Why did I start Knowcast?

Most startups fail to be commercially successful. Knowcast was one of them. Here I share my journey to help others (including myself) do better next time.

What I cover

Here’s what I cover in the Knowcast articles:

Knowledge

• Building effective, cohesive remote teams
• User research: how to gain confidence you’re solving a problem people care about, including how to do diary studies affordably
• How to do product design quickly (and no too quickly!)
• Everyday design tools: using Framer, Figma, Miro, and affordable alternatives to the Adobe suite (Filmora, and Affinity)
• Building cross-platform mobile apps (hits and misses)
• International trademarks

The problem: learning on the go

Knowcast formed out of an idea that bugged me for years.

It was 2015, I was on my way to work, and once again found myself transfixed with the nuggets of gold I came across in the podcast I was listening to.

These were experienced professionals, sharing their insights that were so useful to learn from again and again.

But once again my experience was an emotional rollercoaster. From “WOW that’s amazing I must remember that” then to “Aaand it’s gone”. So much lost opportunity.

Attempts to take notes with a phone were clunky and unreliable.

Vauxhall station in 2015: “surely there must be a better way to learn from knowledge podcasts than stopping, rewinding, transcribing the audio manually, nearly missing my train in the process”

Problem statement from the Knowcast investor deck

Fast forward to 2020 and nothing had changed.

I decided to do something about it, and that is what my subsequent articles are all about.

Step 1: Scratching my own itch