Podder Raises €100K Pre-seed Investment Round from Think Bigger Capital

The podcasting industry harbors tremendous business potential and though relatively young, podcasting is steadily becoming the creative channel for brand marketing. At Podder, Christian and Andrés have created a singular space for brands to tell their stories via podcasts and connect with their audiences. It’s no surprise that Demium’s Think Bigger Capital is endorsing their endeavor rewarding them a €100K pre-seed investment round which will enable them to continue building personalized content marketing.

Q: Tell us about Podder

Podder is a Podcast Advertising Platform that connects advertisers to audiences through Host-Read podcast endorsements. What sets Podder aside is that we automatically match advertisers to podcasts based on a number of data points, like audience numbers, audience demographics, content and format of the podcast.

Q: Tell us a little bit about the founding team. How come you started in Demium and how has the incubation programme experience been so far? 

The founding team consists of me, Christian Sørensen, and my co-founder Andrés Olaizola. We are a Danish / Venezuelan dream team that actually met during the initial phase of the incubation period at Demium. We both signed up to one of the Demium AllStartUp weekends because we were interested in what Demium was offering, and we also wanted a shot at starting our own business.

Q: What was it like raising a round for the first time? 

Exciting, of course. It is like closing a really really big deal with a client, but it goes way beyond that: it marks the validation which allows others to see the point we are trying to make with our idea and work. It is important for us that they believe in our ability to actually create a great startup.

Q: What will you focus your initial funding on?

Team team team. We have spent a lot on putting together a great team which will allow us to grow Podder further, taking it to the next level!

Q: What did you find investors valued most about your startup?

I believe they valued that we had not only identified an interesting opportunity in scaling host-read podcast ads, but even more so, that we had already been able to get a bit of traction. In addition, having strong industry advisors certainly helped! We also believe that they surely valued the founding dream team as well.

Q: What advice would you offer other entrepreneurs looking for first round funding?

Remember what matters to a potential investor, not to you. When you are going for a pre-seed round you still have a lot of learning, adapting and pivoting to do, so pretending like you already figured it all out will work against you. Investors who invest early choose to empower interesting ideas, growing markets and strong teams that show potential and the ability to create something. Convince your investor you can learn and adapt. Don’t try to win them over by appearing that you know it all. Be humble, not stubborn.

Q: What role did Demium play in this first investment round?

A big role. And a special shout-out to Nina Alastruey, from Demium Barcelona, as she helped us fine-tune and structure our pitch and business plan and get us ready. In addition, Demium provided the space, resources, training and accountability, as well as investor introductions. Demium was the decisive factor for our success.