JJ Ramberg - Creating Goodpods, a Social Podcasting App

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What is going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. On today's episode, we have JJ Ramberg here with us, the founder and CEO of Good Pods. Over the past 13 years, JJ has hosted a show for NBC News called you'd Business, a podcast called Been There, Built that, and a series on BBC World News called Follow the Food. She also got her MBA from Stanford, had three kids, and partnered with her brother on Good Shop, an online coupon site which has donated more than $13 million to charity. Now, with her new venture, GoodPods, they started GoodPods for the moments when you're staring at your phone, about to hop in the car or go for a run, wondering what podcast to listen to next, wishing that someone would magically appear with a good recommendation. And I've been using GoodPods for the past two months now, and I'm absolutely in with the platform. If you are a podcaster or someone that listens to podcasts, which you are, because you're hearing this right now, please take a moment to check out Good Pods. And with that being said, let's dive into Today's episode with J.J. ramberg.

All right, what is going on, everyone? Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. Today we have JJ Ramberg here with us. Thanks so much for coming on the show, jj.

I'm so happy to talk to you, Casey.

Absolutely. So we got connected because I came across your company, GoodPods recently, and as a podcaster myself, I was amazed to see the platform that you built out. And for everyone that doesn't know what GoodPods is, I'd love for you to give a brief overview of what it is that you've built.

Sure. It is an app where you can follow friends and influencers to see what podcast they're listening to by show or by episode. And then you can play the podcast right there on the app. You can bookmark it for later and listen to it later. But the whole idea is that there's so many podcasts out there in the world and it's hard to great recommendations. So who better to get recommendations from than your friends?

I love that. Absolutely. And for everyone that doesn't know, you were the host of a show called you'd Business on MSNBC for years and I used to actually watch that show. So it's super cool to see how you've transitioned. But I want to talk about that journey of being the host of that show. How did that come into your life and what made you interested in media to start with?

Yeah, it's nice to be on the other side. I used to sit in your seat.

Yeah, yeah, totally.

The interviewee. The way I got that job was actually really fun. So I already was a journalist. I worked for CNN for many years, but I flip flopped between journalism and business. So I worked for cnn. Then I left there to start my company, Good Shop, which is in the coupon space. And then I was working on Good Shop and freelancing once in a while when they needed me and so they had asked me to come in and fill in at the New York Stock Exchange and I was there. And MSNBC had just come up with an idea for a new show about small business and entrepreneurship. And the executive producer looked up, saw me on CNN and said, who's that? And so called me, called me and said, do you want to come in and talk about doing this show? And it was meant to be a six month show, ended up being 13 years.

Wow. So six months to 13 years. When did you make that transition, stepping away from the show?

It was two December, so about a year and a half ago, I guess I left NBC and then I've been working on GoodPods and then we launched GoodPods.

Very cool. Yeah. And I know that we spoke on the phone a couple weeks ago, but where did the idea for GoodPods come come from and how has it been the last year and a half with the launch of it?

They came from our own experience. So my co founder is my brother Ken. He's also my co founder on Shop and he's a serial, very successful entrepreneur. So he and my mother had started a company right. When he graduated college, which was called JobTrack and became Monster.com's biggest acquisition. So I have his experience on our side for all the companies. But Ken And I are just big podcast listeners. And I'd be going out for a run and kind of scrolling through, trying to figure out what to listen to. And I'd always call Ken or a friend or try to find an article on podcast should I listen to. And it just felt incredibly inefficient. And we just thought, like, why isn't there an easy way to find out what my friends or people I care about are listening to? It was as simple as that, right? Instagram for podcasts, basically.

Yeah, I love that. And I saw yesterday you guys had Kim Kardashian do an amazing shout out for goodpod, and you guys are crushing it. But I want to take a step back. What have you learned from creating an app and a piece of software? And when it comes to launching it, just what's it been like to start getting users and testing with different features? And what would your advice be to founders that are looking to potentially launch an app or launch a software?

