David Rosenthal

Corporate podcast agency: companies get value even if no one listens

David Rosenthal pitches a corporate podcast agency that makes internal or external podcasts for companies. The thesis: there's tremendous value even if nobody listens, because the show is an excuse for relationship-building sales and biz-dev conversations with customers and prospects.

“I think you could actually start a corporate podcast agency. So an agency for companies to make their own internal podcasts or external, either one. And my thesis on this is that for companies there is tremendous value to having a podcast, even if nobody listens.”

Steal thisSell companies a podcast as sales enablement: the recorded conversation is a reusable lead-nurturing asset even with zero organic audience.

David runs a ~$30M AngelList fund built off the back of Acquired

Asked what businesses they've built off the podcast, David Rosenthal says he manages about $30 million of capital on AngelList across two funds and four or five SPVs, and credits all of it to Acquired despite his prior VC career.

“So I have a fund on AngelList. I manage about $30 million of capital on AngelList between two funds and four or five SPVs. And while I used to be a professional VC before going full-time on Acquired, and that certainly helps, all of that's because of Acquired.”

The Dow Jones index licensing business: ~$1B top line, near-zero cost

David, a former Dow Jones employee, recounts that the indexes business they sold was a billion-dollar-top-line operation with almost no expenses, essentially pure profit, because it was just licensing the Dow name.

“But, um, but it was a billion-dollar business within Dow Jones. So billion-dollar top line, basically no expenses. Like it was all just pure money. And what it was, it was just a marketing thing. It was like, you get to use the Dow name. Like that's— so it's like a license, like a licensing thing.”