Confessions of a Female Founder? ...Hmmm🤔

Hey Poddy People,

Hi to all the new subs since my last newsletter. It’s been since May! Ouch.

I finished writing this edition of the newsletter on the 4th of July, after my birthday, but procrastination, website updates, and GP Analytics made for a perfect delay. I hope you are doing okay and can take a breath from the real life outside for a moment. There will be some information that’s old and some new. I’m just trying to catch up.

Let’s GOOOOOOOOOO!

The Round-Up

• Two things kept me away

  • Remember the last couple of newsletters about the Techstars Pitch event, where I pitched GP Analytics, the beginner’s journey into podcast analytics. A live beta version of https://GreatPodsAnalytics.com! Based on all the customer interviews, I built a couple of features, and when it was ready to onboard my first user, NOTHING WORKED! Almost everything was broken. I was so embarrassed, even though it was working for me.

  • If there was any learning from this, is that it was a reminder to create one feature and release it to test, then move on. So now, I’m proud to say that two features work. Short link creators like bit.ly and the smart link tree creator like Linktree (link in bio). I’m particularly proud of the link-in-bio because you can customize it a bit, which would be in the paid versions of Linktree. I have it for free, AND you can make a Podcast Tree too. Check out my GP Tree. Get your social link-in-bio or podcast-in-bio page for FREE now at https://greatpodsanalytics.com.

    

  • I’m working on the social posting feature with assistants to help with creation and tracking.

• The second thing that kept me away, and most important for this audience:

  • The Great Pods refresh of 2025 - The website, which has been stale and without updates for over 3 years, is due for an update. As I learned from GP Analytics, one thing at a time. There are three major ones we’ve been needing for a while now.

    • 1. DONE: Database migration

      • We moved the database from Airtable, which served us well, to Supabase, which is a more professional database and can hold more information, like a million podcasts. Airtable had limits. It was a tedious task to learn and move for our student engineers. And now we test.

    • 2. Up Next: Login and Registration

      • Over 300k (Source: GP Google Analytics and GP Microsoft Clarity Analytics) folks have visited GP over the last couple of years, and yet I barely know anything about the audience. That’s not good for me, nor is it a good experience for you. With Log In and Registration, we can actually check the data and audience and build useful tools for the listener.

    • 3. Soon: Ingestion of podcasts automation

      • Do things that don’t scale is the startup saying so you can first-hand see what problems and solutions to come up with. Well, I did that, and I’m ready to automate it. We’ll be working on ingesting podcast information from various sources automatically, vs. me manually adding them. Podcast Screener will be adjusted for this as well.

• Nobody Should Believe Me came out with a 6th season. I was happy to get a press email from them, not only adding reviews for their marketing, but also adding GP in the email press release.

• We heard rumblings about video podcasts on Netflix in the past, but now we have a clear picture. Spotify will be bringing some of its video podcasts to Netflix and removing them from YouTube in a new partnership. Some say it is a pact to protect against YouTube’s growing video podcasts. Read it here.

  • For transparency, I am still a critic of Bill Simmons, The Ringer network founder and head of monetization for Spotify podcasts, not being questioned when the first round of big layoffs happened at Spotify podcasts. If he’s the head of monetization, shouldn’t he have been held accountable? If I missed something, someone please share the new information.

• Today is the last day to submit your podcast for the The Ambies Award at The Podcast Academy. Submit here.

• Afros & Audio Podcast Conference was this past weekend, and I had the pleasure of assigning Natasha from the wonderful Bitter/Sweet podcast and the UK to attend the event. Early indications from Natasha say that it was an enjoyable experience! Thanks to Talib, founder of Afros & Audio, for the invite. A post on the event will be in an upcoming newsletter.

• I’ll be heading out to the Resonate Podcast festival in Virginia in November, talking, interviewing, networking, and promoting the upgrade to GP. Sold out, but keep watch on the GP’s Instagram for the IG stories. Shoutout to the founder of Resonate, Chioke I’Anson, for the invite.

• Non-podcasting news: I’m supporting my friends’ local charity for South Asian breaking stigma in our community. More info here.

