(upbeat music) >> From our studios in the heart of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, California, this is a Cube conversation. >> Welcome back, everybody, Jeff Frick here with the Cube. We're in our Palto Alto studios today for a Cube conversation, kind of an interesting conversation around trying to connect big enterprises who are always trying to be innovative with small companies who are usually innovative but don't necessarily have the connections the big companies that have a little bit more resources and might be interested in the things that they're working on. Really doing that through podcasts, which is a really growing venue. It's been going on for a while, but we're seeing a big uptake in, I think, the consumption of podcasts, who's doing podcasts, the brands behind podcasts. So we're really happy to have them all the way from Texas. It's Erin Gregor and Syya Yasotornrat, the cofounders of Innovation Calling. So welcome. >> Thank you for having us. >> Thank for having us. >> Absolutely, so did I get the description right of Innovation Calling, or give everyone kind of your overview of what you guys are up to. >> Yeah, so Innovation Calling was developed with the fact of there's, being in Dallas, we've got a lot of large corporations with innovation labs. They're trying to stand out. They're trying to connect with great talent, but a lot of these people, everybody's got an innovation lab, and we've talked about this before. If you're in the Fortune 500, you are a tech company whether you like it or not. And so we just saw this potential to highlight these companies to be able to hopefully get talent. And then on the other side enterprise companies are trying to connect with start-ups, established start-ups, not ideas, but established and there's a lot to sift through. Hopefully the goal of the podcast is to highlight these companies and help with that sifting and help with the talent pool and really connecting the creators with the companies that are trying to create. >> What's kind of the objective of that matching 'cause clearly it's not a hiring, you're not a hiring service. >> Right. >> You're talking about companies, not people, so what's kind of the objective? What's kind of your best case if this connection works? >> So for us our best case scenario is, obviously, we are at the forefront of innovation with emerging technologies today. Obviously Silicon Valley has a lot of talent and a lot of corporations already in that space, but when you think of the mid-tier, second-tier cities like Dallas, for example, you don't have as many tech workers, but there's still need for that type of talent, right? >> Right. >> With podcasting as our venue and medium to communicate that, we also realized that there was a great potential for these corporations to leverage podcasting as a way to communicate and do their outreach. Again, we're on those mid-tier second-tier cities where you might not have the plethora of folks here in the Bay Area. >> Right, right, but even if they connect with that company, are you thinking that there's going to be some type of technical alliance, some type of partnership, an OEM agreement, or what again kind of if you're pitching this to the small company, what am I like "Yay! You're finally getting" Ya know I listened to your podcast the other day. You had a woman on from Erickson, and I'm building some 5G widget. What's kind of my anticipated outcome of participating and kind of following your funnel and connecting with Erickson? >> So we have a couple of different ways. First of all, we can through us, we've actually made a lot of handshakes, so that's what I love to do is help create the handshakes and we've done that personally. The other side is we are taking the next step and doing live events. So that podcast that you talked about was a series of women in tech leadership where it's not just a live podcasting event but a networking event. So we're really taking the next step in creating these opportunities that you can be in the same room more exclusive type room that we're putting together, a lot of invite only perspective, but helping to make those connections where I see somebody from Erickson is going to be there, I want to make sure and now I can actually be in person and make that happen too. >> Okay. Why podcast? How did you come to use podcast as kind of your medium? >> So I think there's been a tradition in the last five six years that podcast does have the potential to blow up. I think now in 2019 we've actually hit that threshold where there's actually consumer response and with enough studies what they've discovered is most podcast listeners are actually educated business professionals. They tend to lean towards technology, yet you don't see a lot of technology-branded podcasts. And so we looked at the market. A lot of hobbyist type and personal branded podcasts, but we think now is the right time for corporations to make the investment to understand that the medium of traditional advertising is actually evolving and podcast is leading that forefront. You're seeing a lot of huge investments. Actually here there's a hundred million dollar plus investments for the purpose of growing the podcast community. >> Is that for the infrastructure? Or is that for the actual talent and the community and the content generation? >> Yes, the answer is yes, it's everything. (laughter) A company that does a lot of production but builds the community too. >> So I listen to Malcolm Gladwell's all the time. We got to interview him at Quickbooks Connect a couple years ago. You know, really interesting podcast. There's guys like Joe Rogan and stuff that obviously got a ton of great pub when he had Elon Musk on, who smoked not really a joint but kind of a joint and that, but I'm curious on the business side, are there some kind of lighthouse podcasts that you guys see that you use either as an example for what you're trying to develop or as an example to show? I'm just going to keep using Erickson just 'cause it's top of mind from what I just watched. To show them to say hey this is the type of thing that you guys should be trying to do. Who are some of your favorites? >> I'm a big fan of Hackable McAfee that has rolled out. When you think of tech branding and that is what we do focus on is technology based corporations, we tend to lead toward speeds and feeds. That's kind of our, we're engineered background folks in general, right? But I thought Hackable does a great job of pulling