patient and flexible with scheduling.
• Interviewed three of my investors about me before putting interview script together to get context and shape the questions to ask me.
• Sent the full script of the interview to me before the show so that I could prep answers to questions.
• Emailed instructions about what microphone and headphones to use .
• Troubleshot audio issues before the show (and scheduling buffers for technical problems and small talk).
• Edited the recording to make me sound much more articulate than I was, including cuts and tempo changes.
• Retroactively added the introduction and ads, so that sponsorships didn’t interrupt the flow of the conversation.
• Sent the final podcast for approval and confirmed any details before including them.
• Confirmed the exact date for the show to be published.
• On the day of publication, sent a long, specific email to encourage distribution. For data-driven techies, the email include stats about what social media channels and post are most likely to convert listeners. This Medium article was a top suggestion.

I hope this list helps other Podcasters step up their hosting game to grow an audience and share interviews with their community.

Kapwing’s 20VC Episode

Today, 20VC released an interview with me, Julia Enthoven, CEO of Kapwing. Check out the latest episode of the show on Spotify or iTunes to learn about:

• Why entrepreneurs should build a website, not an app
• The transition from bootstrapped startup to a venture-backed company
• The importance of innovative marketing and the radical tactics that brought Kapwing its first million users
• How we hired and got initial traction for Kapwing
• The future of Kapwing and our vision for the product

After the conversation, Harry actually asked to invest in Kapwing’s Series A! We’re thrilled to have such an articulate media entrepreneur on our cap table. Thanks, Harry, for the awesome opportunity to share with your followers.