Introducing RedCircle

A few weeks back, while listening to a particularly moving episode of a favorite podcast, tears slid down my cheek while I was pushing a stroller to the coffee shop.  I recall driving home from work several years ago, and having a lifelong core belief shattered by a powerful podcast interview. I’ve even had hysterical laughing fits while doing the dishes with headphones on and I’m not usually very thrilled about doing the dishes.

When people think about the types of media that have such emotional power, many think of cinematography, visual art, poetry, etc.  For me, podcasts have a special place alongside these other forms of creative expression. They are more than a hobby or a distraction; podcasts have the power to move us.

As more and more podcast listeners are drawn to this moving medium, our team has found a growing community of podcast creators expressing themselves through audio.  We’ve spoken to journalists who are telling compelling narratives, we’ve met niche experts whose independent podcasts delight a committed audience, and we know many creators who are just getting started in brewing an idea for their first show.  

We believe that every podcast creator has incredible stories to tell, and we’re here to help them be heard.

Today, we’re announcing RedCircle, a free community-driven podcasting platform that helps creators manage their content, analyze their reach, and grow their audiences together.  With RedCircle, every podcaster gets free podcast hosting and powerful tools for analytics. It’s everything you need to take your podcast to the next level, and it’s completely free.

A Platform For Creators

At its core, RedCircle is all about improving the experience of the podcast creator.  RedCircle’s modern UI is designed to make the task of uploading and managing podcast content delightful.  Need to import your podcast from another platform? It takes just a few clicks. Need help getting your podcast onto Apple or Google Podcasts?  We’ll guide you through it. Want to know how well your latest episode is performing in California vs. New York? We’ve got you.

You’d expect such powerful tooling to come at a high cost.  Other podcast hosts frequently charge $20-$75 a month for hosting if you have just a few episodes of content.  At RedCircle, podcasters get all of our hosting tools for free.  For us, the cost of bandwidth is very small. We believe that for creators, it should be zero.

Through our beta program starting just a few weeks ago, we’ve had hundreds of podcasters join the platform.  Since then, we’ve had thousands of episodes uploaded and millions of episode downloads. We’ve been absolutely amazed by the diversity in the content, and we are so excited to see what our passionate and growing community of creators will share with the world.

What’s the catch?

Many have asked, “If you’re not charging for podcast hosting, how do you make money?”  RedCircle’s business model differs from traditional podcast hosting companies. We don’t want to make money from creators; we’re making money with creators.  For podcasts that grow big enough, RedCircle’s dedicated sales team helps connect the podcasters with advertising partners.  We’ll share in the revenue when those connections are made and sustained. We only do well as a company when our creators do well. That’s how we believe business should work.

In the last few weeks since our public beta began, RedCircle has already generated thousands of dollars in revenue for our podcasters.  We’re just getting started.

Who’s Behind RedCircle

RedCircle was founded by myself, Mike Kadin, and Jeremy Lermitte.  Prior to RedCircle, we helmed Uber’s marketing technology team, used by thousands of Uber marketers around the globe.  Together, we built the systems and products that facilitated billions of interactions over email, SMS, push notifications, voice calls, and more.

After founding RedCircle, we’ve been joined by several ex-Uber engineers and colleagues.  At Uber, we all learned how to build products that take the complex and make them simple.  Over the years there, we also had the opportunity to see how scaling a business can affect its culture.  We were taught what worked and what didn’t at Uber, and are ready to craft an organization based on those learnings.

RedCircle is backed by amazing investors who know their way around the space.  Our $1.5M initial investment was led by Roy Bahat at Bloomberg Beta. We’re also backed by MathCapital, S28 Capital, and a truly amazing collection of angel investors that includes 9 of the best operators from Uber.

What’s Next?

We’re just getting started.  We see so much friction for podcasters, and we intend to make each and every element of their work as seamless as possible.  We see opportunities to help by improving audio editing, improving discovery and distribution, as well as monetization. Stay tuned, we’re excited to bring the podcast community several more exciting tools to help them be heard.