PodcastAI: Edward Brawer is here to be your podcast’s arms dealer! | E1939

Edward Brawer joins Jason to dive into PodcastAI (00:00:00)

• Edward Brawer, the world's greatest moderator, joins Jason Calacanis on the show.
• David Sacks previously expressed a desire for Jason to be replaced by AI on the All-in Podcast.
• Jason creates an AI version of himself and David Sacks, with specific prompts to make it more realistic.
• The AI version generates responses related to Ukraine, Biden, and Nikki Haley.
• Coda: A new dock that brings words, tables, and teams together.
• Northwest Registered Agent: A service that helps form companies, provides documents, and offers mail scanning and business addresses.
• NetSuite: A cloud financial system that brings accounting, financial management, inventory, and HR into one platform.
• Jason invests in about 100 new companies per year out of 20,000 requests.
• One of the core qualities Jason looks for in early-stage startups is product velocity.
• Product velocity refers to the continuous improvement of the product, with the team pushing code, conducting experiments, and deprecating unnecessary features.

Introduction and origin story of Edward Brawer's entry into the podcasting AI technology (00:03:25)

• Edward Brawer is the founder of Podcast AI, a podcast automation platform.
• Podcast AI aims to automate the entire podcast production process.
• Jason met Edward 18 months ago when Edward joined Founder University's 5th cohort.
• Podcast AI received a $25k investment from Founder University, making it the fourth company to receive funding from Jason.
• Podcast AI ranked third overall and first with syndicate investors in the Founder University launch accelerator program.
• Podcast AI automates the entire podcast production process, from recording and editing to publishing and marketing.
• The platform uses artificial intelligence to generate transcripts, create show notes, and even write blog posts based on podcast episodes.
• Podcast AI also offers a suite of tools to help podcasters grow their audience, including analytics, social media integration, and email marketing.
• Podcast AI is designed to make podcasting easier and more efficient for creators of all levels.

Discussion on the features and benefits of PodcastAI, including its ability to automate podcast production processes (00:05:42)

• PodcastAI aims to automate podcast production processes and streamline podcast management.
• PodcastAI offers a transcription service that can transcribe past podcast episodes, making them easily searchable and accessible.
• PodcastAI creates a visually appealing and organized website for podcasters, eliminating the need for expensive and time-consuming website maintenance.
• PodcastAI's initial features, such as transcription and website creation, were well-received by podcasters.
• Podcasters appreciated the convenience and cost-effectiveness of PodcastAI's transcription service.
• The website creation feature provided podcasters with a professional and easily searchable platform for their content, eliminating the need for complex website management.

Finding product-market-fit for PodcastAI (00:09:40)

• Initially, PodcastAI was charging a low fee of $20-$30 per month.
• The founder was hesitant to increase the price due to the fear of overcharging.
• After realizing the value of their service, they raised the price to $99 per month.
• Customers were happy to pay the higher price as it saved them time and effort in their workflow.
• PodcastAI offers various features such as website generation, hosting, and push to YouTube, all with a single upload.

Coda - Get started for free (00:11:38)

• Coda is an all-in-one collaborative workspace that combines the best of documents, spreadsheets, and apps.
• The founder uses Coda to manage Founder University, including sending automated reminders and tracking weekly growth.
• Coda offers charting capabilities to visualize data and identify growth trends.
• The founder encourages listeners to try Coda for free and take advantage of a limited-time offer of a $1,000 credit for startups.
• Coda helps users be more efficient and effective in their work.

The success of their original cold calls to find those first first customers (00:13:06)

• Contacted 19 podcasters over LinkedIn.
• 15 out of 19 podcasters bought the product on the call (75% conversion rate).
• This indicates strong product-market fit and market pull.
• In the small business market, people are realizing that starting a podcast is an effective lead generation strategy.
• The company has a salesperson who is doing well in this market.
• They are starting to get inbound leads from top podcasts.
• Recently signed on the Doctor's Pharmacy, the number two podcast in medicine in the US.
• This has led to interest from related agencies who want to be investors and have connections with top podcasts.

