Discussions about the technical side and people side of software

I (Faraz Abidi) spent 6 years as the Head of Software at a tech startup. I successfully exited in early 2021, which is when I started the podcast with Vasanth. I'm currently working on a few other startup ideas, which means writing lots of code.
Vasanth Thiruvadi spent 2 years as an accountant at a top Silicon Valley Accounting Firm that does taxes for many tech leaders in Silicon Valley. He started my Master's in Information Systems and Data Science in 2020.
Our podcast is a series of discussions with interesting people who are experts in various areas of software. Some of our conversations are deep technical dives about topics like compilers while others are discussions about the people-side of the industry like project management and maximizing your compensation. We also occasionally have episodes that are just us and no guest, where we will cover some topic that we feel hasn't been explained properly, like the Coinbase IPO or Why Amazon pays so little in taxes. I will look at the technical details and Vasanth will research the finances and business side.
Our primary audience is people working in the tech industry and students who want to get into the tech industry.
 

Vasanth and I both listen to lots of education/business podcasts (Vasanth's favorite is Invest Like the Best, mine is HBR Ideacast).
There are a few reasons we started the podcast:
1) I love having deep-dive conversations with people who are experts in their field. I would do it for fun.
2) Vasanth described our podcast as getting another Master's. Each guest is like an elective course we're taking on whatever topic they're an expert on.
3) Having a respected software podcast is good for our personal brands and it expands our networks through our guests and listeners. It should help Vasanth get a job after he graduates from his Master's and it will give me a platform to promote consumer-facing startups that I build.
4) We believe that this is the future of media; people are going to consume highly relevant, creator-driven content rather than content that is made by monolithic old gatekeepers like TV Networks. Learning this business by doing it is a very valuable for the future.
We started in early February, recorded 4 episodes, then dropped the first one at the end of Feb.
 

We release an episode once a week on average. It takes us about 2-3 hours to edit and release. We usually spend 1-2 hours beforehand to prep questions and 1 hour coordinate with guests.
So total about 5 hours a week for production.
Right now, we're exploring growth strategies like posting on Reddit, YouTube, TikTok, etc. That's taking more time. Not sure how much time, since we only started this about a week ago.
Hosting, editing software, and Zoom premium is about $50 a month. We pay it out of pocket.
 

We don't have any sponsorships.
Honestly, the biggest benefit is that we learn a ton from our guests. Vasanth wants to work as a Software Product Manager after he finishes his Master's, and I am exploring various ideas to found a startup, so having deep conversations with people who are experts in domains we might not be exposed to is immensely beneficial for both of us.
We're also expanding our network by having guests introduce us to new guests and keeping in touch with guests that we cold emailed.
 

Both Vasanth and I have Blue Yeti mics. We record over Zoom and edit in Descript then publish on Buzzsprout.
We grew up in Silicon Valley so we know a ton of people who work in the industry. That's our primary pool of guests. They introduce us to other guests. Sometimes, we'll cold contact someone we saw speak on Clubhouse or someone who gave a talk we liked.
We ask them what topics they are passionate about before the episode over email, then Vasanth and I do research and come up with questions before we record. We record over Zoom.
 

1. We plugged the show to our friends
2. We posted about it on LinkedIn and asked our guests to also post about it on LinkedIn
3. We posted on subreddits that were relevant to the topic (e.g. /r/scrum for an episode about scrum)
4. We are looking into clipping episodes into YouTube/TikTok videos
5. We are looking into posting on Facebook groups
We don't have great data about breakdown of acquisition sources. Any recommendations for how to best track this?
 

1. Don't spend too much time making something perfect. Release often, learn from it, and iterate. Before we launched, we recorded 4 episodes to drop at the same time. This was a mistake. We learned a lot after those episodes went live and we got feedback from them. That's 3 episodes of feedback that we missed out on.
2. Don't ask the guest about their bio (in most cases). Just get into the topic that they're expert on. We did a 10 minute "how did you get here" segment in our first few episodes, but this wasn't very relevant to our audience.
 

You can follow me on Twitter @fzfromcupertino and Vasanth @nextVasanth
You can also add me on LinkedIn here https://www.linkedin.com/in/faraz-abidi-2260b2167/