Carl Fridsjö is Co-founder and CEO at Podspace — this interview has been lightly edited for style and readability
A longer version of this interview is available here
Carl Fridsjö: Podspace is not really a classic podcast hosting or distribution platform. We do that, but at the core of what we do is revenue optimization for large enterprise publishers. That can be on the ad side through marketplaces, but it can also be through premium content paywalls, or making the workflow more efficient. Podspace is essentially an all in one podcasting platform that’s easily scalable and tailored to professional, large publishers.
Sam Sethi: What differentiates Podspace?
CF: We are more focused and we don’t do everything for everyone. If you have your neighbor starting a podcast for a hobby, that’s not what Podspace does. We have a very specific type of customer that we work with and that ties into to how we develop the platform and the technology. What sort of deals we make, the amount of flexibility we offer, all of these different things tie into to that core principle and philosophy.
SS: So Podspace has been going for about a year. You got a round of investment. You raised 10 million Swedish krona last year (around US $1mn). How did you go about raising that fund so quickly and growing so fast?
CF: We’re working with an investor called Co-Made. Podspace has been built over quite some time. The technologies we started to develop around seven years ago, but as a hobby and as a side project. It eventually became more of a real business. That’s been going on for roughly a year.
SS: You’ve recently had a very interesting group of people join Podspace.
CF: Yes. Our latest recruitments were three people, all with a background from Spotify and all with extensive background from the audio industry. So we have Öjje Holt, the former Nordic CEO of Spotify. He’s also one of the co-founders of Acast, and he’s joining us as the Director of Growth. So he would be responsible to help and assist with taking Podspace to the next level and out into new and larger markets as well. Then we have Eeva Ronkainen - she was at Spotify in Helsinki for I think seven years. She will be our Finnish country manager. And then lastly, we also have Johan Leijonhufvud - he’s been a senior account director of Spotify for I think 15 years. So quite the trio of people. I’m super happy and excited to start working with them all.
We’re now around 15 people in the team, so we’re still super early in our journey. We have quite high standards and we try to be very particular about who joins us, and and sort of in what role, and what capacity. So we actually already had a fantastic team before these three hires, but now we’re taking the next step as well in terms of expansion and really trying to get the ball rolling even faster than what we have been doing.
SS: Where next? Do you have plans to go into other European countries, the USA?
CF: I think that’s the luxury - and the issue - with podcasting today: there’s definitely not a lack of opportunities out there. It’s more a question of sorting and finding the best one and the right fit for us as well. So we have a couple of different markets we’re looking at both in Europe and outside. We haven’t really made any final decisions yet. We’re in that process of analysing and seeing where we end up, but we’re definitely pushing on in the Nordics.
I’m travelling to the US in a couple of days. I will stay in New York for almost three weeks to meet the industry - to have as many meetings as I can, and learn as much as I can, and research a possible US expansion for Podspace. That’s obviously one market that we’re looking at. But we’ll see where we end up.
SS: Are you - I’m not expecting the answer to be yes, but it would be lovely if it is - are you profitable yet?
CF: Yes.
SS: Wow. Okay.
CF: We actually are. We’re seeing exponential growth, while actually remaining profitable. So the capital or the funding you mentioned is still in our bank account. We haven’t been able to use it quite yet because things have been progressing faster and quicker than anyone expected. So yeah, it’s exciting times.
SS: And in terms of Sweden itself, why do you think Sweden has been so successful - from Spotify, Skype, Acast, PodX yourself? The list goes on. What makes Sweden so unique in its entrepreneurial environment that generates so many hit startups?
CF: I think Stockholm has really become sort of the tech hub of Europe in a sense. You have all of these role models, you have successful entrepreneurs, you have Daniel Ek at Spotify, you have Sebastian Siemiatkowski at Klarna, these big, big companies. I think that spikes an interest and an ambition in people. We also have sort of a great infrastructure for entrepreneurs. In many senses it’s quite easy to actually start ventures. Sweden for quite a long time has been a test market for many companies because we are quite early adopters. We use a lot of technology, we do it early. So it’s a good market to try your concept in. And if it works, that’s obviously a good signal to keep moving and expanding into to new territories. So that’s of course what we’re trying to do with Podspace as well.
SS: I look forward to meeting you, Carl.
CF: Likewise. Thank you so much.