The plane ride home

You know how your ears pop due to the change in air pressure upon landing on a plane? That’s sort of how my brain felt when I decided I was going to make a return to building platforms for podcasters.

i’ve spent the last two years in something of a self imposed wilderness, denying myself the use of the skills I’ve built up over decades. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. Turns out, I had somehow decided that using my coding skills in a creative environment was somehow a step backwards.

Never mind the fact that there was a noncompete clause in the contract I signed when my last business was acquired. That didn’t really enter into it. Maybe I was just burnt out from my previous experience building Podiant, or maybe I’d fallen into the trap of thinking of myself as some kind of “thought leader” rather than a capable engineer with good ideas. Either way, and for whatever reason, I told myself I was not “allowed” to build another hosting platform.

And then my brain experienced that change in air pressure and suddenly it all clicked into place. I hit pause on the podcast I was listening to, and started furiously making notes on what would become Bramble.

So what is Bramble?

On the face of it, it’s just another podcast hosting provider. I’ve got a future post planned on why I think it’s still worth building a media host in 2023, but that’s for another day.

As for who I am, my name is Mark. Back in 2016, I had an idea for how podcasting could be made easier for busy people like me. So I built a platform that grew quickly… maybe too quickly… which was acquired by Castos in the spring of 2021. I pretty much built the entire platform by hand, with some invaluable help from one or two people who I would not have been able to succeed without. So that was Podiant.

I was being a bit dramatic when I said I had been wondering in the wilderness for the last two years. I’ve built a successful consultancy business in the interim, and I’m extremely proud of that and don’t have any plans to put that aside. But when I discovered between 2017 and 2021 is that I love building products, running them, improving them, taking feedback on them, and watching them grow. Their growth pains can be excruciating, but there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of working on something you believe in, and getting to put it in front of people who then use it to do great things.

So for now, take this as formal notice that I’m getting back into the ring. I learned a lot building Podiant between 2016 and 2021, and even more about running a business and finding the people I truly want to work with in the time between 2021 and now. So I’m excited about the future, and once again having something to say about how podcasting can be made better, easier, more accessible, and how it can be done in a way that puts people and planet over profit.

Follow along

I want to use this blog as a way of documenting the process, so I would love you to join me for the journey. A lot of the ideas of how the platform will work are already fairly fleshed out — my job now is to start setting those ideas down in pixels and code.

I’m hoping to have an early beta version of the Bramble platform ready for mid September. You can join the waiting list now, and be the first to find out if I make it!