in some technology but then using stories or using events of being hacked, for example, something that the audience can relate to. And it's a storytelling, and that's the story arc that I think in general we're helping corporations understand the value of storytelling. It's not just about a product. It's not just selling a cup per se, but the story around it. How good that cup of coffee will feel when you drink it or you know, the experience or memories that you have it evokes. >> So how far are you along on your journey? You have a number of podcasts up already on your site. Are you the first inning, the third inning, is this still kind of early days or where are you in your development of your concept and your company? >> Well, we have a couple of different components to our business, so the podcast has What I was telling you about too we have a network component, we've got a consulting services. Our goal for Innovation Calling was let's first prove the concept. Let's plug into a network. Let's make sure we We'll be the test case essentially, and we've proven that. So from that perspective of that component, we're hitting, we're almost at 100,000 downloads of our podcasts. You know, we're doing pretty well with that. And now as we build it's the next component, so we're bringing on a couple customers from a consulting basis and we help not just with the production but with the promotion. So you spoke earlier about, I always kind of look at if the tree falls in the forest but no one was there to hear it, did it actually happen? I feel that saying fits with a lot of corporate podcasts. They're out there, but no one knows they're out there. So are you going to continue spending that kind of money on production and time with your employees if you're not going to do anything to promote it. And no one knows it exists? So we help on both sides of that scale. >> So on your podcast, which has been the women in tech theme, is that kind of the theme you're going to continue, or is that kind of a launching thing and you're going to turn into other themes? >> That's just a component. So Innovation Calling, there's men on the actual podcast. But we started that specific series to yes talk about the technology perspective of women, but how did you get there? What's your story of growing? So that's just a segment of that podcast again to bring in to really theme the live events to help grow that community on a segment basis? So as that grows, our goal is to do a couple different other types of segments. We talked about a channel. The idea of that yesterday with a client, so we want to actually take the bigger part of Innovation Calling and niche it down bit by bit on the live event scale. >> And then on the event side, how often are you doing them? What's the format, how many people, frequency, and what's the format? >> Syya is ready to go. >> She's ready to go. >> Let me tell you, I'm ready to go. First off, there's wine and hors d'oeuvres, so if we can't wine you and dine you I suppose, but no, really again we're about building community first and foremost. The Dallas Fort Worth area is making great strides in the entrepreneurial side. Big investments to get major corporations to come in the area, so we think this is a great opportunity for these folk to come together. A lot of folks from outside of town, who are looking to build their network again because they've been relocated. And then, you know, our themes. Women in technology is our first theme because, quite frankly we're sort of biased a little bit towards that. >> Well it's a good theme. >> Got to help our people. >> But again it is a very casual format right now. It's interview-based. >> Is it a hundred people? Five hundred people? >> We actually started and we want it to be intimate. We want the value of the network to actually make genuine connections as opposed to if it gets too large, I feel like some individual might be left off the side. So we actually started off our very first one that sold out was forty people and we did not want more than that in a room. Quite frankly then it gets claustrophobic. >> What about frequency? >> Once a month. >> Once a month. >> Our goal is to keep the size about 75-100 of those, max out at 100, but make sure to Syya's point keep them at an intimate scale. >> What about geography? Obviously you guys are based out of Dallas Fort Worth area. You're here in Silicon Valley. What's kind of your geographic plan? How do you see this kind of evolving? >> Absolutely. We would love to share this across the United States. Again we want to make sure Dallas is viable, proves a point. It is a second-tier city versus something like the Silicon Valley area or Chicago, New York, etc. We are not trying to create a brand new women in technology group, if you will. We're actually working in collaboration with existing women technology groups. We're just simply leveraging the networking opportunity through live podcasting. Again, growing the podcast medium. >> Yeah, I would say by early 2020 our goal is to be in, to come out here and to be able to have an audience to do a live event. We actually had drinks with someone last night about that collaboration, so we'd love to grow it on a perspective and be able to do it in different communities 'cause I've been podcasting for about five years through other businesses and the live event, it's just really. I mean you know you do live interviews. >> I do a lot of live events. >> There's just something special about that connection and then being there live to do the interview. It's a really fun format. >> Right. So do you have any upcoming guests you can plug or share with us today on your next couple podcasts? >> Our next event is actually April 9th. (laughter) (mumbles) April 9th and we're going to have Crystal Christensen, VP of Tech Support at SonicWall. We're very excited to have her onboard. We're still in confirmation, but we're going to be expecting folks from SalesForce, HPE, and Facebook for our next events. >> Okay, great. Where do people go to listen to the podcasts? >> Innovationcalling.com >> All right. Well Syya, Erin, thanks for stopping by. Hopefully you have a good successful couple of days in Silicon Valley and safe travels home. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much for having us, Jeff. Appreciate it. >> She's Erin, she's Syya, I'm Jeff. You're watching the Cube. We're at our Palo Alto studios for our Cube conversation. Thanks for watching. We'll catch ya next time. (upbeat music)