Main features and outline of PodcastAI version 1.0 (00:15:04)

• PodcastAI offers a range of features to enhance podcast listening and discovery, including a link tree with the latest episodes, distribution points, and statistics for platforms like Spotify and YouTube.
• It has a user-friendly interface with light and dark mode options and utilizes vector search technology to provide conceptual search results, including individual chapters within episodes.
• PodcastAI also offers a "Talk to the Host" feature, allowing users to interact with hosts through a Slack-like interface.
• The platform can generate AI-powered ad reads, ensuring accuracy and consistency even when the host is unavailable.
• Edward Brawer declined an invitation to be on the podcast "The Pitch" due to time constraints and a focus on his own podcast, which resulted in several investments.

Northwest Registered Agent - Get a 60% discount on your next LLC (00:20:19)

• Northwest Registered Agent offers a complete business identity setup, including an address, phone line, website hosting, and a free domain.
• They have their own law firm, Law on Call, that provides full-service trademark services at an affordable rate.
• Northwest Registered Agent prioritizes privacy and handles everything in-house to protect personal data.
• They don't sell user information to affiliates.
• Northwest Registered Agent is a one-stop shop for business formation and more, acting as a startup's best friend.
• They are offering a special deal for listeners: a complete business formation package for just $39 plus state fees.
• The platform is currently handling all post-production tasks, including show notes, chapters, and descriptions.

Hot feature they just launched: viral moments of your pod (00:21:51)

• PodcastAI's new feature, Viral Moments, generates the top 10 interesting moments of a podcast episode and creates social media posts for various platforms, including LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts.
• PodcastAI allows users to connect show accounts and host accounts to schedule posts from different perspectives.
• The base price of PodcastAI has been raised to $500 per month, with a $200 per month plan being phased out.
• PodcastAI's Viral Moments feature saves podcast producers time in editing and creating social media posts.
• PodcastAI is developing an edit mode to allow users to revise their episodes within the browser.
• PodcastAI has a feature in development called guest research, which streamlines the process of creating show notes and researching guests by automatically gathering relevant information from their online platforms.
• The guest profile pages on the show portal are being improved to provide a comprehensive history of each guest's appearances, including topics discussed and clips from past episodes.

NetSuite - Download your free KPI Checklist (00:29:20)

• NetSuite is a cloud-based financial system that integrates accounting, financial management, inventory, and HR into one platform.
• It reduces IT costs by eliminating the need for multiple systems and improves efficiency by streamlining business processes.
• Over 37,000 companies have already adopted NetSuite.
• PodcastAI is a tool that helps podcasters with pre-production and promotion tasks.
• It can generate guest bios, intros, and analyze guest suitability for a podcast.
• It also suggests questions to ask guests based on their previous podcast appearances.
• PodcastAI is free for up to 100 episodes.

A feature they made specifically from feedback from the All-in pod (00:31:33)

• Created a template that automatically generates thumbnails for All-in podcast episodes in the format and branding of the show.
• Generates five different thumbnail options using AI.
• Invested three times in PodcastAI: $25k at Founder University, $100k at the launch accelerator (now $125k), and led the seed round.
• Considers PodcastAI a "definitive winner" in his portfolio strategy.
• Noticed that Nick changed the show cover art for episode 175 and identified some branding inconsistencies.
• Praises Edward's deep understanding of his customers and fast execution.

The hilarious origin story of Edward and Jason revolved around an AI version of Jason that, in turn, created an AI version of David Sacks (00:34:33)

• Edward Brawer, co-host of the All-In Podcast, created a humorous AI version of himself called "AI J Cal" after discovering AI voice models.
• The AI-generated podcast episodes featuring "AI J Cal" gained immense popularity, with over 600k views on the first episode.
• Brawer invested over a million dollars in the company behind the AI voice technology, recognizing the potential financial rewards of innovative content creation.
• Brawer emphasizes the value of "spec work" or creating projects without immediate financial compensation, as it attracts talented individuals and leads to greater opportunities.
• Podcast AI offers various features to enhance podcasts, including Google Analytics integration, schema markup for SEO, and video clipping capabilities.
• The platform allows users to create and share audio and video clips from podcast episodes for promotion or monetization, saving podcasters time and effort.
• Jason Calacanis announces the upcoming Angel University course, a $300 course that teaches individuals how to become angel investors in startups, with all proceeds donated to charity.
• Founder Fridays, a monthly event where founders can discuss challenges and successes, is introduced in 71 cities worldwide, with over 929 founders participating. The next Founder Friday is scheduled for May 3rd, and founders are encouraged to attend and share their experiences.