So I'm Sari Azoud. I am the founder of Sublime
.app and Podcast Magic. And we make personal
knowledge management tools for knowledge workers
and creative professionals. So Sari, you launched
Podcast Magic, I think last week. Tell us what
that is, first of all. Yeah. So Podcast Magic
is the easiest way to capture insights from podcasts.
It comes from a... compulsive listener of podcasts
that wanted to have the kindle highlighting equivalent
but for podcasts anything else that i look at
or see online i can bookmark but when it comes
to podcasts sharing the the podcast episode doesn't
feel like it captures like this one moment that
really truly resonated and you know the the solutions
to this stuff if you're really eager are after
the run, which is when I'm normally listening
to podcasts, I run to my computer, I find a way
to get the transcript, and I copy -paste it to
my app of choice. Or there are some dedicated
apps, but they're not platform agnostic, so it's
a more cumbersome process. And so we just wanted
to do the more natural thing that people already
do, which is take a screenshot. and then use
AI to go from that screenshot to extracting the
text and generating a clip. And I mean, really
it solves for people the ability to retain more
of what they listen to, right? If you're spending
several hours a week listening to podcasts and
you can't remember a lot of what you listen,
then a lot of that is lost. So there's that sort
of retaining of information. There's also the
sharing piece. Sometimes I'm listening to a podcast
and there's an incredible insight I want to share
with my team. I know they're not going to listen
to the full two hour episode. How can I best
share this one moment? So that's really kind
of the problem space that we're after. And we
found as we put it out there that there's a sort
of like separate parallel problem set for podcasters
that we're excited to dive into as well. And
I'm happy to talk about. So in terms of how you
use it, you literally just take a screenshot
of the podcast as it's playing and then you just
email it through to you. That's basically how
it works? Yeah. You are listening to a podcast
on any platform. It really works on Apple Podcasts,
Spotify, Overcast. And you just take a screenshot
when you hear something you love. It could be
from the lock screen or the podcast player page.
As long as there's a visible timestamp and a
partial podcast title or episode name, that's
all we need. And then you just email that screenshot
to podcastmagic at sublime .app. And then within
30 seconds, you've got an email with the transcript
of the moment and a video clip that you can share
across any platform. And then, of course, the
thanks to your... Sublime Library optionally,
where you can smart search all of your podcast
clips using AI search. You could also click into
any podcast clip and see what related clips people
are saving. So there's that downstream stuff.
But the basic thing is just take a screenshot.
Now, we do have an iOS shortcut. So what I do
now is I just say, hey, Siri, podcast magic.
So if I'm cooking that, when I say, hey, Siri,
podcast magic, it just triggers a shortcut. It
takes this email then. For the power users, there's
a hands -free way to do that as well. Nice. That's
it. That's always a plan. Yeah. So what's the
business model for this? Yeah. So it's important
for us to make it super simple. And I think the
reason we went with no app, meaning it's just
an email, no login, meaning you don't need to
remember your email or password to access these
clips, and no subscription is because people
hate downloading new apps. And they hate subscriptions,
recurring subscriptions. So it's a one -time
$20 payment for unlimited moments. And the first
three moments are free. So the idea is fall in
love, let us prove that it works. And then if
it does, pay a one -time $20 fee for unlimited
moments. Now, you've been mentioning Sublime
app in all of this. What's Sublime app then?
Yeah, so Sublime app is a way to collect and
connect anything interesting you come across.
So it goes beyond podcasts. It becomes your sort
of brain with your podcast clips. It connects
your Kindle highlights, your Twitter bookmarks,
your Instagram bookmarks. And then we have a
browser extension where you can save anything
from anywhere. So Sublime is like a digital home
for your mind. All of the interesting content
you come across, smartly searchable, connected.
And so you can use podcast magic without Sublime.
