The Pitch Turns Profitable in Q1! But There’s a Catch

“That’s impossible!”

It’s how I would have replied if someone told me a year ago that our media company would be profitable in Q1, 2023.

And yet, here we are.

$60k in profit on $200k in total revenue. Small potatoes I know, but still… in this market? After resurrecting our show from Spotify just one year ago!? Yeah, it’s a massive accomplishment. I keep telling myself that I need to recognize it as such and yet…

It’s not enough.

As the classic numbers-focused-investor Phil Nadel once said to me and Lisa on episode 101:

It still seems that you're thinking a couple years out that ad sales will still be the majority of the revenue, which is a concern for me … so I'm gonna pass on investing. A company that's predominantly based on ad revenue is just not where I'm looking to invest in. - Phil Nadel,? Josh Pitches The Pitch

Well, damn. As much as I hate to say it… Phil was right! Of the $200k in revenue in Q1, 99.93% is ad revenue. Guess what happens when the show goes on break over the summer…

99% of our revenue goes poof! ??

So how will we survive the heat of summer with no ad revenue coming in?

Let’s get back to that in a minute…

Because here’s the thing that investors like Phil Nadel need to understand about media founders like me.

I didn’t get into podcasting to create a predictable revenue stream.

I got into it because I wanted to love my work. And I wanted to reach a lot of people and make an impact on their lives. As it turns out, that approach created something that was quite valuable.

I made a lot of money when my show sold to Gimlet and then to Spotify in 2019.

But then guess what Spotify did? They optimized their newly purchased shows for predictable, recurring revenue by making them available exclusively on Spotify. And podcast hosts like me began asking listeners to pay for Spotify premium.

Sounds like the logical business choice. But according to?Semafor , there was a tradeoff: that predictable revenue came at great expense to audience size.

So when Lisa and I acquired The Pitch in June 2022, we made it available on all platforms. Since then, over 400 thousand people have downloaded our show 1.3M times. And not only that, listeners are investing in many of the companies featured.

What we set out to do is working.

So here we are in 2023 with our first profitable quarter under our belt. And despite our reliance on unsexy ad revenue, we refuse to sacrifice audience for the sake of sexy recurring revenue.

Back to the question… how do we survive the heat of summer with no ad revenue?

We could launch a premium, ad-free subscription with bonus episodes!?Check . What else?

Well, we could do what everyone else in media is doing these days and cut costs by laying off our small but mighty team that we just assembled and is absolutely crushing it… but that would be silly.

We are at the beginning of an incredible journey, building one of the most authentic, trusted media brands. We know exactly who we are and who we are not. And we are not like anyone else.

So I declare that while everyone else in media is in cost-cutting mode, The Pitch is in growth mode. We will invest in growing our audience and making an even bigger impact. This may not create the type of revenue most investors want today, but we will be creating something of great value tomorrow.

This summer we begin production on our second show. A show that will break new ground and transport listeners behind another closed door in venture… the exit.

This Wednesday at 1pm Eastern?I’m hosting a call for angel investors. Where I’ll be kicking off our next fundraise and sharing details about our new show in development.

I’d love to have you join us on this journey.?RSVP here .

~Josh