Dynamic Duos: the podcast underdogs making a difference
In this week's Dynamic Duos, Acast's managing director AUNZ, Henrik Isaksson and content director AUNZ, Guy Scott-Wilson, talk about their shared love of podcasts, representing a global disruptor in Australia, and cutting through in a saturated market.
In Dynamic Duos, Mumbrella each week asks two colleagues with a professional and personal affiliation to share with readers the importance of workplace relationships in an increasingly hybridised world of work.
Henrik Isaksson:
Guy was the first person that we hired when Acast launched in Australia in 2017. When he came through the interview process for the content director role, he was so excited about the vision and opportunity for the business that he was the only person that I met for the role and I hired him on the spot. I haven’t looked back since. It’s been almost six years since he joined the business and we are in contact on a daily basis, even when we are not working, so it seems to be going well so far!
We both like working for a business that is a disruptor or should I say the underdog. The audio industry has been dominated by big legacy businesses for a long time and it is really exciting to be part of a change, it’s probably one of the biggest reasons we are excited to go to work each day because we are making a big difference.
Acast is very compelling in the sense that our goal is to build a sustainable creator economy in podcasting and the opportunity to build this type of business from the start does not come along very often in one’s career.
Guy and my relationship is built on trust, you have to trust each other because the business that we’ve built has gone through many life stages over the past six years especially through COVID when we didn’t see each other for the better part of two years. Building, scaling and leading a business remotely is very very hard so trust is so important for success.
Although we obviously have our differences, we always seem to work them out. We are yet to have an argument, we’ve had discussions, but we’ve never argued which is a testament to our relationship.
Guy Scott-Wilson:
I’d been listening to podcasts fairly heavily since about 2014, and I was aware of Acast from around 2015 because people like Scroobius Pip and Adam Buxton from the UK would reference them in their podcasts.
I remember binge listening to Serial around that time on a flight back to Sydney from the UK and hearing that Mailchimp sponsorship baked into the start of each episode and thinking there’s such a big opportunity to improve the commercial model in podcasting.
As soon as I got back to Sydney I started googling it and realised that was what Acast were working on- on making podcast advertising dynamic and building a marketplace through which independent podcasters could succeed on their own terms- and suddenly it made sense why all these great creators at the forefront of British podcasting were talking about them.
Fast forward 18 months and I was sitting opposite Henrik in Sydney, having a coffee and talking about helping to launch Acast into Australia. We didn’t know each other, but had connected through a mutual contact.
We got along great and found we really shared vision for what Acast could become in this region. There was a huge opportunity to build an ecosystem around podcasting that didn’t already exist and that just felt really, really exciting. We both still have that same passion almost six years later!
It’s really rewarding looking back and getting that sense that it’s working, that we’re achieving the things we wrote down on the back of a napkin over coffee when we first met. The podcast industry is now worth $86 million in Australia, the year we launched it was worth $5 million. The work that we are doing at Acast is having a big impact on growth in the sector. We’ve made good on what we wanted to achieve, we offer a bespoke service that is partner focused. We are focused on the creator economy and helping podcasters to succeed on their own terms. We put more money in the pocket of creators than anyone else in this market and there is no other business that shares every dollar they make with a third party. That’s what makes Acast really special and really different.
Henrik on Guy:
Most memorable moment with Guy: There are many memorable moments with Guy. Two come to mind.
The first was when we moved into our then new offices in Surry Hills in 2020, which is now the headquarters for Acast Australia and New Zealand, and the process of setting up that office. It was a fun process setting up the studios, helping design the office and filling the office with new staff, that was really cool for us and the business.
The second, was when we travelled to the UK for a global company offsite. Guy is from London and I’d only been there once or twice. We walked throughout London and he showed me around his city. It’s a day and night I’ll never forget.
Best word to describe him: Can I only use one word! He’s very caring, he’s a caring human being, he’s genuinely interested to know about the people around him, how they are, how they are going which makes him a lovely person to be around and to work with. Add his knack for strategy and you have a winning recipe!
Most annoying or endearing behaviour he has: He is never on time, he’s always late. He’s always late by 2 or 3 minutes for every meeting.
Guy on Henrik:
Most memorable moment with Henrik: It’s probably not so much a moment but definitely a moment in time – that first 12 months or so of the business when we knew what the opportunity was, we were building the strategy and the team, doing a million meetings each week and opening up opportunity everywhere, was a really exciting time. When we launched we had a monthly audience of less than 3 million in Australia, mainly Australians listening to big content from the UK, but within three years we managed to turn that into 30 million monthly listens. We were working incredibly closely in those early days and had a real shared vision for what we wanted to achieve.
Best word to describe him: Committed – Henrik is an incredibly driven person, both at work and personally. You don’t meet people every day who are as driven and motivated to succeed and that rubs off on others. It’s a contagious quality, and great having a leader who has that natural motivation.
Most annoying or endearing behaviour he has: Henrik has a loose grasp of English, what with it not being his first language. I’ve spent a fair bit of time correcting his grammar over the years, but Henrik still has an amazing habit of throwing out the English translation of some of his Swedish phrases and assuming everyone knows what he means. ‘No danger on the roof!’, ‘no cow on the ice’ and ‘never buy a pig in the sack’ are some of the favourites!
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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Underdogs lol
Acast has a 1.9Billion dollar market cap
Their entire pitch is built around being the largest podcast company in the world
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