StartUp is a podcast about startups. 

When the former producer of This American Life left his well-paying public radio job to start his own company, he decided to document the whole thing. StartUp, is the revealing, enchanting, and at times, excruciating podcast that tells that story.

Series One of StartUp follows the journey of Alex Blumberg, as he attempts to start a podcast business in amongst the daunting world of startups, accelerator programmes, VCs and Angel Investors. A pressurised space of innovation, highly motivated people and that process of making something. Alex documents his initial meetings with investors, interviews his team, shares late-night discussions with his wife. He told the Observer, “at a certain point, I realized starting this company, this is a story. A story that a business reporter like me would have killed for, with behind-the-scenes access to all these embarrassing details that never get reported.”

Throughout each episode you are enthralled as Alex develops his company, Gimlet Media from nothing more than an idea, through a number of significant milestones. Refining the pitch, getting a business partner, choosing a name for the company and finally launching the business.

The episode 'How to name your company was one of our favourites. Naming is a tricky business and Alex works with Lexicon Branding, the company that named products like BlackBerry, PowerBook and Swiffer. For anyone battling with a startup of their own, the episode 'How to divide an imaginary pie' gives great insight into the many strategies of deciding who deserves what when bringing new partners on board.  There are also episodes on ‘Burnout’, and on the dilemma of ‘Mixing Art and Business’ - something we’ve constantly grappled with at Make Works.

It's best to start at the beginning, here's episode one: