Episode 70 — Noah Shanok, Stitcher CEO & co-founder

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Noah Shanok is Adam's guest for this edition of The Wolf Den. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Stitcher, the popular on-demand podcast and Internet radio service. Stitcher was an early innovator in podcasting, coming on the scene when Blackberrys were the predominant mobile device, and most people still had to sync their iPods in order to listen on the go. Noah lays out the company's history and evolution from an iTunes plug-in, to a web app, and then to a true mobile platform. He shares his experience with venture capital funding, weighing some of its advantages and disadvantages, along with details about Stitcher's recent acquisition by the Deezer streaming music service. Stitcher is also an early innovator in the automotive space, so Noah tells the story of how the service came to be integrated in the first generation of the Ford Sync smart dashboard platform, leading to integration with other major brands like GM, Subaru, and Jaguar. Finally, he tells Adam his predictions for when on-demand audio will take over the car, and what lies ahead for the future of audience metrics.