PodMatch, a free podcast booking service that automatically matches ideal podcast guests and hosts together, said last week it acquired Atlanta-based Poddit — a move that PodMatch founder Alex Sanfilippo told the Business Journal will continue to solve an issue he's seen in the industry since the beginning.
The issue: Lots of people want to host podcasts, but not all of them can find ideal guest speakers.
PodMatch uses a similar algorithm to what online dating style apps use, he said. The software matches podcasters' preferences to speakers who might be able to speak on the issue.
"It's basically matching them up," Sanfilippo said. "They can message within our system, and they can also schedule their interviews."
The newly combined companies have have helped both guests and hosts book 13,000 podcast interviews.
Sanfilippo is a Jacksonville native who said the First Coast is an attractive place for people who have tech-based startups.
He said the acquisition of Poddit was a strategic move for the company that was just founded in 2020. Sanfilippo added that there are plans to make more acquisitions in the coming year.
The recent acquisition allowed PodMatch to take over a user base consisting of 3,500 podcast guests and hosts. PodMatch has about 17,000 users itself as of August, and 10% of users have been upgrading to the premium version of the site.
"We expect to do two more acquisitions this year," Sanfilippo said. "Ideally, four more purchases or high-level partnerships in the next year."
He said PodMatch is looking to acquire companies that have a similar user base and also said that although there aren't many companies like PodMatch, there are similar companies that they'd like to acquire.
"There's other podcasts companies that I think we're aligned with that make a lot of sense (to acquire), so I would love the opportunity to purchase those," he said. "We'll just kind of see if that shows up."
Sanfilippo said he has a call with another company interested in selling to PodMatch next week.
