Metacast: Behind the scenes

We're back and this is a massive update on what we've been up to since our last episode! Get Metacast at ⁠⁠⁠ metacast.app⁠⁠⁠. Join the ⁠⁠r/metacastapp⁠⁠ subreddit. Chapters 00:24 - We're back 03:23 - Tangent about our names 05:00 - First full-team offsite in Florida 08:27 - We made Android cool again! 12:44 - Paid app subscriptions with RevenueCat 16:04 - Reflection on working in perso...

We took a leap of faith and left our jobs at Google and Amazon to jump into the unknown. It wasn't easy and required quite a bit of planning. This is a rerun of June 2023 episode where we talk about how we did it. Get Metacast at ⁠⁠⁠ metacast.app⁠⁠⁠. Join the ⁠⁠r/metacastapp⁠⁠ subreddit. Links Show notes for part 1 and part 2 can be found on our website. Chapters 00:00 - Cold open 00:21 - Reru...

We got asked how we were thinking about product-market-fit, potential revenue, and entering a market that already has strong players. We’re giving a full breakdown of our thought process. Get Metacast at ⁠⁠⁠ metacast.app⁠⁠⁠. Join the ⁠⁠r/metacastapp⁠⁠ subreddit. Chapters 01:35 - Ilya's “fun” interview with Google (tangent) 05:52 - How we chose the market to go after 21:42 - Our financial model...

We broke Metacast just before launching it in open beta. Ouch. On this episode, we talk about the launch, how it went, and what we’ve learned. Get Metacast at ⁠⁠metacast.app⁠⁠ . Join the ⁠r/metacastapp⁠ subreddit. Chapters 02:13 - Get The Pragmatic Podcaster book for free 03:33 - We broke Metacast just before launch 08:39 - How we fixed the problem 14:04 - The other way we broke the app 16:27 - Pu...

We had our first existential crisis when Apple announced that they're adding transcripts to Apple Podcasts. We panicked for a few minutes, regrouped, and decided to ship Metacast in open beta ASAP. On the episode, Arnab, Ilya and Jennie discuss the whole ordeal as it was happening. Get Metacast at ⁠metacast.app⁠ . Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 01:09 - Launch stages at Google and A...

We took a break from the startup for the holiday season and were welcomed back to work by a warm embrace of guilt. Should we feel guilt when building a startup? Today we also discuss the launch of our new podcast Builders Gonna Build and how we made the decision to start it. We talk about writing a doc, just like in the good ol’ days at Amazon. Listen to Builders Gonna Build - Apple Podcasts - Spo...

Wee-oo wee-oo wee-oo... we've got an important announcement to make! Bulders Gonna Build podcast: Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Newsletter on Substack: www.buildersgonnabuild.com Give it a rating, a follow and repost to help us out! Chapters 00:00 - Emergency Announcement: Podcast Split 00:57 - Introducing Builders Gonna Build Podcast

What was 2023 like to Metacast, what's ahead for us in 2024, and our favorite podcast recordings of 2023. Chapters 02:39 - Year 2023 in review 18:59 - Could we have shipped Metacast faster? 23:45 - Our plan for 2024 31:36 - Our favorite behind the scenes episodes of 2023 39:04 - Books and podcasts recommendations Download the Metacast podcast app for free iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/metaca...

To close off 2023, Arnab and Ilya sat down for a lighthearted review of our favorite books, podcasts, products and experiences of 2023. Chapters 01:51 - A lesson in geology 03:16 - Our top books of 2023 23:46 - Our favorite podcasts of 2023 41:04 - Our favorite products 49:34 - Experiences of the year 2023 Show notes Books Arnab’s The Ministry for the Future: A Novel by Kim Stanley Robinson Projec...

Alex Rechevskiy, PM career coach, tells us about his time as a PM at Google, his solopreneur coaching practice, and Comment Armor, his YouTube spam comments management startup. Chapters 01:46 - Why product management is hard? 07:27 - Alex' solopreneur coaching business 19:30 - Experience working at Google as a PM 41:18 - Building social media following 44:11 - Preventing spam in YouTube commen...

This is a re-run of our "very second episode" originally published on Jan 11, 2023. For our second episode (and the very first one with a guest!), we sat down with Brian McCullough, creator of the ⁠Internet History Podcast⁠ , one of Ilya’s all-time favorite podcasts. Brian’s current podcast is ⁠Techmeme Ride Home⁠ , a popular daily summary of tech news that has over a million downloads e...

Geoff Roberts, co-founder of Outseta, on a compensation model that allows employees earn founder-level equity. Chapters 01:06 - Intro of Geoff and Outseta 03:42 - How Outseta got started 10:50 - Current state of Outsetta business 18:35 - Customer acquisition through content marketing, affiliates and partnerships 33:27 - Compensation philosophy 40:57 - Cash vs. equity 48:18 - Voting rights, scaling...

