on Mar 23, 2024)Phani Chundru, a 27-year-old product supervisor in Mumbai, has a ritual: he sits right down to take heed to “WTF is With Nikhil Kamath”, a podcast by the Zerodha cofounder, quickly after a brand new episode drops. Chundru says he enjoys his Sunday dinner with the present: “It prepares me for the Monday work mindset.”
In a world of short-form content material, he explains his attraction to episodes that run for 2 to 4 hours: “Often, founders supply broad recommendation in public, as an example, work onerous. However ‘WTF’ will get into the nitty gritty of precise execution, outlining particular steps.”
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This detailed strategy is what captivates him. Kamath’s podcast, the place he chats with buddies, entrepreneurs and specialists on a variety of topics, from ChatGPT to What Character Flaws Make the Greatest Entrepreneurs, is rising in recognition and has clocked over 16 million views on YouTube since its launch in March final 12 months. A big share of his listeners are younger, aged between 18 and 34 years.
Kamath is a part of an rising development of Indian entrepreneurs who’re internet hosting podcasts, video or audio exhibits in digital format.
They embody Bombay Shaving Firm’s founder Shantanu Deshpande, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal, Kunal Shah of CRED and Myntra and CureFit founder Mukesh Bansal. When Indian founders changed into mini celebrities with the screening of the tv present Shark Tank India and the bull run within the startup market in 2021, they began tapping into podcasts as a solution to personally join with their viewers.
Uncover the tales of your curiosity
These exhibits function in-depth discussions on trade matters or solo introspections, however they draw back from probing questions. As an alternative, these entrepreneur-led podcasts take many different types akin to private branding train and oblique ads for his or her corporations in addition to for his or her discuss present company.
A advertising and marketing knowledgeable, who has labored with a unicorn founder on their podcast, factors to 2 components behind this chat present zeal. “Capital is scarce. It goes to individuals with excessive visibility. Additionally, whereas it takes crores of rupees to drag off conventional promoting, podcasts are low-cost with a large influence as a result of they work as content material,” he says, requesting anonymity. Listeners will not be unaware of those layers in these chats.
Says Chundru: “I watch the content material with some quantity of scepticism. Everyone seems to be attempting to place up a distinct face on podcasts for private branding, which I’ve accepted, but when I can get six-seven tricks to apply in my each day life, it’s helpful.”
Lights, digital camera, startup
In the meantime, on the twenty third flooring of an residence constructing in Haralur in South Bengaluru, a microphone turns inexperienced. Each fortnight, Bansal lands there. In a room that has morphed right into a studio for his podcast SparX, he talks to specialists— from historian Manu Pillai to businessperson Dheeraj Pandey—or holds forth in a solo present concerning the insights he has gained from near twenty years as an entrepreneur.
“There’s a decrease cognitive demand in listening to a podcast in contrast with studying a guide,” says Bansal, who has printed two books and is engaged on a 3rd. “Regardless of the constructive reception of my two books, which offered 20,000-30,000 copies, their attain was inherently restricted. Podcasts, in the meantime, permit for a broader distribution, doubtlessly attracting tens of millions of views,” says Bansal, whose episodes get 100,000 views on common and has over 300,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Deshpande’s The BarberShop, which has amassed 6 million views on YouTube, has made each him and Bombay Shaving Firm, his private care and grooming options model, common. Every time he’s ready at Bengaluru airport, children come as much as him for a selfie and a chat.
They ask a few explicit difficulty that was mentioned in a specific episode. That prompt recognition is due to the podcast. “Instantly I’ve change into a part of conversations, which is one thing my razor might by no means do,” says Deshpande from his Gurgaon workplace, as he will get able to interview Mamaearth founders Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh for an episode.
He realises there may be an promoting fatigue among the many younger viewers. As an alternative of regularly selling his merchandise, he makes the model a vital a part of the podcast.
“Very purposefully, I put in six to eight anecdotes, info factors and qualitative insights on Bombay Shaving Firm in each episode. I get the opposite individual, too, to speak to me about my firm. I don’t present my emblem and my merchandise, however the dialog is about Bombay Shaving Firm much more than individuals suppose,” he says.
Deshpande says whereas it’s not simply attributable to the podcast, his model’s top-of-the-mind consciousness has elevated within the final eight quarters since his chat present launched. “Our efficiency metrics are so much higher. For each rupee we used to spend on advertising and marketing earlier, we might get Rs 2.5 in income. That has now gone as much as Rs 4,” he says.
These platforms have turned out to be an efficient advertising and marketing medium for company on the exhibits as nicely. Within the second week of March, Bansal was interviewing Awais Ahmed, the younger founding father of space-tech startup Pixxel, for SparX. Ahmed, 26, says he has been on a number of podcasts since his startup launched in 2019.