Yeah, so this is round two for us. Right. We did it with Good Shop also, you know, it's hard when you are a founder, come up with an idea that you love to figure out. At what point do you pull the trigger and actually put this out into the world? Because, I mean, and looked at our roadmap of features, you would see years worth of features that we would like to build out. And so I don't think any founder, I don't think any product manager ever feels like their product is ready for prime time. Because by the time I've launched what you see as the app, I'm already six steps ahead of you. And so there is that moment where as a team, you have to say, come on, let's get this out of our mind, put it out into the world and see what users actually think.

Very cool. So how long have you been listening to podcasts and the, you know, the whole medium of content?

Oh, my God, forever. For so long, I think I feel like I have a really typical podcast journey. Right. So I started with, like, the NPR show, this American Life, and Radio Lab. I listen on podcasts. And then I kind of dipped into True crime, and then I had my own podcast, which was a compendium to my show for NBC News. So I. And now I just, you know, I listen to everything across the board.

Yeah, very cool. What do you see the future of podcasts and the whole industry? Where do you see it going? Because, you know, year over year, the advertising revenue is going up. There's so many different brands getting into the Especially acquisitions that Spotify is making. But where do you see it going in the future and what are you excited about?

Well, it's a neat space to be in right now. One I have to. People within the podcast industry are so incredibly nice and supportive of each other that it's a really fun industry to be part of in. Still, it's kind of baby stages, right? It's grown quite a bit over the past few years, but it's still in its infancy, I believe if you just look at podcasting versus radio or other. Yeah, but as more money comes in this space and as more listeners come into the space, you'll just see more professional podcasts out there, more interesting, different kind of podcasts out there, more means of distribution. And so it's fun. And that's. It's really cool for us because our whole goal is just to help people discover all that cool stuff that's going on out there.

Very cool. And yeah, you guys have an amazing team. I know when I first heard about you guys going on the website, just to see all the people you guys already have on the platform, what has been your strategy for bringing on these high level people like Kim Kardashian and people that are on the platform because you have such a credible starting point, I would say. And that's what attracted me to be like, wow, this is super cool. They have some great brands and great people on the app. But from a business perspective, what have you guys learned from doing these collaborations with high level people and what has been the strategy to do so, yeah, it's interesting.

So we have some great people that you can follow to see what they're listening to, like Kim, like Gwyneth Paltrow and Katie Couric and Touraine. Dan Harris is one of my favorite. He's an ABC News, but has this really neat podcast. 10% happier. Not that well, but, you know, it's social media. It's a place where you want to go to find great recommendations. So part of that is from these experts or these influencers or celebrities, and part of it is your friends. And what we found is people just love podcasts. Right. So almost anyone I talk to, they have a podcast or not, who's one of these influencers. They're excited about it because this is just a growing, really interesting, fun world to be a part of.

Absolutely. No, I love that. Do you have any favorite shows that you currently listen to?

Oh, God, I listen to so many shows. Okay. I love shortwave. Listen to that. I think Short Wave is really Fun. I just finished Bloodlines, which is a scripted podcast from wonride, which was very fun to listen to. I'm trying to think of, like, I should just look to see what I listed yesterday. I am so all over the map that you should just go follow JJ on GoodPods and you'll see there's, like, science, history, meditation, like, whatever I'm in the mood for.

Yeah, no, I love that. In your opinion, what do you think makes a good podcast to listen to?

What makes a good podcast to listen to, did you say?

Yeah, like, what do you look for in a podcast? And what attracts you to listen to certain shows?

It's funny because I listen to all kinds. Right. If it's something like this, you and I talking like this, it's all about the host. I mean, it's about the guest also, of course, but it is about the host. Like, do I care what that host has to say? Ask and do the kind of the right amount of talking time versus their own story. I feel like I got to know that person.

Yeah.

You know, and then you have some of the more produced podcasts. Right. And that is just about the production quality of it.

Yeah, I love that. So the first company that you started, Good Shop, is that correct?