Metacast co-founders discuss benefits and risks of building a startup in public. Chapters 02:06 - The "build in public" movement 08:46 - Why we share what we do? 22:59 - Downsides of building in public 33:49 - Book and podcast recommendations Download the Metacast podcast app for free iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/metacast/id6462012536 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/detail...

Arnab and Ilya discuss different approaches to building products from the angle of do-what-you-want platforms vs. opinionated products. Chapters 00:29 - Lego Blocks vs. Model Airplanes 01:38 - Prioritizing Simplicity for Metacast 05:15 - User Needs, Complexity, AWS Explained 08:39 - Platform Growth and Service Bloat 13:30 - Avoiding Customization Pitfalls 16:09 - Apple's Complex, Simple Ecosys...

Dave Thomas, co-author of The Pragmatic Programmer and Agile Manifesto, on the true spirit of being agile (vs. "doing agile"), common mistakes engineering teams make, and common practices of successful teams. Chapters 00:23 - Dave's background 08:45 - The genesis of The Pragmatic Programmer 12:47 - People don't know what they want, importance of feedback loops 20:24 - Doing Agile...

Arnab and Ilya reminisce about their first social media experiences with ICQ and Orkut, discuss fixing X-Twitter, read an eulogy for Threads, and strategize about becoming social media influencers. Chapters 03:12 - First experiences with social media 10:52 - Reddit 16:19 - Threads 18:35 - Misuse of Instagram as a text blogging platform 21:25 - Can existing social networks be replaced? 23:47 - The...

Jennie Buechner is a Senior Software Engineer and the first hire at Metacast. We discussed leaving Amazon to join an early stage startup and how we thought about equity compensation when we can't afford to pay a salary yet. Chapters 02:04 - Jennie introduces herself 03:57 - ChatGPT introduces Jennie, Ilya and Arnab 07:29 - Explaining the number 42 10:38 - Leaving Amazon 20:46 - Joining Metacas...

What features do you build first - table stakes or what makes you differentiated? What's the difference between an MVP and an MLP? Is it worth applying to YC? ...and a few recommendations of books and podcasts that we're into these days. Chapters 03:40 - Differentiating features vs. table stakes features 06:58 - MVP vs. MLP 14:00 - The MAYA principle 16:57 - We applied to YC 23:31 - Buildi...

A conversation with founders of Tramline, a CI/CD platform for mobile apps that we use for releasing Metacast. We talked about release standards (or lack thereof) for mobile and how Tramline solves this problem. We also dug into the founding story of the company, how they sold to first customers, fundraising from angels, and a few more topics. Get tramline at https://www.tramline.app/ Tramline on...

How living on a work visa affects your risk appetite? How does immigration change you? What are some gotchas? Today, we talk about our immigration journeys and discuss these important questions. Chapters 03:42 - Musings about languages and automatic translations 08:48 - Our immigration journeys 15:52 - US immigration challenges for Indians and Chinese 17:52 - How living on a work visa affects your...

A discussion with Wharton professor Karl Ulrich on teaching entrepreneurship, value of MBA, working at the MIT AI lab in the 1980s, and a career as a professor and founder. Chapters 03:42 - Karl introduces himself 06:17 - PhD at the MIT AI Lab 12:57 - First job as a professor 16:34 - Entrepreneurial trends at Wharton 22:11 - Can entrepreneurship be taught? 30:53 - Innovation tournaments 36:08 - Do...

Today we're reflecting on our previous episode (ep. 36 with Melissa Kwan) and are talking about the collaboration between business and technical functions in a company - both in our startup as well as reminiscing about our days in AWS. Chapters 00:33 - Teaser of the next episode 02:45 - Update on the podcast 10:38 - Reflection on the latest episode with Melissa 15:55 - CEO vs. CTO role a.k.a....

We sat down with Melissa Kwan, a 3x bootstrapper, to talk about her entrepreneurial journey, working with contractor developers, getting first customers, developing social media presence, and going to Burning Man in 2023. Show notes Melissa's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissakwan/ eWebinar: https://ewebinar.com/ The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs (book): https://amzn.to/3t4sK20...

Today, we discuss positioning the startup to the outside world in social media and software that we use to build our software. We go into detail of our CI/CD pipeline for the mobile app and our project management practices. As usual, brace yourself for a lot of tangents! Chapters 02:53 - Positioning ourselves into the outside world 23:01 - Processes in our startup Show notes https://tramline.app -...

In this episode, we break down the process of how we wrote The Pragmatic Podcaster book, discuss how writing is similar to programming, talk about tools (Adobe InDesign, Kindle Create), describe the process of getting an e-book and a print version on Amazon, and muse about Google Ads that didn't generate any sales for us. Chapters 02:38 - How did the book start 04:57 - "Day 0 - Day 1 - Da...