Metacast is a podcast app for podcast lovers. We are building a powerful tool that helps you get the most out of podcasts. Auto-generated transcripts and chapters allow you to quickly skim episodes, search for content, and bookmark segments. Chapters, automated playlists, listening history & stats, and much more is coming. On this podcast, co-founders of Metacast talk about building the company and the product.
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Metacast reflects on a successful year, announcing over 300 paying subscribers and 1,500 monthly active users, which has significantly boosted revenue. The team also shares insights into recent backend infrastructure optimizations, resulting in a 40% cost reduction, and crucial bug fixes for downloads and security vulnerabilities. Looking ahead, they unveil plans for a new Pro tier offering higher private podcast limits and the ability to upload custom audio, promising exciting new features.
Metacast unveils its v1.25 update, introducing highly requested features: comprehensive listening history, an improved 'continue listening' experience, and the ability to export transcripts—ideal for LLM processing. The hosts also share a frank account of recent team friction stemming from misunderstandings over AI-generated content, prompting a deeper dive into establishing effective LLM etiquette and communication in professional settings. The episode concludes with diverse podcast, book, and TV show recommendations.
Metacast announces its one-year anniversary in production, celebrating with impressive business growth including reduced hosting costs and doubling subscribers in four months. The team introduces a new creator transcript feature supporting speaker tags for an enhanced listening experience. Looking ahead, they detail plans for synced listening history, improved playlists, and web app features for authenticated users, alongside sharing personal podcast recommendations.
This Metacast episode offers a comprehensive update on the podcast app's progress, including recent mobile app updates like global speed control and improved audio loading, as well as new web features for podcasters such as transcript and summary downloads. The team discusses impressive customer growth, increased website traffic, bot-related infrastructure challenges, and a strategic "survivalversary" sale. They also reveal future plans, including enhanced playlist functionality and personal media recommendations like The Sandman and the Birkin bag origin story.
This episode celebrates Metacast's major release: private podcasts are now generally available, allowing premium users to add up to 10 feeds with transcripts and summaries. The hosts transparently explain the 10-hour monthly audio limit for these features, detailing its cost basis and inviting user feedback for future adjustments. They also preview upcoming features like bug fixes, podcaster transcript imports, and the highly anticipated playlist feature, highlighting Metacast's shift from foundational "table stakes" to value-added development.
This Metacast update details the team's significant efforts, including navigating a major Google Cloud billing incident by implementing robust incident management and setting up comprehensive alerting systems. The team also rolled out crucial web app updates, such as driving app downloads and enhancing third-party app integration, alongside fixing critical backend issues due to a surge in traffic. Key business milestones like reaching 120 active subscribers are celebrated, with a look ahead to the V1.22 launch featuring improved private podcast sharing and user-friendly error screens.
In this Metacast update, the team shares their recent major incident involving a huge Google Cloud bill due to a backend bug and how they resolved it. They also cover progress on launching private podcasts beyond beta, web app improvements like chapters, various operational fixes, ongoing marketing initiatives to spread awareness, and future development plans including using creator transcripts.
This weekly-ish update covers Metacast's progress, including the upcoming beta launch of private feeds, the new podcast search feature on the web app, and exploring analytics consulting to fund development. The team also discusses current growth metrics, plans for SEO optimization, and shares podcast recommendations.
In this Metacast weekly update, the team discusses recent app releases including episode summaries, chapters, and performance improvements. They also cover ongoing backend work, their in-person meeting experience, planning for upcoming features like private feeds, and share entertainment recommendations.
The Metacast team discusses the new sharing experience in their app, detailing the product design thinking, technical challenges, and solutions implemented to improve podcast and episode sharing. They cover URL structures, deep linking, QR codes, and optimized image loading. The episode also previews a future discussion on rebranding efforts and includes recommendations.
