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Can you solve the podcast business?

Good morning! This Monday, complicated new ideas in the podcast business, crazy stuff is happening on Robinhood, and Light gets out of the smartphone camera biz.
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On Protocol: When we talk about "the metaverse," we're really talking about social connection, Roblox's Craig Donato said:
Not all co-founders have to be at the company from the beginning, Reid Hoffman said:
Want to increase your company's diversity? Measure it and talk about it, said BLCK VC co-founder Sydney Sykes:
After scientists complained to the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative about Facebook's misinformation problem, Mark and Priscilla acknowledged a certain awkwardness:
The podcast business is a strange one. More people listen every month, advertising dollars keep climbing, but from a business and investment perspective there hasn't been much happening outside of Spotify's splashy content deals. I mean, there's Luminary, but … yikes.
Now there's a new podcast model trying to succeed. Pete Curley, the former founder of HipChat and currently the creator of an app called Podhero, told me his goal was to build "the reverse Luminary."
Podhero's business model is … weird. You pay $5.99 a month to use the app, and the company distributes that money (minus $1 a month for overhead) to the shows you listen to. Curley says you don't even have to use his app to listen to them! Just sign up, pick the shows you like, and be done. Then, podcast creators can claim their show, and receive their portion of the proceeds.
When it launched last week, the immediate response was this guy is trying to kill podcast ads, and ads are podcasts' lifeblood! Curley told me that he believes that couldn't be further from the truth — though he did point out that more than 97% of podcasts don't make any money at all.
Podhero's first big challenge is convincing enough people to give podcasters money that the pennies per show matter. Curley said he's hoping to get podcasters to do their own promo: Instead of saying "go to our Patreon!" they might say "subscribe to us on Podhero!"
A lot of tech employees I've talked to recently feel like they're in limbo. They're working from home, which is fine, but they're pretty sure the office job is coming back. Maybe. Eventually. I mean, it's hard to know what's going to happen, which makes planning really tough.
To give people a view of the current consensus, Xerox commissioned a study of IT and tech decision-makers.
Going forward, most companies figure to have some remote-work capabilities. But how should execs be investing in changing the company to support remote, when most people will be back in the office next year?
Protocol's Transformation of Work Summit
How can tech help identify and match in-demand skills with job opportunity? Speakers include Future of Work Caucus co-chairs Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Representative Bryan Steil (R-WI), CEO of Jobs for the Future Maria Flynn, CEO of Burning Glass Technologies Matthew Sigelman, and CEO of Colorado State University Global Dr. Becky Takeda-Tinker. Presented by Workday.
It seemed like a great idea at the perfect time. A few years ago, as smartphone cameras were getting better and becoming more important, a company called Light offered hardware and software that could use multiple cameras to make totally new kinds of three-dimensional, depth-aware images.
Now, Light's getting out of the smartphone game altogether. The company's shifting instead to using its tech to "enable vehicles to see like humans." Its big claim is being able to see in 3D much further out than lidar or radar. It's also looking into security and robotics applications.
Light's move feels similar to Magic Leap's recent jump to the enterprise world, or Lytro's from a few years ago. Having great tech is a start, but companies can only afford to wait so long to see if consumers care.
In related news: Don't miss Mike Murphy's story about Mira, an AR startup that pivoted to enterprise much more quickly than Magic Leap did — and it worked out brilliantly.
Cisco Live starts tomorrow, with two days full of virtual sessions and keynotes.
Oracle and Groupon both report earnings this week. Oracle's forward-looking guidance will be particularly interesting, after signing up Zoom and 8x8 to its cloud services in the last few weeks.
I admit, there are few things I enjoy more than people being outed by that little "Sent from Twitter for iPhone" message on their tweets when they should have been using a different device. The internet got Gal Gadot; it got the official account of Samsung Nigeria; years ago, it spotted that BlackBerry Creative Director Alicia Keys wasn't using a BlackBerry. But we may not top this one: BTS, the K-pop group that's approximately the biggest thing on the internet, tweeted a fun anniversary group shot from an iPhone. Which would be fine, except BTS just launched special-edition Samsung phones and earbuds over the weekend. The band quickly deleted and reuploaded the tweet, but, sorry BTS, nothing's ever gone on the internet.
Protocol's Transformation of Work Summit
How can tech help identify and match in-demand skills with job opportunity? Speakers include Future of Work Caucus co-chairs Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), Representative Bryan Steil (R-WI), CEO of Jobs for the Future Maria Flynn, CEO of Burning Glass Technologies Matthew Sigelman, and CEO of Colorado State University Global Dr. Becky Takeda-Tinker. Presented by Workday.
Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to me, david@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you tomorrow.
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