It is.

Where did the entrepreneurial drive come from? And when you launched that, like, what led you to that point? I know that you said your brother is a very successful entrepreneur, but what was the journey of your just taking the leap of faith and starting your own company and building what you want? Tell us about that journey.

Sure. So I'm the product of entrepreneurs, both my mother and my father, both of my grandfathers. I then married an entrepreneur. My brother is one. My sister joined us on Good Positive. She's one now, too. So I've been surrounded by it. I also, I got my MBA from a school that focuses on entrepreneurship also, so I've been surrounded by it. So it didn't seem like a big leap for me to go if I had an idea, start something. But Goodshot actually started as a search, which is a search engine that donates penny per search to your favorite cause. That's what it was when we launched in 2005, and Ken and I, we just had this idea, you know, we saw search engines were making billions of dollars. Could we redirect some of that to good causes? And when we was actually. And I was actually in the middle of Hurricane Katrina, as we were just about to launch this, which gave me even more resolve to launch it. We're gonna be helping Causes. But I was literally like on one phone with my producer getting ready for shot, a live shot. And on the other with Kenny, like, you know, use that boot. That boot, yeah. Crazy time.

So did you, where did you grow up and what led you to New York?

I grew up in la, then I moved to New York after college, then moved back to California for grad school. And then after getting my mba, working in business for a bit, I went to cnn. And cnn, I was a producer. They said to me one day, you can be the host of the show, but you have to move to New York. And I remember going. And it's like, I'm so excited. This is what I wanted to do.

Thank you.

Thank you. Walking out and then walking again, I was like, wait, do I have to move to New York? Did you say New York? And now we just moved back to California because it's home and it's home for my husband as well.

I love that. So you've been back and forth, New York, Louisiana, a bunch.

New York, Louisiana, Journalism, business. I ping pong between things a lot.

What if just being in the journalism space, being the host of a show, do you have a moment that you can reflect on as just something you look at as a highlight of your career? Because I myself, you know, I started my podcast just to have great conversations with people like yourself. And it's escalated into, you know, some billionaires and having people like Larry King on. And it's been super cool to have these cool moments. But I'd love for you to tell us about some of your best times as a host on msnbc.

You know, I really love. So I covered a lot of big stories like Hurricane Katrina, etcetera, back in the day as a producer. But I really loved when I had my show on msnbc, really just meeting entrepreneurs, right? So people who really risked so much, they weren't billionaires. They didn't have, you know, this big support system or piles of money, but they just had these amazing stories of what they risked to just create their dream, right? This, this woman, Jenny Nichols, she's in Connecticut. And I mean, you know, so many stories like this, right? Her husband lost her job, they had such little savings, and she put it all into this company and it worked. A guy who built this mountain bike park in Cleveland right out of nothing. And now it's a mecca for mountain bikers all over the world. But these aren't people who went to fancy schools or inherited tons of money. They just took a big risk.

I love that. What have you Learned just about the media space overall. And your experience as a host, what would you tell an aspiring broadcaster that's looking to get into the media world, especially during a time like this?

Well, I think, like, what you're doing is so neat, right? So when I first started out, you didn't have any other avenues, right? I mean, even then we only had three channels and then cnn, then msnbc. But, you know, you couldn't just start your own thing and get it distributed. And so I think it's so neat right now that with podcasts and YouTube and, you know, anyone who's got something to say can create something and then it's just a matter of distributing it. And I mean, to go back to good pods, that's part of what we want to do, is democratize the distribution. So even if you don't have bucket loads of money, word of mouth is incredibly powerful.

I love that. And I think that's, you know, the true problem that you guys are solving is like when I first got on goodpod, having even some of my friends getting on and me sharing a show and then they're more likely to listen to it because they saw I liked it. It's brilliant. And I want to talk about not only goodpod, but the shareability on the platform is looking into the future. What do you want good Pod users to experience down the road as well that they may not know is coming? If you can talk about it.

