As previously mentioned, I am always looking for good podcasts. I listen to podcasts while mowing our lawn and on road trips. 

StartUp is the latest podcast series that I have uncovered, thanks to a recommendation from my sister Anna who works for a media/marketing start up herself.

From what I have uncovered so far, StartUp seems to be quite like NPR’s How I Built This, which I mentioned in a previous post. Hosts of both podcasts interview entrepreneurs about the founding of their businesses and the ups and downs thereafter. The biggest difference I see is that StartUp seems to focus on smaller companies (a number that I had never heard of), while How I Built This seems to focus on companies that are now quite large and successful. In early seasons of StartUp there appear to be a number of the podcasts that depart from the entrepreneur-interview model, but I haven’t dug into the early seasons yet. I am mainly focused on the recent podcasts. 

Perhaps most interestingly, I recently listened to a podcast on StartUp about Mokhtar Alkhanshali and his specialty coffee. Mokhtar sources his coffee beans from war-torn Yemen and a cup of his coffee sells for $16 a cup. At first, this seemed like a ridiculous price for a cup of coffee, but after hearing how Mokhtar risked his life for his business in Yemen (bombings, escaping on a tiny boat, being captured, etc.) and listening to the specialty coffee to wine comparison, the pricing does make more sense. I might pay $16 once, just for the story, but I couldn’t see a $16 cup of coffee becoming even a semi-regular purchase for me. That said, I know people who are getting increasingly serious about their coffee and perhaps it can be sustained in some cities.