Each week we interview one of our members to find out a bit more about them and their work in the Greater Manchester digital sphere. This week we're speaking with James Mulvany, Founder at Podcast.co
What does your organisation do?
Podcast.co helps businesses and brands spread their message through Podcasting.
As an entrepreneur, I’ve been involved with various businesses since I finished school then throughout uni and then after graduating. I launched Radio.co 3 years ago, which has been a tremendous success and now Podcast.co is my latest business venture. We are based in Manchester in the Northern Quarter with podcast studio facilities in The Federation.
Podcast.co is going to be introducing a new podcast hosting platform to the industry in 2019. This is as a response to serve demand from existing Radio.co customers, who are mainly broadcast radio and brands. We also want to enter the rapidly growing and very exciting podcast market - which has grown significantly over the past few years. To develop and launch our new software platform, we’ve taken on £300k debt to accelerate this process and have hired new development and marketing teams specifically to work on the business.
Pre-launch we are already working with organisations such as Manchester Digital, Co-op and Intern Magazine as well as numerous others on a consultancy basis to help develop & launch podcasts.
We are keen to work with digital and tech businesses along with digital agencies in the area who see podcasting as a valuable way to reach more prospects or engage their audiences and customer bases. So if that's you - feel free to drop us an email on hello@podcast.co
What do you think is currently the biggest issue facing the digital and tech industry?
Narrowing it down to one issue I don’t think really is possible. It depends on each company's own problems plus wants/needs, which can vary greatly. Obviously, there are things that seem to recur such as skills gap or recruitment difficulties. Also funding/investment for early-stage companies. We’ve always been privately funded and fortunate enough not to need any outside investment. However, many startups we’ve spoken to trying to raise in Manchester have had mixed results in raising - a lot of the UK tech industry, unfortunately, seems to still be very London centric. I think merging ‘TechCity’ and ‘TechNorth’ the two government orgs to promote and help tech in the UK into one ‘TechNation’ was a good move, why should it be separated by area after all. Considering there are some states in the US which are larger than the UK, I do find it quite amazing that some investors are put off putting money into companies outside of London.
Rather than focusing on negatives, however, I would instead maybe ask the question “What benefits are there to being based in Manchester” instead - after all this is Manchester Digital right?
So here’s my answer to that - I moved here in 2010 as a sole founder/business owner shortly after graduating uni. I was at a stage where I was ready to start hiring and Manchester seemed an obvious decision. I needed skilled staff in the tech sector, there are three universities here and also its far cheaper in terms of overheads than London. So it was really a win win situation for me - within 2 years I’d already built a team of 10 and fast forward to 2018 and still hiring and never regretted the decision to set up shop in Manchester.
What is your organisation’s biggest achievement?
We’re in such early days feel like we are working towards achieving something, so not bought a product to market yet. Although very happy to say that progress is good, we’re doing well in terms of marketing strategy - starting to grow traffic, follower counts and email lists. All good signs! Plus our dev team are progressing nicely on creating our platform, which we’re hoping to have ready for BETA testing in late Autumn.
We’re also really proud of our podcast studio facilities at The Federation, which launched in August and has been designed to give businesses and individuals access to professional grade equipment for recording podcasts, voiceover etc at a much more affordable hourly rate than would normally be associated with such facilities normally used by the ‘broadcast’ sector.
What would you consider to be your organisation’s biggest challenge?
Our biggest upcoming challenge will be launching next year, after launching Radio.co a few years back we are experienced in what it takes and also some of the pitfalls, feel like we bringing to market and then rapidly growing a customer base. In a market which we are relatively new to with a few already established and strong competitors.
What do you think the future looks like for Manchester’s digital and tech sector?
I think there has been a definite recent shift towards Manchester becoming an amazing hub for innovation, digital and tech. There is certainly more startups choosing to have a base here now, certainly felt like the digital industry in Manchester was more agency focused say 5 years ago, there is now more of a visible presence of companies building digital products & running SaaS platforms etc.
Tell us something we might not know about your company
Podcast.co has been a long time coming! Last year I decided that finally seemed like the industry is mature and moving quickly enough to build a really exciting product and startup in. I’ve actually been involved in podcasting though since 2008. Back then, I was a student studying at the University of Huddersfield and decided to run a workshop for local business owners on how to get started with podcasts. It was all pretty primitive back then and the workshop involved a lot of flip-charts and but fortunately, things have now moved on!
If you would like to speak to podcast.co you can reach them at hello@podcast.co
If you'd like to see your business feature In The Spotlight, contact thom@manchesterdigital.com to make arrangements.