Well, I'll tell you what. We just launched. We just launched our ability to create playlists, which was great. Everything that we're launching comes from user feedback. So we have, we have our whole big roadmap of things we want, but we put things in different order based on what the users have asked for. So that's been really exciting. But when you say, what do I want in the future? Right, it is this. It is. I want. When you, Casey, you're about to get in your car or you're about to go for a run and you want to listen to a podcast, I want you to go and say, oh, cool, my friend Jessica, listen to this. I'm going to give it a shot. As easy as that.

I love that. That is so powerful.

What's your username on GoodPods?

Mine? Isie.

Oh, early. Isn't that so cool?

Oh, yeah, I gotta. It matches my Instagram now, so it was great.

Your Instagram is.

It took me three years to get the AC Instagram domain name.

Oh, my God.

Wow.

Impressive.

Well, it's a funny story. I had to buy it from this guy who owned it. And we were back and forth for literally three years. He would never sell it. And it's like a risky thing to pay someone to. Hopefully they'll give you the name or the account. But it ended up being a great deal and he was an honest guy and it worked out in my favor.

That is amazing. The day we launched GoodPods to the public, I called my friend Jen and I was like, get on immediately and go get Den.

Yup, the OG names. Hey, it's a marketplace.

She can sell it later.

Totally. How have you used social media throughout your career when it comes to building a brand? And also with goodpod, how do you guys plan to use social media to get the word out? And obviously you have people like Kim Cardahassian posting on your story and promoting the app. And I think it's such a, not only a smart move, but you have the A listers, you know, promoting what you have out there. But back to the point of building a personal brand. And as JJ the founder, how have you utilized social media throughout your career?

It's interesting, right? I come old school, right, where I was a journalist, where the journalist was kind of separate. And so it took me little while to feel comfortable putting myself out there when I was a journalist. Now it's different and I've gotten more used to it and I've kind of caught up with the world. But we use social media exactly the way that you're talking about, which is we are creating our own. Like the minute we started, we started building our Twitter followers and then we started focusing on Instagram, but we're also piggybacking on other people's so that big followings talk about us and that will grow our followings.

I love that. Outside of good pies and everything you're working on, do you have any outside passions that you spend time on?

Well, it's been a hard time to ask that because we've been quarantined and then we moved cities. I have three kids and so my passion right now has very much move into the city where we are in Los Angeles. Schools are not open yet. So my passion is get my kids to like it here even though they don't get to go to real school. So good pots, children, husband.

Love that. How old are your kids?

They are 10, 11 and 13.

I'm curious, do they listen to any podcast?

They do. They all listen to podcasts.

That's the other night.

And that's when the other night, I mean, the other morning, I Woke up, I looked at my feed and I said to my daughter, why are you listening to a podcast at 9:30 last night?

That is super cool. So they're on it, they're utilizing the app, they're sharing what they listen to. Very cool.

It's the only social media they're on.

Really? That's amazing. Very cool. When it comes to the future of not only podcasting, but you as an entrepreneur and your team at goodpod, how are you guys building team culture? And when it comes to just nurturing, I know that I've interacted with, you know, your social media account and the way that you guys build such a. How do I want to say, just a very simple, easy coming conversation. Just how have you done that when it comes to team culture and building your brand in such a open way?

Yeah, we want, I mean, we hope what the brand is, is reflective of who we are as people. And we are, we care deeply about the product, we work really hard.

We're.

I hate the word passionate, but we are very passionate and ambitious about building this company and making it work. But we are also just as people, all of us very open minded and I think good listeners and approachable. And so I hope the brand to be also is just, you know, this started from Ken and I calling each other and saying, what podcast are you listening to? In our dream world, that's what good pods is. It's Ken and I calling each other and saying, what podcast are you listening to? I'm about to go for a run.

