Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Richard Wolpert's New Podcast: Tech vs. Media
We’ve partnered with CurtCo Media and Richard Wolpert, a longtime investor and advisor to startups here in Southern California and beyond-- to launch Richard’s new podcast, Tech vs. Media, which launches today. As part of our partnership we had a chat with Richard about his podcast, and we’ll be highlighting new episodes of Richard’s podcast as they come out over the coming weeks. Richard has been involved in countless startups, and has been an investor at Chance Technologies, Amplify.LA, Accel Partners, and Acrew Capital. 
Talk about what your your podcast is all about and, and what it covers?
Richard Wolpert: The podcast is called Tech vs. Media, and the subtext is convergence or clash. To steal somebody else's term, I’ve been on both sides of the table, in my case technology and media for the last 36 years. I was on the original Apple team, and I did four startups, some were tech, some were media, one was an internet radio company sold to RealNetworks. I was President at Disney Online, and I was on the entertainment side from 95 to 98. I was also Chief Strategy Officer at RealNetworks, so both tech and media, from 2001 to 2006, after I sold them the company. I’ve just seen a lot of things where we should have learned a lot of lessons from the last 25 years, when it comes to how technology is changing media, and how old school media companies sometimes hold on because they like “the good old days”, which worked for 50, 60, 70 years and which made them a lot of money because there was no disruption. My guests include Casey Wasserman, who probably runs one of the biggest marketing agencies and talent agencies, representing 3000 athletes 2000 artists, include Kendrick Lamar, Billy Eilish, Coldplay, etc. They also own some digital marketing services. One is called Laundry Service, and he gave me his perspective on what’s happening, talking about COVID, how that is going to affect live sports games, and how technology can affect things like what is about to happen at SoFi Stadium this week. He’s also the Chairman of the Super Bowl. I also spoke to Mellody Hobson, who was on the board of Dreamworks for more than a decade and negotiated the sale of Dreamworks to Comcast. She also just so happens to be married to Lucas. So she's got a different perspective on entertainment, having, you know, had that relationship in George's eyes as well. To Jim Bankoff who's the CEO of Vox Media and Rob Glaser, both people obviously know. I like to say, my podcast is both about people who people know, and people they should know.
How often will you be putting out the podcast?
Richard Wolpert: It will be a weekly podcast. We've got almost a dozen in the can, which will allow us to get a head start, with a schedule of six weeks on and two weeks off. We launch on Tuesday, February 8. We’ll see if I can survive working with that pace. I try in every episode, not just to learn something for myself, but learn something that would be valuable to somebody who's either in technology, or entertainment, or to a start up. I do some fun things. Every show starts with something I called Rapid Fire 10 which is 10 quick questions. Half of them are goofy, half of them are real. Just sort of get to know the guest very, very quickly. Like for example, with Melody, one of my rapid fire ten questions questions was is it true you are Yoda’s stepmother? With Casey Wasserman, I asked, do you think live concerts are going to come back to the way they were before with COVID? At the end of every episode, I end with the final five which is sort of like, here's what I learned, or you should have learned from today's episode. We also keep every episode under 40 minutes. 30 is hard to do, because the content so good, but there's somewhere between 30 and 40 minutes all in. And you know, so it's a quick way to really learn a lot about the space and the sector and what I think is happening and what lessons we can learn from what's happened over the last 25 years.
Podcasting has been around for a while, but it seems like there's a whole new resurgence of podcast interest why, why do you think podcasts are so interesting now again?
Richard Wolpert: That’s a great question. You’re exactly right, podcasts were hot maybe in 2005 to 2009, and podcasts seemed to be getting some momentum, but then they just sort of fell off the face of the earth for almost a decade. I don’t know it’s because of COVID, which I think helped a little, but since maybe 2018 or 2019, with Joe Rogan’s podcast—which has done really well, but of course had seen a lot of controversy in the last couple of weeks—and other that really have taken off. I think the other thing that is interesting about podcasting, is shows are now being produced for podcasts, like they are an audio show. It’s almost a throwback to radio of the 1940’s and 1950’s, where it’s an episodic, produced show, but it’s not some guy like me just droning on about a space that he works in, but actually creating entertainment via a podcast. Some of those have now been picked up by TV shows, and there’s really been a resurgence. One of the things I say on the show a lot, is that you can be right, but if you’re too early, you’re wrong. And, if you are right, but you are too late, you’re still wrong. I mean, the people who were getting into podcasting in 2005 to 2009 were right, but they just happened to be too early. But, if you got into it in 2019 or 2020, you’re now doing great. Timing is so important. It’s not just the idea, it’s the timing, and it’s consumer acceptance of technological advancements.
So you’re not just doing this yourself, you’ve got a company managing this, correct?
Richard Wolpert: Yes, I’m working with a company. The disclaimer, is I also invested in the company, CurtCo media. CurtCo was found by a guy named Bill Curtis, thus the name, CurtCo. Bill likes his name, I guess. Bill’s history is in magazines, and he opened many magazines, but the flagship one was the Robb Report. I used to buy and aspire to want to owned the stuff in the Robb Report someday. As you probably know, the Robb Report is aimed at people who are not necessarily owning, but who are very interested in exotic cars and airplanes. That was their audience, and they sold to all the high end advertisers, from Ferrari to Rolex to LVMH. Bill was smart enough to realize that magazines were not going to survive this transition that we’re in the middle of right now, which we talk about a lot. Broadly, technology is transforming the old media model. Bill was smart enough to sell his magazines, probably six or seven years ago, and had the idea two or three years ago that podcasting was really starting to happen. He had the idea that he could put together a network of podcasts that aim at the same high end audience he aimed at with the Robb Report, and went back to his friends, who had been buying advertising from him for the last 25 years. CurtCo is producing the show, and they’ve done a great job helping me. I’ve never done a “audio program” before, and although I’ve spoken at many, many events in person, they kind of helped me find my voice, and figure out what the show as about, the important parts, and how to make it interesting, to grab people right away. If you don't get them in the first two minutes, they just skip to something else, just like anything in the world of media today. And it's been fun, but like anything I've done, the book that I wrote that you and I briefly talked about before this recording started or a startup they're always a lot more work than you think they're going to be doing! We started this probably close to nine months ago, and it's just coming out now. So I joke it's kind of like giving birth, because it was a nine month gestation period. I really feel like I've gotten people to really open up telling me stories they’ve never told anyone before. I think that's going to be really interesting for people as well.
How does this all tie in to the investment stuff you've been doing?
Richard Wolpert: Indirectly, everything I do ties into each other, because everything I do is related to being involved in as an investor and advisor or, you know, I'm a venture partner with a Acrew Capital, focused sectors like community activated, which pulls into media and Web 3.0, crypto and NF T's and all that crazy stuff, which is obviously a hot topic today. So I'm not doing it for the money. I'm really not, I don't do any this point in my career for the money. The reason I’m doing this, is I enjoy talking to these people, and I enjoy helping people. After that rapid fire ten questions, I have maybe three topics and we just sort of riff. It's not like, here's question one. Here's question two, just question seven. Here's question 22. I don't think those are that interesting, right? You don't get to things that you might not have discovered. If you're worried about like question one through 10. Right? If you have broad topics on mind, and you let the person go, and you listen to them, and you react to what they're saying, and you dig into something that you think is going to be interesting to people that are listening. That's where I found he had never said this before kind of moments.
Thanks!