Introducing Turpentine

A tech media company made by tech people, for tech people

I’m launching the podcast network I’ve been working on for the last half year, but it’s really the culmination of all the podcasting I’ve done the past 7 years.

If you’ve ever enjoyed any podcast episodes or are generally a supporter, please like/share/check us out here (and also upvote any of the podcasts you enjoy as it helps us get ranked higher). Thank you.

https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg/status/1666872669290233857?s=20

Here’s the full scoop:

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I’m excited to (finally) announce the launch of my newest venture: Turpentine, a network of podcasts, newsletters, and more covering tech, business, and culture, from the perspective of industry insiders and experts.

Think The Ringer or Barstool, for tech.

[Thanks to our amazing art director for all the above]

We (@ASalyers3 @NatalieToren) believe that the world’s most interesting, important, and useful ideas and experiences come from those with skin in the game, sharing their expertise and passion – now matter how niche the topic. We are excited to build a tech media company, by tech people, that is decisively pro-tech and that exists to helps people improve at their jobs.

More on what we’re building, why now/why us, our lineup of upcoming shows and hosts, open roles, etc below. But the tl;dr is: we’re looking for new shows, hosts, and sponsors. If you think you might be the next Lenny Rachitsky, All In, Acquired, or [xyz show] for your niche – or you want your company to reach a particular niche audience – DM us or get in touch on our website

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Over the last decade of the internet, the “nicheification” of media has exploded across the entire surface area of culture, before finally coming to business and tech. 

The future of niche/business media is creator-driven. Think Lenny Rachitsky, Harry Stebbings, Packy McCormick, 7-figure business creators just off podcasts and newsletters. 

There exist creators in every vertical who’d make more money and have more fun being a business creator for their niche than working within it, and we want to help them do it.

Turpentine is here to accelerate that trend, and our mission is to be the best place for experts to talk shop and to help our audience acquire the edge they need to excel in their industry and craft.

We exist to provide our audience with conversations that they wouldn’t hear anywhere else: candid discussions with thinkers and builders, evergreen education, and frameworks for understanding the frontier of every field. 

Our first three shows demonstrate this vision:

• Moment of Zen

• The Cognitive Revolution

• Upstream

Already, these shows have broken through the podcast charts, grown their audiences, and gotten into the tech zeitgeist.

But this is just the beginning, and there is almost infinite white space for valuable topics and talent that might not even have existed even a few years ago.

Case in point: I’m also excited to launch our newest show, Media Empires, which features my conversations with modern media founders and creators. 

Before I launched Turpentine, I asked the best in the (new) media business about how they built their empires and what they learned – the conversations were so rich and interesting, that I decided to turn it into a show.

The first episode features Morning Brew’s Austin Rief, and you can check it out and subscribe here: 

One difference with our approach is that the hosts and creators are often practitioners and experts, just like their guests.

That’s where the name “Turpentine” comes from, by the way: it’s inspired by the Picasso quote, of course:

“When art critics get together they talk about Form and Structure and Meaning. When artists get together they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine”

Indeed, podcasts are an excellent medium for revealing tacit knowledge, or excavating what Samo Burja calls “intellectual dark matter”: The most successful/knowledgeable people in the world often do not have time to publish their knowledge — so interviews are the only way for these experts to transmit their knowledge.

All of our hosts are busy operators and investors who wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t automate all the logistics for them. A sample of hosts for hosts for current/upcoming shows include: 

• Jesse Genet

• Marshall Kosloff

• Sheel Mohnot

• Jack Altman 

• John Kobs

• Noah Smith

• and more

Some of you might be asking: isn’t the “creator economy” over? Aren’t a bunch of heavy-hitters divesting from podcasts? Despite what it may seem, podcasting is still super early as a medium. 

Andrew Huberman started in 2021 and was recently the #1 podcast in the world . Same with All In, My First Million, and Lenny’s Podcast, just within tech. 

The reason these came to the top so recently? The best podcasts do not yet exist. 

People who’ve accumulated earned secrets have not shared them because they’ve been too busy applying them. We’re trying to remove the friction and make it worth their while to do so.

Podcasts are, as David Senra says, like the printing press for audio. They’ll only get bigger and the niches deeper in increasing years. We’re in the early stages of this, and we’re eager to partner with new expert talent to launch new podcasts around sectors, functional areas, and other topics within tech, business, and culture. 

Our pitch to talent: we're working with busy people who only have a couple hours a week to dedicate to this, so you bring us your existing show or new idea for one, and we handle everything else, soup to nuts.

Right now, we’re looking at a wide-range of niches to build shows in, like: :

• The definitive show for every exec position or functional area you’d hire for (e.g. CFOs, CMOs, CTOs)

• Or for every category you’d invest in (e.g. Bio, Cybersecurity)

• Unique situations (advice for people in their 20s, stories of early employees)

• Applying formats, old and new, to tech and business topics (debates, recaps and analysis, anonymous tips, etc)

We want to create the leading show in every niche, so if you have an idea, please DM me, Amelia, or check out our website for more: turpentine.co.

Importantly, I also believe that niche, high-quality podcasts provide a major opportunity for brands, too. With their unique intimacy and dedicated, high-quality audiences, podcasts can be an excellent, targeted way to reach a key audience you couldn’t find otherwise. Already, podcasts like My First Million have brought millions of dollars in sales to products they work with, and we aim to have a similar impact through longterm partnerships.

We’re lucky to work with great partners such as Secureframe, Mercury, and Riverside, and we’re excited to work with more brands and partners about what they are looking for to reach high-quality audiences.

As for team, I’m lucky to be partnering with Amelia Salyers, who helped run a16z’s editorial efforts and podcast network, as well as Future, and Natalie Toren, who helped run Comms and our writers community at On Deck. 

We’re also hiring:

• Producer - Help us create and run excellent new shows

• Operations: Help us build world-class production platform for creators 

• Social and marketing - Help us spread the good word and grow our reach

• Revenue - Help us monetize

As a small team, we hire general athletes who are obsessed with learning and getting exposure to media and venture. Reach out to me or Amelia (amelia@turpentine.co) if interested in learning more.

The team and I would love to hear your ideas on where this could go and see what kinds of partnerships make sense – DMs are open!

I’m excited to see where this goes from here. I’ve seen via my experiences with On Deck and Product Hunt and in my ongoing investing at Village Global that distribution remains one of the biggest value-adds to startups, and that owning a niche is worth its weight in gold.

Of course, there’s a lot one can build on top of podcasts (newsletters, conferences, communities, recruiting, etc). I’m also excited to create a unifying publication on top of them. Podcasting is the only medium where you can translate it to every other medium (short-form video).

More broadly, I've been excited about the idea of a media co being a cash-flow machine that's also a data acquisition asset Media cos get so much intelligence on people/companies that can be used to help inform hiring & investing decisions. Recruiting companies too.

That's it for now. We'd love to hear your ideas on what we're building and ideas for getting involved – DMs are open. We've been working on this for a while now—and we're building on years of work in podcasts, newsletters, and startups. We hope you enjoy our shows!

https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg/status/1666872669290233857?s=20