Our class has been requiring us to listen to a lot of podcasts. I’m not going to lie, I used to hate them. I thought they were for “old people” and were just old men discussing things like politics and sports. Once again, as I seem to be often in this entrepreneurial learning process, I was wrong. Podcasts are a super interesting way to learn how the world works.

Especially when it’s a podcast by a man who is starting a podcast company.

Alex Bloomberg, who the podcast Startup is based around, started off as a producer of the public radio show This American Life. He had an idea. One that he thought could make it all the way.

Having experience with public radio gave him an upper hand like no other. He knew the ins and outs of what people liked and how to gain an audience, which gave him a seriously needed upper hand in the business.

The podcast series guides us through the hardships of starting up a company, taking out the fluff and “I had a vision this would work” of his startup story.

Alex has an incredible way of telling his stories, which most definitely sprouts from his producer past. Through the first four episodes, he has guided us through every step of his process.

In the first episode, he has a failing pitch to a big tech guy out in California. Luckily, he teaches Alex how to amp us his preformance and eventually Alex starts to gain some attention. This taught me how important the pitch is. You are trying to convince someone to give you money for something you literally haven’t made yet. Crazy, right?

The second and third episode dive deeper into the importance of pitching you idea. After one pitch, he was told to completely rebrand his whole idea of everything he knew. Instead of a podcast company they wanted a tech company. I another, they liked it how it was. I think the difference in what visions people see is interesting as well.

Going off of this, the fourth episode dives deeper into investors, talking about why they invest. Sometimes, it is because they like the idea. Sometimes, it is because they like you. Sometimes, it’s because they think it’s fun. I always thought it was super money driven, so this intrigued me as well.

Overall, I am super excited to keep listening and learning. Hearing about first hand experiences makes this way easier to comprehend.