Latest / The Series A Show with Fexingo: Early-Stage Funding, Pitch Decks, and Startup Milestones / Why Startups Are Adding Podcasts to Investor Updates
Transcript
- Lucas: Alright, so there is a new fundraising tactic that I keep hearing about from founders, and it sounds a little gimmicky at first, but the data actually backs it up. Startups are now launching private podcasts for their investor updates. Luna: Wait — a podcast just for the investors who already wrote a check? That feels like adding more noise to an already crowded inbox. Lucas: That's the thing — the inbox is the problem. DocSend published a survey a few weeks ago that showed the average open rate for investor update emails has dropped to thirty-two percent. That's down from about fifty percent two years ago. So founders are looking for a channel where they actually get heard. Luna: Okay, but a podcast episode is longer than an email. Are investors actually listening? Lucas: According to the same survey, yes. The average engagement rate for audio updates — and this is measured by at least halfway through the recording — is north of seventy percent. Investors listen during commutes, while they're on the treadmill, that kind of thing. It's asynchronous, it's personal, and it's actually getting consumed. Luna: So who's doing this well? Give me a real example. Lucas: Sure. There's a B2B SaaS company called Voxflow — they make workflow automation tools, about four million in ARR. Their founder, a woman named Priya Ramesh, started recording a weekly audio update for her lead investors back in January of this year. It's about eight to twelve minutes, she just talks through the weekly metrics, one customer story, one ask. She told me that within a month, three of her board members said they felt more informed than they had in the prior quarter with written updates. Luna: That's interesting. But does it scale? If you have thirty angel investors, are you really going to send each of them a voice memo? Lucas: That's the beauty of the podcast format. It's one feed, one recording, and you just share a private link. Most founders are using a tool like Transistor or Buzzsprout's private podcasting feature — you generate a unique RSS feed that only your investors can access. So it's actually less work than writing individual emails. Luna: And they're calling it a podcast. But it's really a serialized audio update. Lucas: Exactly. And the name matters for discoverability. If you call it 'Voxflow Investor Update' and put it in Apple Podcasts as a private feed, it shows up in their app alongside everything else they listen to. It's not an attachment or a link in a sea of emails. Luna: What about the risk of saying something off-the-cuff that you can't take back? An email you can edit and revise. A podcast is more raw. Lucas: That's a fair concern. But founders tell me they actually prefer the conversational tone because it feels more authentic. And they're not reading financial statements aloud — it's more about context. For example, Priya at Voxflow mentioned in one episode that a key customer was about to churn, and she explained what they were doing to save the account. The investors actually gave her advice that helped retain the customer. That feedback loop is harder to create with a written document. Luna: So the investors are listening and then responding. That does build a stronger relationship. But I wonder about the time commitment for the founder. A ten-minute episode still takes time to record and edit. Lucas: Sure. But most founders say they spend about thirty minutes total per episode — ten to record, twenty to do a light edit and upload. Compare that to a polished investor newsletter that can take two hours to write and design. The audio format actually saves time. Luna: I want to push back a little. If this becomes common, won't investors just get overwhelmed with podcasts the way they are with email? Every founder starts a podcast, and suddenly the investor has fifty private feeds to check. Lucas: That's possible. But I think the signal to noise ratio is actually better because the barrier to entry is higher. A founder who takes the time to record a weekly audio update is probably more committed and has more substance to share. And investors can always unsubscribe. But the early data suggests that investors are actually asking for this. In the DocSend survey, nearly forty percent of venture investors said they'd prefer an audio update over a written one if given the choice. Luna: Alright, you've convinced me it's worth trying. But I want to talk about something else — the rise of AI voice clones. There are now tools that let you generate a synthetic version of your voice from a short sample. Could a founder just clone their voice and have the AI record the update for them? Lucas: They could, and some are. There's a startup called VocalKit that offers exactly that — you record a few sentences, and then you can type a script and it reads it in your voice. The investor might not even know it's not you. But that raises a trust issue. If investors find out you're not actually recording it yourself, they might feel deceived. Luna: Yeah, I think authenticity is the whole point of the audio update. The value is hearing the founder's tone, their hesitation, their enthusiasm. A clone might sound perfect, but it loses that human element. Lucas: Completely agree. And the best founders use that imperfection to their advantage. They stumble over words, they laugh at their own mistakes. That's what makes investors feel like they're in the room with the founder. Luna: So for a founder listening right now who's thinking about starting an audio update, what's the one piece of advice you'd give? Lucas: Keep it short. Eight to ten minutes max. Start with the one metric that matters most that week, then a quick customer story, then one specific ask. And be consistent — weekly at the same time. That builds a habit for your investors. Luna: And don't use an AI clone. Got it. But seriously, this is a great tactic for founders who want to stand out in a crowded inbox. And it's free to start. Lucas: Exactly. And if you're a founder listening and you're thinking about ways to deepen your investor relationships, this is a low-cost, high-impact move. By the way, if you find these conversations useful for what you're building, we keep the show free and ad-free thanks to listener support. You can help keep it going at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, that really does make a difference. And we appreciate everyone who chips in. Now, back to the tactical side — I want to talk about the actual content of these updates. Lucas, what's the most common mistake founders make when they first start recording? Lucas: They try to cover too much. They cram in every metric, every update, every piece of news. It becomes a laundry list and investors tune out. The best update has a single narrative thread — 'this week we focused on reducing churn, here's what we did, here's what happened, here's what we need.' That's it. Luna: That makes sense. And I think it also forces the founder to be more strategic. If you have to summarize your week in eight minutes, you have to think about what actually matters. Lucas: Exactly. And that discipline pays off in other areas, too. Priya told me that since she started doing these updates, she's more focused on the key levers of the business because she knows she has to explain them to her investors every week. Luna: So the podcast becomes a forcing function for founder clarity. I like that. Lucas: And it's not just for fundraising. Some founders are using these updates as a way to test messaging for their broader marketing. If a story gets a lot of investor follow-up questions, they know it's compelling and they'll use it in a blog post or a sales call. Luna: That's a nice side effect. I think we're going to see this become more standard over the next year. Especially as AI tools make editing and distribution easier. Lucas: I think so too. It's a small change that can have a big impact on investor trust and engagement. And in a market where fundraising is getting harder, every edge matters.