Enjoy lunch for four in Austin, Texas with Dear Media Podcast Network Founder and co-host of The Skinny Confidential podcast, Michael Bosstick!
It was the investment heard around the podcasting world. On April 30, Dear Media Podcast Network announced that it raised $8 million in Series A funding from Magnet Companies, a private equity-backed holding company. Dear Media was launched in 2018 as a joint venture between Michael Bosstick, who also serves as CEO, and Raina Penchansky, founder of Digital Brand Architects (DBA), the top independent influencer management company (which was acquired by United Talent Agency in 2019). The idea for Dear Media came about as a result of Bosstick — who shares hosting duties of The Skinny Confidential (TSC) podcast with his wife, Lauryn Evarts — identifying a gap in the podcasting space.
Before diving in, let’s rewind: Bosstick and Evarts started The Skinny Confidential podcast out of their living room in 2016 and self-produced it from the outset, with the intention of connecting to Evarts’ audience on a deeper level. The podcast’s audience had primarily been built off of Evarts’ blog, The Skinny Confidential, back when influencers were mainly known as bloggers. The idea for Dear Media came about as a result of Bosstick — who shares hosting duties of The Skinny Confidential (TSC) podcast with his wife, Lauryn Evarts — identifying a gap in the podcasting space. The podcast’s audience had primarily been built off of Evarts’ blog, The Skinny Confidential, back when influencers were mainly known as bloggers. During that time, Evarts and Bosstick looked at the podcast charts to see how their show ranked, and realized the podcasting space was extremely male-dominated — this pointed to a disconnect with the listenership that they had built with TSC, which was 90 to 95 percent female.
This void led to a new mission — a place in the podcasting world that would focus on promoting female voices: “It seemed like a huge void in the space, because clearly there was a large demographic of women that were interested in podcasts, that were listening to podcasts, and that were starting to host their own,” Bosstick explains. “So we said, ‘Okay, let’s build something that caters to those hosts and those demographics. And that’s what led to Dear Media.”