• Oh, and Comedian and long-time podcaster Marc Maron aired his final episode with a revisit from President Obama. Listen here.

I have more catching up to do on the next newsletter! (Conferences, Incubators, New Updates). On to the pick this week…

Podcast: Confessions of a Female Founder with Meghan
Genre: Business, Women
Publisher: Lemonada

About: As Meghan, Duchess of Sussex builds out a business of her own, she’s getting advice and insights from a handful of amazing women who have scaled small ideas into successful companies. These fly-on-the-wall conversations will no doubt inspire anyone who’s interested in turning their own entrepreneurial dreams into a reality and anyone else who just wants to hear what really happens behind the scenes.

I was really holding off on this one for a while, as you can tell by the above updates. Holy guacamole. I figured this podcast was going to be another fluff piece by Meghan Markle, and my curation style is that if it’s reviewed, I will put it into the mix even if I don’t like it, but you might. However, all the reviews coming out were lambasting the podcast, similar to Archetypes, except for one from Marie Claire magazine. Anytime a podcast gets a plethora of bad reviews, I’ll still listen because it could be decent enough to improve.

Episode 1

Most of the press is from the Brits, who may or may not have a bias against her, had reviews on episode 1, with Bumble’s CEO, Whitney Wolfe Herd. I will say it was merited as a bad episode. It was all surface-level conversation, and none of the podcast edge we listen for in an educational yet friendly podcast. Meghan and Whitney never peel the layers and get deep. Whitney went through a major lawsuit with Tinder’s co-founders, maybe go in depth about that experience since it’s been ten years. Just a thought. What learnings did you get to not only create your own competitor application, but also to become one of the first female self-made billionaires? Instead, it felt like a conversation from Archetypes about drinking some rose. They probably would’ve had a better podcast if they had the drinks going like Drink Champs.

Versus Episode 2+

All that to say, episode two+ is a whole other podcast. It feels like, when Meghan has a guest that she doesn’t actually hang out with on vacations to Aspen, that’s when things change in the conversation. She’s more curious about the guest in their struggle and story.

For example, “The Long Game with Girls Who Code’s Reshma Saujani,” we hear Reshma’s chance to lead, her upbringing, history, also the layers I mention, unpeeling for our education and encouragement. All the while making Girls Who Code a successful non-profit. Anytime I hear a story and there is a genuine break in the voice of the guest, I can feel the pain. It was really good.

Then I landed on “Building Your Brand Brick by Brick with Highbrow Hippie’s Kadi Lee, Colorist, who started her own mom and pop stylist shop and product. From a blog to a physical good was awesome to hear and take notes on from a Black woman-led business.

Kate Hassett • Marie Claire

“Markle’s ability to converse and extract meaningful insight from Herd was apparent throughout, as she continued to offer examples of how she managed to overcome that time in her life and move into the next phase of her career. Focusing on the highs and lows of building a business shouldn’t just be a conversation about numbers and strategy.”

Chris Bennion • Telegraph UK

“Apart from the surface-level waffle, the thing that will strike you is Meghan’s. Distractingly odd. Staccato. Delivery. With a very UNusual, EMPHasis on. Various words. In the actual conversation with Wolfe Herd, she is more relaxed and natural, but never adds much more than fulsome agreement and gentle tap-ins for her guest.”

Catch Up On Confessions

Sidenote: As of sending this today, I learned that Confessions of a Female Founder won a listener’s choice Signal Award.

No Top 5 until the migration test and the full site is back up.

Highlighting podcasts from my inbox and Podcast Screener (not linking to Great Pods because of the migration testing):

Open Thoughts with Funny Marco
The Peacemaker
The Savage West: A Port at the Edge of the World
The Crypt of Horrors
Play on Podcasts - Timon of Athens
Crying Wolf
Spooky Story Time (Halloween Specials)
Project: Daydream
Soul Operator
Top Floor
Behind the Data
What Your Therapist Thinks
Another Fucking Horror Podcast
Keeping the Zoo
Wholesome TV Picks
Hot Mess-Terpiece Theatre
Simple and Clean: A Kingdom Hearts Podcast
Charlie’s Place
Oceanography
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