But if you don't want these podcast clips to
just live in your email and they can just sync
directly to Sublime and I think a lot of people
are finding that handy. And just for context,
the idea behind Podcast Magic came about because
we were seeing people add a Spotify link to their
Sublime library and then add a note saying, you
know, minute 1114, James is talking about, you
know, future of radio or whatever. And so we're
like, people really want to capture this one
moment, not just the full episode. So that's
sort of where this pain point was born. And so
I guess part of the plan here is to get more
people using the whole suite of tools as well.
It sounds like a bookmark system for life. Yes.
I mean, Podcast Magic is independent, but we
do think of it as... part of the Sublime ecosystem.
And we're hoping that it can become an on -ramp
to Sublime if people would like. But the product
works independently of Sublime as well. And I
suspect some people will want both. Some will
only want the podcast solution. What's interesting
about Podcast Magic is that we've partnered with
a few podcasters that are sharing the tool with
their listeners. And what we're finding is that
for them, knowing what moments resonate is very
valuable. Especially because there's a whole
industry around clipping for distribution purposes
and having to kind of, you know, after recording,
cut it out into like bite -sized clips for sharing.
And so it seems like there's an interesting way
in which Podcast Magic can help identify those
interesting moments. There's also one of the
things we've heard is that it's very hard for
podcasters to get first -party data. emails of
who is listening to my podcast. And so Podcast
Magic is an idea. Maybe it's still very nascent,
but we're excited as we roll this out to solve
pain points for podcasters so they can help us
in turn distribute this tool. Yeah. So you could
see a future where a podcaster can sign up to
know when people are interested in what they
hear. but also potentially be able to contact
those people directly with their permission,
I'm guessing. And that would then, you know,
enable all kinds of conversations to start on
there as well. I mean, my sort of view is informed
by the fact that I've been writing a self -stack
newsletter for five years and I've experienced
firsthand the value of an email address. And
for podcasters, like they don't, they can't reach
those listeners directly. So I don't, you know,
I can't, I don't, I won't make any promises.
There are some kind of privacy issues and it
will evolve. But I do think it's very interesting
to help. I mean, I'm obsessed with the best ideas
traveling, right? And, you know, ideas are what
moved me in general. And so in the case of Podcast
Magic, that means helping podcasters identify
those ideas, helping listeners share those ideas
more widely, return to those ideas in their life
and work. And, yeah, and I think, you know, to
the extent that we can, we're actually already
doing this where we have about 2 ,000 people
that have used the tool so far. It's pretty,
pretty new. We could see what people are clipping
and we send emails to podcasters saying, hey,
by the way, you know, here's like a dashboard
of what people are clipping from your podcast.
And we don't share the emails just yet, but I
can imagine. I'm seeing enough interest from
podcasters in saying, wow, this is interesting.
It's cool to see that somebody sent a screenshot
and took time of their day to say, this was interesting.
Next, potentially, quite a few of those tools.
Where have you come from? You're clearly a podcast
listener yourself, but have you been working
on the Sublime app for a long, long time? What's
a bit of your background? I've been sort of like
in the tech, like a bit of tech, so working in
startups, in venture capital, in strategy roles
in a lot of tech startups. I also love writing.
Like writing has been sort of like something
I've done always in my career. So I've had a
Substract Newsletter for many years. And yeah,
I would say like Sublime was just born from this
pain point I had of I... I want to have a better
relationship to the internet and to the ideas
I consume. It's so easy to just be a passive
consumer and scroller on the internet and just
everything and constantly just be consuming.
And I think for me, Sublime is actually the thing
that helps and inspires me to create because
the more I can curate ideas, the more inspired
I am to create. So yeah, I sort of like dropped
everything in my life. And I said, in order to
like the next leg of, my life and my journey
is downstream of me being able to control my
attention and my information diet and yeah sublime
is sort of the sandbox to experiment with with
those ideas so if people want to um learn more
where whereabouts do they go yeah so sublime
.app uh to try sublime podcast magic .app to
get a refresher on the instructions and then
we write a weekly newsletter um at sublimeinternet
.substack .com. I shall sign up. Thank you so
much for your time. I appreciate it. Thanks so
much, James. Delighted to chat with you.