5 Free Podcasts that All Startup Enthusiasts Should Listen To
Whether you're taking UX design courses, learning rails, or are an aspiring innovator trying to ramp up your knowledge of the tech scene, tech podcasts can be an excellent way to enhance your startup education.
Fledgling entrepreneurs sharing their rocky journeys and seasoned heavyweights imparting their advice-- there's plenty of material available offering inside insight and nuggets of information.
Here is a selection of five best tech podcasts in particular that you can listen to along with selected episodes that show the best of their work:[bctt tweet="5 Podcasts All #Startup Enthusiasts Should Listen To by @jonbstrong"]
Yumas Radio
First up, Yumas Radio is an entertaining show run by two traveling entrepreneurs Andrew & Armand which in their own words is...
A badass podcast that uncovers the best in creation across the globe. We interview some of today's top & most inspiring founders.
In doing so, they chart their travels around South America, uncovering some of the exciting and lesser-known entrepreneurial scenes such as in Colombia and Chile. In the episode below, they talk to Johnny Miller, who went through the Start-Up Chile program, and the British founder of Maptia, a travel publishing startup, who decided to move with his team to Morocco.[bctt tweet="Asking the right questions is key to startup work + entrepreneurship, says @jonnym1ller "]
As well as having one of the best opening jingles of any show out there, they allow their inner muse to flourish with regular DJ mixes in between their interviews.
How to Start a Startup
How to Start A Startup is a Stanford series of lectures for the Y Combinator accelerator which includes leading figures such as Peter Thiel (co-founder of Paypal, first investor in Facebook, and author of Zero to One), Dustin Moskovitz (co-founder of Facebook) and many more.[bctt tweet="Tune into How to Start a #Startup for lessons-learned from those at the top, says @jonbstrong"]
It’s fascinating to hear the lessons-learned from those at the top of their games, who speak of their failures as well as their successes. These shows are available in audio, but you can also watch the entire series on YouTube as well.
In this lecture Sam Altman talks about what founders should be looking for when hiring candidates — interestingly he says founders should be more generous with equity for new employees, rather than investors.[bctt tweet="The companies that are most generous w/ employee equity are usually most successful, says @sama "]
Tropical MBA
The Tropical MBA podcastis very different in style and content from the others listed here, as it focuses on entrepreneurs intent on creating lifestyle businesses that allow them to capitalise on location independence, geo-arbitrage, bootstrapping and other concepts championed in Tim Ferris’ influential book The 4-Hour Workweek.[bctt tweet="Learn to work from anywhere + still have a steady income @TropicalMBA, says @jonbstrong "]
The regular co-hosts - Dan Andrews & Ian Schoen (AKA “The Bossman”) - both quit their corporate jobs in the states to then co-found several businesses including ones producing cat furniture, valet podiums and portable bars — manufacturing out of Vietnam & China.
In this episode, they talk about building a sustainable lifestyle business through productised services with Tristan King, founder and lead web developer at Shopify Ninjas. [bctt tweet="Once your business can sustain your income, try to systematize yourself out of it @tristanking65 "]
Startup
No list of startup podcasts would be complete without mentioning Startup, a show which provides real and raw behind-the-scenes footage of former NPR & Planet Money host Alex Blumberg leaving his full time job with a good salary and benefits for the uncertain future involved with creating a podcasting startup from scratch.[bctt tweet="Founders need to express conviction and instill FOMO, says @abexlumberg"]
This show includes tense conversations with his wife, difficult negotiations with his co-founder and-- in this very first episode from the show-- we hear him trying (and failing miserably) to pitch to renowned angel investor & billionaire Chris Sacca (fast forward to 13:08 in to hear it).
Lastly, we finish off with a show produced by yours truly and based in the UK. The Startup Magazine is a publication which provides useful insights for early-stage founders.
In the first series of the show, we have Mike Southon, an expert entrepreneur, run through a series of questions put to him-- namely how to deal with late paying customers.[bctt tweet="A deal isn't really closed until you've talked about terms - @MikeSouthon via @thestartupmag" via="no"]
Do you agree with my selection of best tech podcasts? Any other free podcasts for startuppers you feel I've left out? Leave a comment below, or feel free to jump on our community over at hashtagpodcasters.com where you can discuss your favourites as well as meet some of the producers behind these shows.
Or, if you're more of a bookworm than radio ga ga, check out these great posts on the top sales reads and marketing books for success at startups.
Photo credit: Patrick Breitenbach via Flickrcc