The Pitch
Josh Mochio started iHeart Repair in 2010 after seeing that Apple's iPad would likely break like the iPhone before it. He cloned a competitor's traffic-heavy repair model, bought the related domains, and sold the business in 2014. Josh said the trailing revenue reached about 750K per year, but the business was service-heavy and hard to scale.
After the sale, Josh searched for what to do next. He had a dream about starting a daily podcast about Product Hunt, tweeted about it, and then booked the most upvoted product maker of the day as his first guest.
The Daily Hunt podcast ran for 55 episodes. Because guests depended on which products were upvoted each day, it was hard to plan. Product Hunt featured podcasts on its homepage, which drove significant traffic at the time.
Investor Shiel emailed Josh proposing a Shark Tank-style podcast. They launched The Pitch together. Season one was built around surfacing founders the audience had never heard of, and the show was hard to monetize because investors rarely commit within an hour.
The Pitch relied mainly on advertisers. Each episode had two ad slots, and season two sponsors were offered extended custom ads. Josh said that season two ad revenue was over three times season one's, with CPMs over $200 per episode. Season one ad revenue was about $80K in the past year, and total season one downloads reached about 750,000, roughly $15K per episode.
Facebook ads did not work. Josh spent around $100 to $200 per episode testing video clips, but cost-per-click was not scalable. Press and word of mouth were the most successful growth channels, since the show's Shark Tank concept was easy to talk about and live deals were expected to generate more press.
Season two was live when the interview was recorded. Josh said the show would stop if season two flopped. He also described plans for a season three in which three CEOs would be interviewed and one would receive a live investment.
- •Live, on-air investment decisions gave the show a built-in news hook that press outlets could cover, which fit its strongest growth channel.
- •Choosing a format investors and founders both wanted to hear about meant advertisers paid premium CPMs for a niche, high-intent audience.
- •Early distribution came from Product Hunt's homepage podcast placement, showing that an existing community platform can seed a new show.
- •Abandoning paid Facebook promotion after small tests kept spend focused on channels that were already producing results.
- 1.Build your show or product around a concrete, sharable hook, such as a live decision or a visible outcome, so press and word of mouth have something to amplify.
- 2.Test paid acquisition channels with small budgets first, measuring cost-per-click and scalability before committing more spend.
- 3.Connect with niche communities such as Product Hunt where your audience already gathers, and pitch them a specific episode or feature.
- 4.Price ad inventory by audience quality, and offer advertisers custom or extended placements when demand is strong.
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