Hey friends,
Back again with another edition of The Founder Newsletter - this is Episode 24. If you’re new here, my goal is to give you a quick synopsis of what got me thinking from this week’s episode of The Founder Podcast in 5 minutes or less.
No idea what The Founder is? Read this.
Mission control:
Learn -> Founder favorite resources
Free money -> Discount codes
And who am I?
I’m Kallaway - a future founder trying to get some answers before I jump in the ball pit myself.
Let’s get it.
This Week’s Episode (Ep 24) 🎙️
Guest -> Zach Moreno, Founder & CEO of Squadcast
Mission -> Squadcast aims to amplify collaboration through technology by enabling podcasters to capture the highest quality audio from their conversations with guests all over the world.
Discount -> Get started with Squadcast using this link
Episode available on -> Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Website
In this episode we talk with Zach about…
💻 How to improve virtual collaboration with better technology
🌱 What it takes to start and grow a podcast
🔮 The future of audio and podcasting
💰 The decision to not raise venture capital
🧑💻 Building a best-in-class SaaS business
Summary 🔍
What is Squadcast and how did Zach get started?
Zach is a dual-threat, getting his start at art school studying both graphic design and full stack computer engineering.
After spending some time on Google’s Chrome team and being exposed to what’s possible on the internet across audio, video and cloud, he spent the next few years sharpening his skills, working for the government and teaching at Cal Berkeley.
Ultimately, he found his way back to his creative roots and started a podcast as a side project, but when he tried to record remotely with his brother and best friend, found that the virtual collaboration tools available just weren’t good enough to achieve the quality they expected.
And that’s how Squadcast was born.
Today at Squadcast, Zach and his team have built the Lamborghini of virtual audio recording.
Their mission is to amplify collaboration through technology and they do it by enabling podcasters to capture the highest quality audio from their conversations with guests all over the world.
When you use Squadcast, you immediately realize the massive difference between their platform and something like Zoom or Skype. While Zoom and Skype compress the audio before playing it back in your headphones, giving it that crushed ("telephone") type of sound, Squadcast records the audio on both sides locally, saving it as the highest quality possible and then sending it through.
Squadcast is building the future of audio collaboration, and with partners like Dolby Labs as well as new features around lossless video recording and the ability to watch your favorite podcasters record their conversation live, there’s a lot to be excited about.
Here’s why I’m a fan and excited about the future for Squadcast:
Zach has one of the more unique backgrounds you will find in a founder. He is an artist, trained designer, creative, software engineer and has an incredible business acumen. By combining art and engineering, Zach is able to understand more about his customer’s ideal user experience than most. This helped Squadcast build a robust platform with a lean team in the early days
Listeners can’t tolerate poor audio. These days, they expect the best. In a world full of virtual collaboration, video conferencing apps like Zoom and Skype weren’t made for recorded conversations that were meant to be uploaded for mass consumption. With Zoom and Skype, the programs compress the recorded audio creating that “on the telephone” type sound. Squadcast patented a new process that records each person’s audio locally and progressively uploads it to the cloud, so that they capture the highest quality audio and never lose it during an outage
Squadcast is also constantly pushing the envelope for what is possible with respect to partnerships. They are working with innovative NLP company Descript as well as Dolby to enhance both their transcription and surround sound features respectively. They love experimenting with additional tools to enhance the customer experience
Zach’s Startup Manifesto 📜
What’s a Startup Manifesto?
At the end of every episode, I ask all of my founder guests the same question:
If you had to write a Startup Manifesto with 5 of the most important key lessons or pitfalls to avoid when starting out, what would they be?
Here’s what Zach had to say:
Listen to your customers – you’re not going to find product market fit unless you listen to what people are telling you
Be passionate, but be mindful of the passion for the problem you’re solving. Your customer’s passion probably matters more than yours.
Focus – it’s more important what you don’t do. Focus works in both directions. Remember the JOMO — joy of missing out — and don’t worry about what you miss
Reputation – it’s not just about keeping people happy, but more important how you show up and address the team when people aren’t happy
Prepare for inflection points before they come. A lot of people plan for the worst case scenario but fail to plan for the best case scenario
What Got Me Thinking From the Episode 🤔
After reflecting on my conversation with Zach, here’s something that really got my wheels spinning:
The importance of routines 🤯
Towards the end of my conversation with Zach, he opened up about a battle with depression.
I commend him for the transparency and willingness to be vulnerable to shed light on a topic that is so common, especially among startup founders.
What I thought was fascinating was Zach’s ability to recognize the condition and then implement wellness habits and routines that helped regulate his daily life.
He said that when he was depressed, he was eating poorly and only getting a couple hours of sleep a night.
Since then, he’s implemented consistent sleeping practices, built a mindfulness/meditation routine into his life and eats vegan. Additionally, he’s a huge fan of jujitsu and a strong proponent of regular exercise.
For Zach, these wellness habits literally pulled him out of the depression he was feeling and enabled him to live a more normal life.
I think establishing consistent wellness routines is the number one thing you can do to optimize your life for a couple of reasons:
It calms the mind. The combination of good sleep, consistent exercise and meditation has a unique way of settling a racing mind. This means that during the hours you are awake, you can focus on the things that really matter to you
It curbs your stress. There is nothing better in the world for stress management than exercise. If you’re ever feeling stuck and starting to notice irrational frustration, go sweat. Without fail, no matter who you are or where you live, exercise does an amazing job of reducing stress
It enables you to maximize your sleep -> a key component of setting the next day on the right foot. By doing all of the right things today, you create the optimal environment for sleep and can maximize your next day. It’s a cycle that never stops and one that is important to dial in
I also believe in a regimented morning routine. With the unpredictability of life, I recommend getting the majority of your self-care (mental health, physical health, hygiene) taken care of in the morning.
For me, I have a set routine where I wake up, drink 1.5L of water, do Wim-Hof breathing, meditate for 15 minutes, write in a substack for 10 minutes and then workout for 45 minutes.
This allows me to start the day off on the right foot and not feel stressed if I have to work late or meet up with friends during the week.
Try to build your own morning routine that drives consistency around your wellness. I promise it will pay off!
Wrapping it Up 📕
I hope you found this interesting and inspiring! If so and you want to help support my journey to bring The Founder to millions of people across the world, here’s a couple things that would be really valuable to me and the show:
If you enjoyed this post, share it with one friend that you think is on the same wavelength. Can’t hurt and would help spread the word!
If you haven’t already, subscribe to the newsletter so you can get them delivered to your inbox each week!
Listen to the full podcast episode with Zach on Apple or Spotify. If you don’t have an hour to listen to the full episode, pick a couple of topics you’re interested in and skim through (topic time codes in the show notes).
If you’re feeling super giving:
Find our show on Apple Podcasts (https://apple.co/2VCosu6) and (1) subscribe, (2) give a 5-star rating and (3) leave a couple sentence positive review. This doesn’t seem like it would move the needle but it really is a massive help!
Till next time ✌️
Kallaway
Want more? Check out other companies we’ve featured on the show!
— 🥦 22. Levels | Josh Clemente
— 🧑🦰 17. Kombo Ventures | Kevin Gould
— 💍 11. The Clear Cut | Olivia Landau and Kyle Simon