Think back to the last podcast you listened to. Now, think about what you were doing while listening. Washing dishes? Eating breakfast? Going on a run? Or, like me, sitting in Atlanta traffic?
While podcasters reach 100 million Americans each day and bring in lots of advertisers, they don’t really have an effective way to connect with audience members. The podcast’s world engagement and monetization problem were things entrepreneur Campbell Pritchard acutely understood after starting a podcast about how Big Tech firms build products.
“Podcasts have no access to their listener, so you don’t really know who’s in the audience,” Pritchard told Hypepotamus. “They just publish a show on Spotify and Apple, hit go with no way to easily connect to each listener. As soon as someone stops listening, they’re gone forever. And it’s really hard to convert an audience into action.”
That’s when he started building Station (previously known as Drop Station). The startup helps podcasts grow, engage, and connect directly with listeners through referrals and rewards. Each individualized Station link helps podcasters create engaging, paywall-free fan experiences. Podcasters can put the link in the show notes for a seamless experience.
Station also helps podcast sponsors more easily get their product in front of that same audience in a visual manner, ensuring their ad dollars go farther and reach a more captive audience online.
Pritchard said being a community-first platform is key to Station’s model.
“Discord started for gamers. Slack started in the workplace. Station is building a community for podcasts,” Pritchard added. “We were previously listening to [podcasts] in isolation. Now podcasts have brought together tribes around huge passion groups. We’re here to connect people, build community and support those interactions.”
Next Station Stop: Chattanooga
While still a young startup, Station has seen some significant traction. They’ve brought in networks and media production companies like Wave Sport + Entertainment. It has also worked with podcast shows like Floodlights and New Heights, the popular podcast from NFL player brothers Travis and Jason Kelce, which started using Station to build stronger fan relationships.
Station also found eager investors. The San Francisco-based startup met the team at Chattanooga-based Brickyard earlier this year while out fundraising. Pritchard saw the value in joining Brickyards’ venture capital portfolio and its insulator. So much so that the team officially moved to Chattanooga earlier this month.
“There’s a lot of noise in San Francisco…it’s amazing because of the networks and everything, but it’s also easy to get distracted,” he added. “The thing that really matters in the early stage of the company is [being] heads down, learning really quickly, and then executing. And Brickyard really gets that and supports that.”
Get To Know The Station Team
Pritchard, who serves as Station’s CEO, is no stranger to the startup world. He built up several businesses in his home country of New Zealand, including a textbook rental company, a YouTube monetization company, and an emergency survival gear ecommerce company. He ultimately found himself thinking more about the changing media landscape after launching a podcast with his employer Thumbtack.
Building the startup alongside Pritchard is Station’s founding engineers Abhishek Thory and Kirisanth Subramaniam.
Thory said he joined the startup because he was interested in tackling problems in the “complex industry” of audio.
“What’s more exciting is now with AI we can recommend the right engagement offerings for each show to use to better connect with their audience, create more valuable content…and add more value (when previously this was vague and never understood),” Thory told Hypepotamus.
Now, Station is hyperfocused on building out its team and its user-centric platform from inside Brickyard.
“We obsess over delivering cutting edge features that add real value while putting in the work to make the experience completely intuitive and seamless. Also we’ve built a culture of collaboration and openness to new ideas,” Thory added. “Everyone on the team can make a huge breakthrough when facing a problem and we celebrate that. Even if they’re day one on the job.”
