The 12 Best Podcasts For Entrepreneurs
Covering all things entreprenewsial.
Photo by Patrick Breitenbach
The best entrepreneurs are always looking for a new edge, and
increasingly, podcasts have become an unparalleled source of applicable
advice. A bunch of podcasts focusing on tech, startups, and the
challenges of growing your business have launched in recent years.
Forbes has sampled a whole bunch, and recommends these 12 as some of the
best and most educational out there.
StartUp
The first season was a breakthrough, with host Alex Blumberg taking
listeners inside a startup from conception to funding and many more
challenges. That startup: his own, podcast network Gimlet Media. The
second season, which ended this summer, switched to follow Dating Ring, a
dating company founded by two women in the 20s. Some of the challenges
were similar, others different—including founder disagreements and
sexism.
Built To Sell
Built To Sell fills a very specific niche: addressing how and when
and why to sell your business. Serial entrepreneur John Warrillow wrote
one of the best business books of 2011,
Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You,
which discussed how to create a company that you can eventually sell.
Now he talks every week to a recently cashed-out entrepreneur to learn
more about that process.
Startup School Radio
This new podcast, started in July, comes from Y Combinator, the
accelerator behind companies like Dropbox, Airbnb, Stripe, Zenefits, and
Instacart. The show, hosted by YC partner Aaron Harris and former
cofounder of failed tutoring marketplace startup Tutorspree, talks
practical advice on starting, funding, and scaling companies through
interviews with founders. A weekly extension of YC’s Startup School
conference, it’s worth checking out.
The Pitch
Enjoy Shark Tank, but want something with a little less fake reality
TV drama? You’ll like The Pitch, a podcast where early stage startups
pitch their company and then three investors give real feedback and talk
about whether or not they will invest—and why. A different startup and
investor group every two weeks, The Pitch will keep you hooked.
Collective Wisdom For Tech Startups
Some podcasts stand out as much for the format as the content. A
podcast from Founders Collective, a seed-stage venture capital firm that
has invested in companies like Uber, Buzzfeed, MakerBot, and SeatGeek,
Collective Wisdom is one of those. The show features interviews with
founders—and then breaks up each full 30 minute to an hour episode into
minute-long bites of wisdom.
She Did It Her Way
Enough with the men. If you’re looking for a women’s perspective on
growing a company, look no further than She Did It Her Way. Every week,
they talk with a successful female entrepreneur. And it’s a diverse
group of startups and people, far from your typical tech company
overload.
Reboot
Former venture capitalist Jerry Colonna is now an executive coach.
His podcast Reboot focuses less on the business challenges than the
psychological issues that founders deal with. On each episode, which
come out twice per month, Colonna talks with leaders and business owners
about the emotional struggles they face as they try to grow their
startups.
Zen Founder
Sticking with the emotional theme, here’s another podcast that looks
more at personal health of founders as they juggle work, family, and
more. The co-hosts are a serial entrepreneur and a psychologist who
specializes in trauma work, a unique combination for learning how to
stay sane while starting up.
Rocketship
With three hosts and one startup founder, Rocketship has an
unbalanced lineup but an engaging show. At 30 minutes per episode, this
is an easy to digest conversational interview that you can learn
from—and it’s prolific too, with two episodes per week for the last year
and a half.
a16z
Want a window into the world of a top venture capital firm? Look no
further than Andreessen Horowitz’s flagship podcast. This is a prolific
podcast, often producing multiple episodes per week, is typically made
up of interviews with startup founders and various partners and analysts
at the firm. Good insight here not just into growing a business with
venture capitals, but also into tech trends in general.
Re/code Decode
If you’re a tech entrepreneur, Re/code Decode is a great view into
the decisions of some of the biggest and most successful tech founders
and CEOs. Kara Swisher, with a mostly no-nonsense interview style, hosts
Silicon Valley veterans like Marc Andreessen, Slack’s Stuart
Butterfield, Y Combinator’s Sam Altman, and LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner.
Traction
Traction is a podcast focused on going from zero to one: how do you
raise your startup from nothing? A podcast from seed fund NextView
Ventures, Traction host Jay Acunzo and his guests talk about doing
things that may not scale, but help get results.
Brian Solomon writes about entrepreneurs and startups for Forbes. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