I love that. Literally, like I said when we first talked on the phone, when I first saw it, I was like, this is something that I've been looking for for so long, is like the discovery to see what your friends are listening to. And for everyone listening, please, if you don't already have good pods downloaded on your phone, make sure you do that by the end of this episode and you will sincerely do yourself a favor. A couple more questions, jj, before I let you go. And that is, when you look at the landscape of podcasting and acquisitions, do you have a, I would say an end goal of where you plan to take goodpod?

You know, we want good pods to be successful. So I don't at this point have an end goal. My goal is user growth. Right. My end goal right now is to be an amazing place for users to discover and share podcasts. And we're just at the very beginning of this, right? We've had all this, you know, I excited to say, kind of this great success growth. So Far, but it is. We're GoodPods 1.0 right now. So when I see my end goal, I just have to get to GoodPods 2.0 right now.

Yep. I love that. And just about launching and getting user feedback. I know that you touched on the importance of that, but for founders out there that are launching a product or any company. Can you talk to me more about why you guys value user feedback so much and how you go about doing that?

It's everything. I wish I could show you, Casey, the spreadsheet of how many people I spoke to before we launched. I kid you not, it's more than 700 people. And that is people I. That's not just emails. That's like me on the phone or me on Zoom or at a coffee talking to. Because Ken and I had this idea, but it might not be something anyone else wanted. I spoke to everyone from the, you know, CEOs of really big podcasting companies to, you know, small podcasters, middle of, you know, a tiny town somewhere, to listeners, everyone. Because we had to figure out what this thing should actually be. And then when we launched it, you'll see every email we sent out in the beginning was, tell us what you think. We have thick skin. We will not feel bad. Let us know what you hate. Let us know what you wish this had. Because I use the app in a particular way, but turns out other people use it in a different way.

Yeah, I love that. And when you're getting this user feedback, are you guys consistently making, like you said, earlier iterations and implementing these ideas that other people are, you know, giving you guys, in a sense, like, you're really taking the user feedback and soaking it in so that you can add it to the platform.

It informs every decision we make. Now, look, you could come to me tomorrow, Casey, and say, you know, I wish the whole app were purple, not yellow. Right. And I would say, okay, thank you so much for your feedback. I really appreciate your ideas. It doesn't mean that I do everything that people say, but, look, when you start hearing things enough times, you know, this is something I need to dig into and pay attention to.

Totally. I love that last question. J.J. is just looking back throughout, I would say, the last couple of years launching goodpod, what advice would you give to an entrepreneur who's starting their first company?

So much advice, plus 30 years of talking to entrepreneurs. Well, we already touched on listener feedback. I think you have to know, Courtney told me this. She's a very successful entrepreneur. Her company, Smarty Pants, you might have heard of it. But she told me this, which is that things are going to be hard, live in life, right? It could be relationships, it could be work, whatever it is. And you should be prepared for it to be hard. Be prepared for some days to be terrible or some launches to not work and some products to fail. And that when it happens, it is not so jarring. Then instead of it's over, you think, okay, I knew all things were gonna happen. Here it is.

I love that. So with that being said, jj, first off, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on the show again. Where is the best. Where is the best place for people to stay informed with good pod moving forward?

Instagram, Twitter, best thing to do is download the app. It's GoodPods on Google Play or the App Store. I have to tell you, Casey, that I'm so happy to talk to you because I am really impressed with what you're doing. I really am. So thank you. You've started this on your own and interviewed all these neat people and you're great at asking questions. And so I was happy when you and I connected to get to talk to you.

Hey, much appreciated. And right back at you. As soon as I saw the platform, I was like, I have to get JJ on the show. So I really appreciate you taking the time and everyone listening. Please do me a Favor, go download GoodPods and add Mecey, you know, because we have the OG name. So add me AC and I will be. I will be making sure to engage with all of you. And with that being said, jj, thanks so much for coming on.

Monarch Legacy of Monsters, an Apple Original series. The world is on fire. I decided to do something about it on November 17th. This place, it's not ours. Believe me, the most massive event of the year arrives. If you come with me, you'll know everything. I promise. Monarch Legacy of monsters streaming November 17th only on Apple TV.

Plus.