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Geekdom Media Enters Podcast, Book Production

San Antonio startup promoter Lorenzo Gomez announced Monday plans to start a new company, which will initially focus on podcast and book production, in a release to Geekdom members.

“They get upset if they aren’t the first to know,” Gomez said.

Gomez co-founded Geekdom Media with his serial collaborator and Rackspace founder Graham Weston. Gomez is also chairman of Weston-owned Geekdom coworking space and Weston-funded nonprofit the 80/20 Foundation.

Some of those Geekdom members will benefit quickly from Geekdom Media. With only two staff members — Gomez and Jon Garcia, formerly of Geekdom — Gomez said they will outsource about 90 percent of the work to Geekdom startups. For instance, audio editing and production will be done by Game Day Media.

Gomez — fresh off of writing his own business book “The Cilantro Diaries,” while scaling back his involvement in 80/20 and Geekdom — is starting the next chapter of his own story.

"I want the founders of companies to bullishly move to our city,” Gomez said. “And the only way idea people move to a city is if they view your city as an idea city."

The first podcast, “The Brand Brothers,” features award-winning branding expert and author Bill Schley. Gomez plays straight-man and wrangler to Schley’s enthusiastic color commentator about marketing companies. Geekdom Media will produce two more podcasts titles before the end of the year.

According to a June 11reportby Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, podcasting revenue in the U.S. was up 275 percent between 2015-2017, and is expected to grow another 110 percent to $659 million by 2020.

“There’s riches in nitches,” said Gomez about the company’s podcast strategy. Each podcast title, he added, will focus on a specific topic to create value and interest.

Revenue and sponsorships aren’t the only metrics he will monitor from these podcasts. Rankings in each podcast category will be monitored for the next six to 12 months before making a decision about their future. Brand Brothers is currently listed at 116 for new business podcasts on iTunes.

Comparing it to his experience with his book, he said another metric will be response from other business owners

“People saying, 'I’m using this principle right now and its working,' ” he said, “that is the ultimate measure of success for me."

Geekdom Media also has two books in production for later this year.

Paul Flahive can be reached at paul@tpr.orgor on Twitter @paulflahive

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: The 80/20 Foundation is a funder of Texas Public Radio’s Technology and Entrepreneurship desk.

Paul Flahive can be reached at Paul@tpr.org