Janis Butkevics and Chris Heidger have acquired Podcast Clout, a tool that helps public relations professionals build podcast pitch lists, from founder Christina Nicholson of Wellington.
The move to acquire the nearly three-year-old software first started in late 2022 as the new owners explored opportunities in the rapidly growing podcast ecosystem. The six-figure deal was signed Thursday, March 2.
“I got the idea to create software like this after asking another popular PR software to add podcasts to their database for years,” founder Christina Nicholson said. “They never did, so with two kids and a newborn at home from a desk in my bedroom, I made it happen.”
Nicholson invested in a tech team as well as business coaching to bring her vision to life. It launched in April 2020, a month after the world shut down due to COVID-19.
“As the owner of a PR agency, Media Maven, I needed this software for myself, my team and my clients,” Nicholson explained. “So, if I needed it, I knew many other marketing professionals could benefit from it, too.”
With a trial to a six-month or annual subscription model, entrepreneurs and marketers can build custom podcast pitch lists to appear as a guest on shows their ideal clients are listening to. Subscribers can filter by keyword, category or both to niche down. From there, they’re able to export podcasts that have ranked in the top 200 of their category in the last 90 days.
“With millions of podcasts in the app, I wanted to focus on quality over quantity,” Nicholson said.
Butkevics, who is a longtime data scientist with a depth of machine learning and natural language processing experience, is well positioned to build upon Podcast Clout’s track record of delivering for clients.
“We are excited to build on the tech that Christina developed by adding a decade of AI expertise into Podcast Clout capabilities to help create matches between PR professionals and podcast hosts,” Butkevics said.
Nicholson remains a minority owner in the company and will serve as an advisor to the majority shareholders.
