We stare at our phones constantly — watching, reading, typing and swiping all day long. It’s an addiction. And so we end up overusing our eyes. At the same time, we don’t use our ears quite as much, whether for podcasts or audiobooks or music.
The result is that I remember less of what I read and more of what I listen to. When I listen, especially to stories, I learn.
The downside of listening is that it is a linear activity — I can’t skim or skip around or get the gist through a glance. Listening to a podcast takes way more time for me than reading a transcript of that podcast. Which is why I’ve been doing most of my listening during my commute when I have to keep my eyes on the road.
But it’s worth it for me. And I think it could improve the effectiveness of founders to take in through podcasts what other founders have to say.
Here are my top eight, culled over the past 10 years:
- Official SaaStr Podcast (SaaStr): Expert advice on measuring and building SaaS companies.
- Running through Walls (Venrock): Quick and witty interviews of founders in consumer, enterprise and healthcare.
- 20 Minute VC (Harry Stebbings): Some interesting questions posed to investors.
- Prime Time (Prime Ventures): Quick and pointed conversations with founders in India.
- Origins (Notation Capital): An insider look at how venture funds and their investors think of the business of investing.
- Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (Stanford Innovation Lab): Honest conversations with Silicon Valley icons.
- Outliers (Factordaily): India founder conversations.
- TedTalks (TED): A great way to learn persuasion and public speaking.
and I’m looking forward to
- Masters of Scale (Reid Hoffman): Hasn’t been launched yet but probably a lot to learn from Reid and his point-of-view.
Authors