Within the early days, it helped the younger entrepreneur construct credibility amongst enterprise capitalists, and now he views it as an efficient recruiting instrument even. “It helps with potential workers and prospects,” he says. “When individuals see and pay attention, they get the boldness that it is a legit firm, particularly at an early stage. We additionally wish to entice the most effective expertise and as many of us log in to see the podcast, it would assist improve the expertise move.”
Peas in a pod
Social media has enabled celebrities to form their very own narratives, bypassing the mainstream media. That is seen amongst main Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, most famously by X CEO Elon Musk who makes use of his personal platform for it. Podcast is in some ways an extension of this, however Bansal argues that whereas the media is turning into extra sensationalist, the discuss present has change into somewhat sombre.
“As individuals’s consideration span turns into shorter, mainstream media is gravitating in the direction of bite-sized, sensationalist content material. In distinction, podcasts serve the necessity for a extra thorough engagement, capturing depth and context, which are sometimes neglected in standard media tales,” says Bansal, simply earlier than he begins recording his podcast with Ahmed.
Nonetheless, in contrast to journalistic content material, these podcasts are previewed by company and are edited at their request. Typically company themselves sponsor the episodes they seem in.
Deshpande says about The BarberShop: “This isn’t a sensational podcast. This isn’t a podcast the place I wish to extract info or make my company uncomfortable. This can be a very constructive podcast.” Some founders have begun to monetise their platforms. In Deshpande’s present, which has about 350,000 subscribers on YouTube, 30% of episodes are sponsored by company who desire a platform to share their tales.
Nonetheless, Deshpande doesn’t open up to viewers if a present is sponsored or not. “We’ll by no means inform our listeners which is paid content material, as a result of it doesn’t matter. I’m giving the patron the most effective content material free of charge, regardless. I’ve a P&L to run so I’ll discover 5 individuals who will sort of pay and canopy that up,” says Deshpande.
Gauri Devidayal, founding father of The Meals Issues, which operates the Desk restaurant in Mumbai, lately launched the second season of her podcast, Converse Greasy. On this season, she interviews the cooks at her experiential kitchen in Byculla. It’s sponsored by meals ordering app Thrive.
“Sponsors and advertisers are nonetheless attempting to know this medium. Issues are altering. 4 years in the past, after I launched my first podcast, the query was what’s a podcast? Now, as a model, should you wouldn’t have one, you’re behind,” she says.
The backend
Startup founders rent exterior companies like Revolio and Owled that supply a variety of providers—from conceptualisation to manufacturing of podcasts. Founders even have inside groups. Kamath’s podcast crew has 15 individuals taking a look at manufacturing, content material, fundraising and neighborhood engagement.
In an emailed response Kamath says they “are constructing extra verticals below the identical umbrella for higher worth addition and sources for the younger entrepreneurs of as we speak”.
Bansal arrange SparX Studio for his content material initiatives like books and podcast, and probably “different codecs and options” sooner or later. He’s footing the invoice for his five-member crew, whom he calls a crew for “analysis, enhancing and manufacturing for nonfiction content material”.
A podcast can spin off content material in lots of types. Says Ayush Wadhwa, cofounder of Owled, who has helped founders like Kamath produce their exhibits: “From a single, three-hour podcast session, we are able to create as much as 15 reels. These can flip into LinkedIn posts, X threads and clips for varied channels. We now have estimated that one podcast can yield as many as 64 totally different items of content material.”
Wadhwa says the manufacturing value of a podcast episode is usually between Rs 3.5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, though it’s potential to provide content material for considerably much less, relying on components akin to graphics, episode size and the complexity of the manufacturing setup. Sayasha Sharma, cofounder of Revolio, says whereas short-form content material is “virality-driven”, the second you get “individuals to sit down and watch you for over an hour or two, that’s if you end up constructing neighborhood, and communities usually tend to make a financial determination in your favour”.
One other advertising and marketing knowledgeable, on situation of anonymity, says founderled podcasts that depend on company will “have a correction within the subsequent couple of years as they’d have run out of individuals to speak to”.
Entrepreneurs like Shah of Cred and Mamaearth founders have already appeared in a number of exhibits. Sharma of Revolio says startups as a podcast class has change into saturated, and entrepreneurs who’re venturing into chat exhibits might must discover different niches.
Ankur Warikoo, an entrepreneur and content material creator, says, “Social media generally is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it brings the exhilaration of connectivity and attain, however on the opposite, it could actually doubtlessly distract with vainness metrics. That may be detrimental as a result of the founder’s sole duty is in the direction of the startup; creating a private model is a way to that, not an finish.”
