How Podbeat is making podcasts work for workouts

Meet Joy and Nathan Monteith, partners and co-founders of Podbeat. A mobile app that lets podcast listeners add a beat to any podcast easily for a run, hike, bike or workout.

Nathan is in advertising and has won every creative advertising award in the world from Gold Lions in Cannes to Gold Pencils at the One Show and Clios. If there’s an odd-shaped piece of faux metal that is gold in color and looks embarrassing to talk about – he’s won it.

Joy is a former DJ who has worked at 2 successful tech startups in Chicago. As a comparative-literature major she often says things that Nathan has to Google later.

Together they are changing the way podcast listeners experience a podcast.

The story told by Joy and Nathan

Podcasts have never been bigger. There’s more than 5 million of them and they drop over 300,000 new episodes each week, but these podcasts all have the same problem: They don’t work for workouts. People listen to music instead because it’s more motivating.

The vision for Podbeat came from no vision

Imagine waking up one day, opening your eyes and seeing nothing. Darkness. You rub them. Still nothing. This is what Joy experienced and it led to the idea of Podbeat.

Joy needed cataract surgery way too early, and she had a reaction to the steroids she was taking post-surgery. She lost her sight for 6 months. During that time, she still wanted to work out, so she’d get on the treadmill and listen to Podcasts.

She needed some motivation, so Nathan would play beats on a separate speaker to give the podcast some energy.

There was no other way to do this, so they agreed – when her sight returned, they’d make it into an app. Podbeat was launched in February 2023.

The first-ever mobile app that let’s podcast listeners add a beat to any podcast in any beat style. The listener controls the volume, treble, bass and even pace – by adjusting the BPM (beats per minute).

Our first 100 users happened organically. A few simple social posts on Instagram and Facebook and we were off. It’s a simple concept that a social post can deliver on easily. Not a lot of products have that ‘Whoa, this exists?’ like Podbeat does. Once a user has added a beat to a podcast for a workout, they can’t go back to just the talking.

Podbeat promotes in 3 different channels: Social, podcasts, influencers

We post organic and paid social on Facebook.

We create YouTube Shorts.

We are on Instatgram.

We are on TikTok.

@gabriela_flax

Adding an EDM beat to my true crime podcast with @Podbeat has 100% levelled up my workout game 🏋️‍♀️🎧 (especially as a gal who listens to ... See more

And we post EVERY DAY. With Podcasters, we offer a ‘promo swap’ where we promote their podcast to show how Podbeat works on our channels, and in return – they talk to their listeners about how they can add a beat to their podcast immediately.

Our influencers are focused on both physical and mental health and talk to their followers about how Podbeat is the only app that lets them control their podcast listening experience.

We create our own content for our social channels. Nathan runs about 35-40 miles a week and shoots his content when he does. Our background in design and music allows us to create daily content for no cost given we’re still bootstrapping at this point.

Podbeat has embraced A.I. in a few ways. We DO NOT use it for beat generation though. The tech is not at the level that we require of our beats. Nathan is a former musicologist, so all of our beats must ‘support’ the podcast content. To do that properly, you have to understand how ‘musical’ something can be before it’s actually distracting to the content.

Our beats are designed to loop in 3 minute increments, which is based on how the body reacts to burst cycles. As athletes, this is very important to us – and it’s why our beats build, crescendo, then de-volve for the full 3 minute cycle.

We DO use A.I. for image generation. We are a bootstrapped company, and we feel we use it responsibly by making sure our image prompts are unique, and creating imagery that is not reflective of any artist ‘style’ or likeness.

Podbeat is in 9 countries and our social posts reflect that

Podcasts are in over 100 different languages around the world. A beat from Podbeat works with any language, and when we see a spike in download in specific markets, we use A.I. to translate our social posts to target that market.

After a recent spike in India of users, we posted this …

@podbeat_app

With so many GREAT PODCASTS around the world, how do people find time? Try adding them to your Workout Routine by Adding a Beat to them wi... See more

With more Spanish language users, we posted this …

@podbeat_app

Podbeat lets you add a Beat to ANY PODCAST in ANY LANGUAGE for your next tun or workout! Podbeat is FREE to Download in the App Store Now!... See more

And when Italian users were downloading, we responded …

@podbeat_app

NEW YEAR. NEW WORKOUT ROUTINE. And we’re posting in a NEW LANGUAGE! Italian! We want everyone to know they can Add a Beat to any Podcast f... See more

We are always very clear in our posts that we are using A.I. to translate as an effort to be able to communicate with them. We feel this is a great use of the technology for our business, and we keep it fun.

Why has this never been done?

Because your current mobile phone’s IOS only allows one audio source to play at a time, but Podbeat has found a unique work-around that allows Podbeat to stay onscreen while dimmed and locked, so you can work out – AND control your podcast experience.

Over the last few months we’ve seen an even bigger spike in usage for audiobooks and our most recent communication in social is doubling down on how Podbeat works for audiobooks too.

@podbeat_app

Now you can learn and burn by Adding a Beat to an Audiobook with Podbeat for your workout. Adding a Beat to can aid in focus and engagemen... See more

Here’s a step by step guide to how you can get the most out of your podcast experience!

Thank-you for taking the time to read about Podbeat. We hope you’ll love it like our users do.

As any bootstrapped company will attest to – Nathan and Joy need your feedback on how Podbeat works for you, so please reach out to them directly:

• [email protected]

• [email protected] 

PS
Nathan and Joy have just accepted to present and pitch Podbeat at COLLISION in Toronto. Canada's largest tech conference. They’ll be there from June 17-20 participating in their Startup Showcase and competing in their PITCH competition.