Week One at Podfund

Reflections, insights, and answers to questions we heard since we launched Podfund

Applications to Podfund are open.

It’s now been a little over a week since we launched Podfund into the universe, and we wanted to take a step back to reflect, share some insights, and answer a few questions that have come up.

First, we’re incredibly energized by the response (including applications — we received over 100 submissions in the first 24 hours!). Like many great podcast episodes, we heard excitement, anxiety, hope, tension, and dialogue. There are SO. MANY. creators wrestling with questions around how to build and fund their businesses, and we’re thrilled by the conversations the launch prompted, both online and offline. This is why we published our terms publicly: we think transparency and discussion are vital to the community.

A few observations:

• It’s clear there is a need for more funding options. We received over $5M in requests from Podfund applicants in our first week alone. We hope that as the industry continues to evolve, more resources like Podfund will emerge to meet this demand.
• Unsurprisingly, podcasters (like most creators) care a lot about owning their business and their IP, so the Podfund structure really resonated. With the PodREV, podcasters continue to control their own destiny and can create/distribute/sell as they see fit.
• There is a widespread need for equipment upgrades. Many applicants expressed a desire to level up on their hardware, and we hope that Podfund can assist our creators on this front with the help of a few strategic partnerships.
• Creators are inventive and scrappy and are finding myriad ways to build their businesses. Of the podcasters who are currently monetizing, only 50% identified ads/sponsorship as the primary source of income.

We also want to clear up a few points that may have been misunderstood in some of the coverage and conversations that have ensued.

• Podfund is not a grant or a training program. Podfund is a for-profit company that relies on investors of our own to give us capital to provide to creators. In order for Podfund to succeed, we need to demonstrate that our model is sustainable. We also love and support what folks like the Google-PRX Creators Program and Spotify’s Sound Up Bootcamp are doing, and see Podfund as part of an evolving and complementary set of resources for creators at different stages with differing needs.
• Podfunding is not a loan. If we don’t get our initial investment back there are no repercussions to the podcaster — that’s the risk we take on as investors. That’s why we are (at least initially) focusing on creators who already have a head start on building a profitable business, and also why it’s in our best interest to do everything we can to help them. There’s an important element of trust and good faith in what we’re doing here, and it goes both ways.
• The PodREV is a revenue-share agreement, which means Podfund’s success is proportionate to the creator’s success. We succeed when you succeed. There are no minimum payments per quarter (or over the entire term of the agreement, as mentioned above). We earmark a part of your funding for setup costs, as we need a corporate entity and accounting system in order to fund a business, however, these may be waived if those are already in place.
• Podfund is a source of capital and expertise; we are not a network or ad agency. We believe it is up to the creator to determine the proper course and guide the day-to-day activities for their business, including creating, marketing, distributing, and monetizing their content. We will advise, strategize, share best practices, and we are happy to connect you with mentors and vetted partners who can help in those areas. We hope that this flexible and agnostic stance is empowering for the creators we invest in.

So, with all that said — who is Podfund for?

Podfund is looking for entrepreneurial creators who are telling compelling, unique stories from a breadth of perspectives and are demonstrating growth. What unifies our Podfunded creators is the creative application of many of the same skills that drive their podcast to drive their business.

As we meet and speak with creators, there are several questions we’re asking:

• Do you have a vision for your business and line of sight on how to get there? We don’t believe in one singular definition of success, but at a minimum we want you to become profitable (if you aren’t already). We want the Podfund portfolio to demonstrate a wide range of financially sustainable business models.
• Growth is more than an increase in downloads. We’re also looking for growth in revenue, social presence, fan engagement, product expansion, evolving marketing strategy, etc.
• Measurement goes hand-in-hand with fueling growth. Are you tracking your progress week-over-week, month-over-month, year-over-year? If you continue growing at the current pace, what does that mean for the next year or two of the business? What experiments have you run? What lessons have you learned?
• We’d like to see a thoughtful plan for how you would use a Podfund investment. What strategies would you deploy? How much do those strategies cost? How will you turn each dollar of funding into more than one dollar of value for your business?

You certainly don’t have to be excelling at each one of these to qualify for Podfunding. To start, we want to see evidence of your efforts and potential along these lines, because that’s where Podfund can continue to help.

Overall, we’re incredibly inspired by the applications we’ve seen come in, and we can’t wait to see more. And while we hope we answered most of the questions that have been asked, we hope the broader conversation continues. After all, it’s only week one. :)