The History of RSS Podcasting with Ben and Alberto - Part 1

In this episode, the founders of RSS.com, Ben Richardson and Alberto Betella share their journey of building RSS.com.

How Alberto and Ben started working together

[1:44]

Ben has owned rss.com since 2013. He purchased it from somebody that was looking to sell it. It was happening at the same time that Google was "killing the reader." Ben noticed that many of his customer support emails were questions about podcasting. As those questions grew over time, he realized that he needed to offer a podcasting solution and a feed reader solution.

[2:47]

After realizing that he needed to find a partner, Ben reached out to Alberto Betella, who has been in the podcast space for a long time. After finding him online, Ben reached out to Alberto with an email about RSS. The two immediately formed a partnership.

[4:18]

The first thing Alberto thought about Ben was that he had the technology, the content management system, and the appetite to build RSS in a way that could scale up. Ben knew Alberto had the experience and that together they could make RSS something special.

Love for News

[5:55]

Ben is a news-obsessed person. He was very keen on his news consumption, so he would lose out if everybody stopped using RSS feeds. Ben loves staying current, and he couldn’t imagine a world without the feed reader

The Start of Podcasting in RSS

[7:34]

RSS first started with the Podcast Generator codebase, but it was replaced entirely after the first year.

Ben's journey to RSS

[08:06]

Ben's wife and their desire to have a family is what led them to where they are now. From starting his first business to RSS, Ben's journey was always a blend of opportunity and passion. RSS as a podcasting platform is very mission-driven. Ben and Alberto are giving people a voice. Their current focus is on cultural and language diversity and supporting the voices of other communities.

Alberto's journey to RSS

[12:41]

Alberto is a data-driven person who wants more commercial impact.

From getting his Ph.D. to entering the corporate world, he spun out Moonshot into a large company, which raised $36 million. Alberto then decided to leave the corporate world and join RSS full time.

Meeting for the First Time

[14:52]

Between COVID and other intervening obligations and things, Ben and Alberto's first meet worked out at the Podcast Movement in Nashville. Both of them never knew how the other looked. They were constantly interacting online from separate continents. Both understood each other's priorities and family situations, however. Because of their online interactions, meeting for the first time was a nice experience for them.

[17:26]

Ben and Alberto didn't meet each other, not because they were on two different continents. Both of their objectives were aligned, and they wanted to meet even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. But with various circumstances, a meeting just didn’t work out.

[18:24]

"Even if you aren't engaging with someone in person, you can still create something magical."

RSS as a Podcasting Platform

[19:10]

RSS as a podcasting platform is extremely easy. Making something simple but accessible for people who want to start is complex. The key differentiator with other companies is that RSS is extremely simple.

Learn more about RSS and its history: https://rss.com/blog/the-history-of-rss-podcasting/