waitwhat Raises $12M to Innovate Beyond Podcasts

The Evolution of Digital Storytelling: WaitWhat Secures New Funding

As podcasting solidifies its position as a prominent digital media format, alongside traditional avenues like music, video, and print, a content creation startup is poised for expansion following a successful funding round.

WaitWhat's Funding and Future Plans

WaitWhat, established by key figures from the original TED digital media team, has secured $12 million in funding. This investment round was spearheaded by Raga Partners, with significant participation from Emerson Collective (Laurene Powell Jobs’ firm), Lupa Systems, Capital One Ventures, Maywic Select Investments, GingerBread Capital, Burda Principal Investments, Cue Ball Capital and Reid Hoffman.

The company intends to utilize these funds to further develop successful content formats and invest in research and development. To date, WaitWhat’s productions, including podcasts like “Masters of Scale” with Reid Hoffman, “Meditative Story,” “Spark & Fire,” and “Should this Exist?” have amassed 70 million downloads.

Beyond Podcasting: A "Media Invention Company"

While recognized for its podcast production, WaitWhat defines itself as a “media invention company.” Co-founders June Cohen and Deron Triff aim to broaden their scope, venturing beyond podcasting to explore innovative user interaction methods.

“We are currently developing a novel content format centered around physical well-being, integrating storytelling into workout experiences,” the founders explained. “Following this, we are exploring intergenerational content, specifically parent-child experiences, and are in the initial stages of creating a television series in this area.”

Demonstrated Success and Emerging Trends

An entrepreneur training course linked to the Masters of Scale podcast has already garnered 10,000 downloads within its first eight weeks. Furthermore, “Meditative Story,” focused on mindfulness, achieves 750,000 monthly downloads. This highlights a crucial element of digital services: “Habit is central to our approach,” they stated.

The company is addressing a potential gap in the podcasting landscape, which, while growing, risks becoming overly standardized. WaitWhat is focused on both innovative presentation and high-quality content.

A Focus on Essential Human Needs

“Our objective is to cultivate a valuable, independent portfolio of premium intellectual property—designed around fundamental human needs and scaled through a unique strategy,” the founders elaborated. “We recognize a significant opportunity for content that intersects daily routines with personal fulfillment. Our success hinges on building content ecosystems that combine habit and human potential.”

The Shifting Podcast Landscape

While compelling podcast content holds substantial financial potential, much of the current investment is occurring through mergers and acquisitions. Companies like Spotify are seeking to expand their audiences and enhance their advertising and subscription models, or to acquire new technologies for content creation and organization.

WaitWhat distinguishes itself by building a company around innovation within and beyond the podcast medium, potentially attracting the attention of these same acquiring entities.

Prioritizing Diversity in Investment and Leadership

Cohen and Triff have intentionally integrated diversity into their fundraising strategy. This encompasses both hiring individuals from diverse backgrounds and shaping their management approach and partnerships.

“We view our funding rounds as a means of securing diversity,” they emphasized. “This isn’t a conventional perspective, but we’ve successfully leveraged fundraising to advance diversity in several ways.”

A Proactive Approach to Representation

In their seed round, half of the funds were raised from female investors, achieved by prioritizing women-led funds. During the Series A round, they implemented a carve-out to ensure balance, supplementing funds from diverse funds with additional investment from women-led funds.

For this Series B round, they focused on board representation, stipulating gender balance in their term sheet. “WaitWhat will always maintain gender balance on the board,” they specified. “With a five-person board, at least two members will identify as women, and at least two will identify as men.” Investors responded positively to this request.

This commitment to diversity has resonated with investors, demonstrating that purpose and profitability can coexist.

“Based on our experience investing in companies that foster loyalty and community through high-quality content and experiences, we strongly believe in WaitWhat’s ability to deliver enduring and adaptable content, empowering individuals to reach their full potential,” stated Atul Joshi, founder and managing partner of Raga Partners, who led the investment.