Comedy Differentiates Business Content

Shaan Puri and Sam Parr discuss opportunities in the true crime podcast space, identifying gaps in the market and potential business models. They analyze how their own success in business podcasting came from bringing humor to a typically dry genre, and suggest similar opportunities exist in true crime.

Key Points:

• True crime podcasts represent a significant market opportunity:

  • Most true crime content is very serious, heavy, and mysterious
  • There's an opening for someone to approach true crime with a comedy angle
  • "My Favorite Murder" is described as "a true crime comedy podcast" that has found success

• The business podcast parallel:

  • "A lot of the business podcasts... were just an IQ contest everybody just wanted to be the bigger know-it-all"
  • "It was very dry informational"
  • Shaan and Sam succeeded by not filtering their natural conversational style
  • "Compared to most VCs we're pretty funny" (though "that bar is low")

• The true crime opportunity:

  • "There's nobody funny in true crime so if you're even moderately funny you're the funniest true crime podcast"
  • Current true crime podcasts have a specific style: "midwestern NPR woman" with "that Ira Glass... cadence"
  • There's room for more diverse voices and approaches

• Specific opportunities in true crime:

  • YouTube-first approach: "A billion people a month watch podcast content on YouTube"
  • Most true crime podcasts started as audio-only and added video later
  • Format innovation: Crime Junkie's successful format has one host explaining to a friend who acts as an active listener
  • "That little thing is so smart because most content gets better the more you narrow it to an audience of one"

• Additional opportunities:

  • True crime for workouts: Current true crime is "50 beats per minute" - opportunity for higher energy content
  • More diverse voices: Current true crime feels "very produced and almost like New York elitist"
  • Need for "somebody who listened to a lot of Nelly growing up"