Symbl for Startups founder profile: Quill’s CoHost product provides professional podcasting support to creators focused on growth
This series takes a closer look at companies participating in the Symbl for Startups program. If you have any questions about applying for entry into the program or want to know more about the company featured in this profile, please contact kira.hunter@symbl.ai.
Human-to-human speech analysis is particularly important for podcast creators working to expand their listener base, according to podcasting software startup Quill. Chief Technical Officer Abhinav Mathur explains in the following interview that the company’s latest product, CoHost, was built specifically with this customer — and glaring market opportunity — in mind.
CoHost implements Symbl.ai’s API to give podcasting teams the tools they need to get discovered by new audiences, quantify that growth and also ensure their message is being communicated effectively to listeners.
Read on for a primer on the product and to learn how it differs from other podcasting software by leveling the playing field for early stage podcasters.
Tell me about how the idea for CoHost came about. What market need does it fulfill?
Abhinav Mathur: After working with hundreds of podcasts to help start, launch and grow their shows, the Quill team noticed that there was a constant challenge around how to scale a podcast. We found that the way podcast analytics are presented to creators can be confusing, and that there’s a disconnect in terms of creators’ understanding of which marketing channels can assist in growth.
It was a problem that we were running into with clients, and the tools we were using just weren’t giving us the insights we needed. So, we decided to solve this challenge.
CoHost is making it easy to publish, grow and measure podcast audiences through powerful tools built for professional podcasters. We’re giving creators insights into their show’s performance, the ability to determine which marketing tactics drive growth and discoverability on all major listening platforms.
When did you discover Symbl.ai’s API, and how did you know it was the right fit for Quill Inc.?
AM: We knew that Symbl.ai was the right fit for our company because it had many more features compared to some industry competitors.
Symbl.ai allows us to understand and analyze transcripts better, and it helps our end users by providing additional information about their podcasts such as important keywords, summaries and more.
Symbl.ai is also a pro-startup company that assisted us throughout the process of understanding the product’s API capabilities while we were testing it out for our use case, which was incredibly helpful.
Can you explain some of the benefits of human-to-human speech analysis as it pertains to brand storytelling through podcasts?
AM: Podcasts are a great way to tell stories, and in order to make sure that the end user is clearly understanding what they are trying to convey, human-to-human speech analysis is key.
Technologies that help provide such data really equip podcast producers with the tools necessary to make their speech delivery better based on feedback.
This can be useful when a podcast has repeated words and sentences, the quality of the audio is not high or the general delivery of the podcast is not as good as professionally produced shows.
Improving the quality of a podcast through human-to-human speech analysis really goes a long way in terms of contributing to the success of a show and helping users grow their listener base.
How does Quill Inc.’s product, CoHost, compare to similar software in the podcasting space?
AM: The podcast industry has some incredible products and services available. After years of experimenting with many of them, we found that our biggest pain point was fostering growth. The solutions that were already out there simply weren’t filling this need for us.
That’s what inspired us to tackle the challenge ourselves.
CoHost is unique in the sense that we focus on growth first. Our priority is to help creators scale their shows and take them to the next level; all of our tools aim to reflect this intention.
Which product features have your customers been most excited about and why?
AM: Our customers have definitely been the most excited about the design and usability of our dashboard, which makes it easy for each of them to get a snapshot of their show’s performance and compare results.
They’ve also been looking forward to some of our upcoming features that are focused on making it easier to boost discoverability and track how marketing channels are performing with respect to promotion.
How do you see CoHost evolving as the platform gains users?
AM: Staying true to our focus of helping creators scale their podcasts, CoHost plans on continuing to release features and benefits that will help podcasters make data-driven growth decisions.
Ultimately, it will come down to what our users need throughout their podcast process and what their definition of growth entails. However, we see CoHost being an essential tool in a podcaster’s toolkit for growth and discoverability, providing users with industry-leading solutions that make it easy to scale.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
