1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,200 So how did you two begin working together? 2 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:13,400 I know the story of course, but for everyone else listening, how did you guys begin working 3 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:14,960 together? 4 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:19,160 It all started with a fateful, a fateful email to Alberto. 5 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:20,920 Well, no, it started before that. 6 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:25,560 So I own RSS.com, owned it since 2013. 7 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:31,480 I had purchased it from somebody that was looking to sell it. 8 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:37,640 And it was happening at the same time that Google was quote, killing the reader. 9 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:45,320 They had just terminated the Google reader and there was a lot of worry that RSS would 10 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:46,320 be dead. 11 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:53,440 So I bought it at that time to put a Google or Google like type RSS feed reader on it. 12 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:58,000 But after a couple of years, I was noticing that in the customer support emails, I was 13 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:02,240 getting a lot of questions about podcasting and they just were continuing to grow over 14 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:03,240 time. 15 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:10,280 And I realized I needed to offer a podcasting solution as well as a feed reader solution. 16 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:14,160 And that caused me to go out and look for somebody to partner with because none of the 17 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:19,900 people in house had the, had what I thought was the expertise to really bring together 18 00:01:19,900 --> 00:01:22,240 a world-class podcasting platform. 19 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:28,720 So I happened upon a podcast generator because it had a huge amount of downloads on source 20 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:35,560 forge, which is an open, open source service. 21 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:37,560 And I saw that the guy's name was Alberto Battella. 22 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:39,920 I'm like, I'm going to find out who this guy is. 23 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:41,200 I Googled his name. 24 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:43,480 I found out he had a PhD. 25 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:49,160 I found out that he had been doing this for a very long time as podcast generators person 26 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:50,360 creator. 27 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:56,920 And I also saw that Alberto spoke English and Spanish and Italian and was the CTO of 28 00:01:56,920 --> 00:01:59,640 a, and I saw, anyway, I thought this guy sounds really awesome. 29 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:01,320 I'm going to reach out to him. 30 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:06,840 And I wrote him a very quick email, just telling him that I spoke the same language as he did. 31 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,920 And could we talk basically. 32 00:02:09,920 --> 00:02:15,040 And Alberto thankfully, what caught his attention was that it was a three letter domain. 33 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:21,540 He, I wrote him from the rss.com email address and he for, you know, thankfully has an affinity 34 00:02:21,540 --> 00:02:23,440 for short domains. 35 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:27,120 And so yeah, that's how we, that's how we got introduced is I had it. 36 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:32,200 I saw a need in, in, in our platform for supporting podcasting. 37 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:36,280 And Alberto definitely had what I thought was the world-class platform for doing that 38 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:38,960 on the open source world. 39 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:39,960 And so that's why I reached out. 40 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:41,280 Alberto, anything to add there? 41 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:46,960 No, I think it's a great, as a, as an overview. 42 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:51,520 It is true that when you wrote me, the first thing I thought, and then I wrote to you is 43 00:02:51,520 --> 00:03:00,120 that, do you own rss.com before even replying, you know, but after that, the, the match was, 44 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:06,440 was very clear because I had these, these technology, this content management system. 45 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:11,560 And there was an appetite to, to, to build it in a way that could scale up. 46 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:15,400 It has been there for a while, but I never found the right opportunity. 47 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:19,680 And in the meanwhile, I was doing other things, you know, I was in startups and, and that's 48 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:22,160 how, and that's why I never did it. 49 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:25,960 And I think you were the, let's say the spark that started the engine. 50 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:26,960 Yeah. 51 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:27,960 Yeah. 52 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:28,960 The spark that started the engine. 53 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:29,960 Yeah. 54 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:34,460 I mean, certainly it was very serendipitous that we found each other. 55 00:03:34,460 --> 00:03:38,440 We matched very well in our interests. 56 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:43,120 And he definitely had the experience that made me believe that, yeah, this really could 57 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:45,920 be something to spend time on. 58 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:51,720 Whereas before it hadn't really peaked, you know, podcasting was, was definitely not new 59 00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:56,360 by 2015, 2016, when we started talking, or was it 2017? 60 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:57,360 I don't even remember. 61 00:03:57,360 --> 00:03:59,520 I left the 2017. 62 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:01,840 It was, it was July 2017. 63 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:02,840 I remember. 64 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:03,840 Yeah. 65 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:04,840 Yeah. 66 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:05,840 Yeah. 67 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:06,840 That's a good one. 68 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:07,840 Yeah. 69 00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:08,840 Yeah. 70 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:34,440 You're right.