For those who’ve participated in a lively conversation on Clubhouse and thought, “This would make a great podcast,” San Francisco-based company Callin is phoning in with a fresh app to help its users do just that.
Callin bills itself as the first social podcasting platform where users can create, find and listen to live and recorded audio content all in one place. Unlike other live audio platforms like Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces, Callin’s vertical stack provides users with all the necessary tools for recording, editing, publishing and sharing their own podcasts.
The social platform launched out of private beta on Thursday with $12 million in Series A financing. The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital, Goldcrest Capital and Craft Ventures.
Callin co-founder and former COO of PayPal David Sacks was inspired to create the app after running a podcast of his own over the last year.
“I didn’t realize how much work a podcast could be, requiring everything from specialized equipment to hours of post-production work for every episode,” Sacks said in a statement. “Podcasting shouldn’t be that difficult, so I teamed up with my co-founder to radically simplify the experience. Our goal was to bring the barriers to podcasting down to zero by turning your iPhone into a studio.”
On Callin, users can choose to join and participate in an array of live conversation rooms or listen to pre-recorded episodes. The app also offers users the ability to highlight and share their favorite audio clips directly to their socials.
“While similar features have existed piecemeal on other apps, this is the first time that they have all been brought together in a seamless end-to-end experience,” Sacks continued. “In so doing, our goal is not to win a slice of the existing podcasting market but rather to expand the size of that market exponentially by enabling a long tail of shows.”
For those that get anxious speaking in front of other people, Callin provides users with the option to host rooms privately. The app also offers public conversation hosts the chance to queue up audience members for discussion questions, making it easier for them to manage crowds.
“The transition between listener and creator is effortless,” Axel Ericsson, co-founder and CTO of Callin, said in a statement. “We have already seen creators launch high-quality shows on the app during our private beta and we’re excited to launch Callin publicly.”
The social podcasting platform hopes to launch Android and web versions of its app in the near future. Callin is currently available to download on the Apple app store.