In this weekly update, the Metacast team discusses the latest mobile app update, featuring new sharing URLs and bug fixes. They also cover the first phase of their rebranding, including a new logo and light theme. Looking ahead, they share plans for future app updates and private podcast support, before concluding with podcast recommendations.
Ilya and Arnab discuss the latest updates and challenges with the Metacast app, including upgrade issues and new features like sharing URLs and QR codes. They also share their podcast recommendations and humorously attempt to keep their updates concise within a 10-minute timeframe.
Ilya and Arnab share their weekly progress on the Metacast app, detailing the latest updates, challenges, and future plans. They discuss mobile app development hurdles, handling web app bot traffic with Cloudflare, and upcoming features. They also recommend the Buzzcast podcast and HBO's Last of Us podcast.
Arnab and Ilya recap Metacast's Q1, discussing new features like AI-generated chapters and the following playlist. They delve into web app updates, SEO strategies, and address distribution challenges. They also cover cost optimization efforts, tax preparation, and their approach to content creation, plus what they are listening to.
Ilya and Arnab discuss the LLM bot attack on their website, detailing the potential $7k cost in Vercel image optimization and their strategies to mitigate the issue. They also discuss their YC application, the benefits they hope to gain, and their approach to using AI in their podcast app. They wrap up with book and podcast recommendations.
In the first episode of 2025, we discuss the lowlights of last year and sharing our high-level plans for 2025. Get Metacast podcast app for Android and iOS at https://metacast.app . Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 02:23 - User feedback 06:48 - Fixing the leaky bucket of the intro screen 11:00 - New feature: Episode inbox 15:11 - Investing in the web app 18:24 - The hard parts of 2024 23:25 - We have to make it work, or else... 30:38 - Why we're putting energy in SEO 33:28 ...
In this holiday edition episode, we discuss the past year's highlights, a recent outage, and the rapid emergence of Bluesky as a social media platform. Get Metacast podcast app for Android and iOS at https://metacast.app . Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 00:20 - Welcome to the holiday edition 01:24 - Year in review: launches and growth 04:06 - Challenges and user feedback 07:12 - The big outage and serendipitous solution 10:16 - Switching to a new transcription service 18:...
We've chatted with a VC-backed founder who is on the brink of closing shop. Listen to our reflections on this. Plus, a breakdown of latest Metacast features! Get Metacast podcast app for Android and iOS at https://metacast.app . Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 01:26 - New features in Metacast 01:42 - Sleep timer 06:21 - Speed control 12:32 - Grid view in playlists 15:37 - Goals for the next month 17:07 - Our chat with a VC-backed startup founder 28:56 - Podcast and books r...
We've launched with a price of $49.99/year, but we realized it's too high. We're lowering it to $19.99/year or $1.99/month. Get Metacast podcast app for Android and iOS at https://metacast.app . Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 01:14 - How we decided to lower the price for Metacast 03:03 - Initially we had three plans 04:48 - Pulling the andon cord 06:40 - One password app's reference point 08:21 - Why we're not adding ads 11:35 - Enshittification of consumer apps 14:21 - O...
We've launched Metacast in Apple App Store. In this episode, we talk about the process and Apple's feedback. Get Metacast podcast app for Android and iOS at https://metacast.app . Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 00:51 - Big milestone! 02:38 - Apple requires screenshots for older phones 05:23 - iPad screenshots 07:17 - Apple's responses 12:11 - The rejection we couldn't figure out 16:14 - Apple vs. Google review feedback 20:26 - Marketing the app 25:13 - Podcast and book re...
In this episode we discuss a couple of weeks when our Slack went silent, a slow grind to launch on iOS, and talk about the word we want Metacast to be known for. Get Metacast podcast app for Android and iOS at https://metacast.app . Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 02:12 - Confessions of a lonely founder 07:12 - iOS and Flutter woes 18:33 - The Wizard of Oz feature for OPML import 23:30 - What is the word you want to be known for? 29:38 - Podcast and book recommendations Sh...
