[xs]

Anyone know anything about investing in podcasts? Like, suppose you find a fresh new one, where it has a lot of potential but just needs more practice/exposure/equipment. And you want to help them get there quicker by giving say $20,000 in hopes they hit it big and their show becomes very profitable down the road.

Perhaps investing in a twitch channel or youtuber is similar?

I just wonder if there's any help or guides to doing this or if it's ever been done.

[rexreed]

What's the exit / return for the investor? You're better off just sponsoring it or finding sponsors for them and splitting the proceeds or just giving it all to them. But investors? I don't think there's a rational strategy here.

[xs]

Poking around I found this: https://pod.fund/

Apparently they are investing in podcasts with a lot of potential. And then when they become profitable they take a cut of the earnings.

[rexreed]

It's basically a high interest unsecured loan on future revenues. It's very much the Mr. Wonderful model from Shark Tank. 7-15% return on revenues for 3-5 years on $25k-$50k investment. Maybe it makes sense for some, maybe it doesn't. But as an asset category? I wouldn't be plowing money into podcasts expecting much of a return. The successful podcasts don't need your money.

[WrtCdEvrydy]

This sound pretty interesting, I wonder if the bar to entry is so low for an individual that external investment is not needed.

[xs]

There's glimpses of this out there. Leon Neyfakh created the podcast Slow Burn while working for slate. But he wanted to make a second podcast called Fiasco, but Slate wasn't on board with it or Leon was tired of slate or something and Leo had to do it on his own. But the problem was, Leo didn't have the funds to quit his job at Slate and make Fiasco. This would be a very heavily reported podcast, traveling, interviews, research, editor, producers etc are all needed. So Luminary got in contact with Leo, and funded the whole thing. Gave Leo enough money to make Fiasco with the condition that Luminary has an exclusive on the show. So there's an example of how a company gave Leo the funding to make it happen and is possibly getting back that money somehow.