We've launched Metacast on Android. In this episode, we talk about the feedback we received, first haters, Google Play store violations, and our launch process. We cover topics of feature toggling, version Get Metacast podcast app for Android and iOS at https://metacast.app. Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 02:16 - Quick update on Android launch 07:57 - Marketing and retention 11:17 - Our first one-star review on Play Store 15:39 - Feedback from the Overcast subreddit 19:37 -...
Big announcement - we've launched Metacast on Android in Google Play Store! In this episode, we talk about deciding the scope for v1, punting on features, and pricing. Get Metacast at metacast.app. New users get 51% off Metacast Premium until end of August 2024. Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 00:22 - We've launched in Google Play Store! 02:58 - Preparation for launch 04:01 - What makes Metacast app different from other podcast apps? 13:49 - Features we punted at launch 20:...
It’s been a year since we started working on Metacast. In this episode Arnab and Ilya reflect on the journey and compare working on a startup with the old corporate days. Get Metacast at metacast.app. Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 05:35 - No going back to corporate 06:21 - Annual reviews 13:43 - Best year of Ilya's career 15:49 - Frustrations with corporate 20:32 - Anxiety and collaboration 26:41 - Playing a long game 27:33 - Letting go of old habits 34:13 - Getting back ...
We're discussing the dilemma of positioning Metacast as both powerful and simple, break down the recent power struggle about 5% transparency of a UI element, and share our experience with the DUNS number that developers have to get to be in Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Get Metacast at metacast.app. Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 02:00 - The positioning dilemma 10:15 - Remaining features to launch the app and recent updates 13:30 - Power struggle between Arnab and...
We're back and this is a massive update on what we've been up to since our last episode! Get Metacast at metacast.app. Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 00:24 - We're back 03:23 - Tangent about our names 05:00 - First full-team offsite in Florida 08:27 - We made Android cool again! 12:44 - Paid app subscriptions with RevenueCat 16:04 - Reflection on working in person vs. WFH 21:01 - Seeing alligators in the Everglades 24:08 - How we got an intern/contractor to build a website...
We took a leap of faith and left our jobs at Google and Amazon to jump into the unknown. It wasn't easy and required quite a bit of planning. This is a rerun of June 2023 episode where we talk about how we did it. Get Metacast at metacast.app. Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Links Show notes for part 1 and part 2 can be found on our website. Chapters 00:00 - Cold open 00:21 - Rerun intro and Metacast promo 02:11 - The original episode begins 03:07 - Ilya's last day at Google 08:34 -...
We got asked how we were thinking about product-market-fit, potential revenue, and entering a market that already has strong players. We’re giving a full breakdown of our thought process. Get Metacast at metacast.app. Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 01:35 - Ilya's “fun” interview with Google (tangent) 05:52 - How we chose the market to go after 21:42 - Our financial model approach 27:06 - Thinking about the company size early on 31:09 - How much money do we personally want ...
We broke Metacast just before launching it in open beta. Ouch. On this episode, we talk about the launch, how it went, and what we’ve learned. Get Metacast at metacast.app . Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 02:13 - Get The Pragmatic Podcaster book for free 03:33 - We broke Metacast just before launch 08:39 - How we fixed the problem 14:04 - The other way we broke the app 16:27 - Publishing to Apple and Google 20:04 - Marketing for open beta 24:10 - Business metrics 30:38 - This i...
We had our first existential crisis when Apple announced that they're adding transcripts to Apple Podcasts. We panicked for a few minutes, regrouped, and decided to ship Metacast in open beta ASAP. On the episode, Arnab, Ilya and Jennie discuss the whole ordeal as it was happening. Get Metacast at metacast.app . Join the r/metacastapp subreddit. Chapters 01:09 - Launch stages at Google and Amazon 07:21 - Our secret sauce 13:00 - Why we decided to start talking about the app openly 17:22 - Our ...
