---
aliases: ["Podcast Season 3"]
Is A: Project
Belongs to: "[[25q2]]"
Advances: "[[responsibility-podcast]]"
Status: Done
Owner: "[[person-luca-rossi]]"
---
# Podcast Season 3

## Overview

Season 3 expanded the Refactoring podcast to 10 episodes with a thematic focus on building in public, founder journeys, and product-led growth. After two seasons focused on engineering leadership and org design, this season shifted toward the entrepreneurial side of the audience — developers who are building products, running side projects, or considering the leap to full-time founder. The theme resonated strongly, producing the highest average downloads per episode of any season so far.

Production was now a well-oiled operation: [[person-sara-ricci]] handled post-production, [[person-paco-furiani]] managed guest scheduling and logistics, and [[person-luca-rossi]] focused purely on guest selection, interview preparation, and hosting. The workflows from [[procedure-podcast-recording]] and [[procedure-podcast-editing]] continued to function with only minor updates.

## Goals

- Record and publish 10 episodes on building in public, founder journeys, and product-led growth
- Secure at least 3 guests who are active indie hackers or solopreneurs with public revenue data
- Grow average episode downloads to 3,000 (up from Season 2's ~2,100)
- Introduce YouTube video for 3 select episodes as an experiment
- Generate at least 5 newsletter issues from podcast conversations (repurposed content)

## Key decisions

- **10 episodes, up from 8.** The seasonal model allows for flexibility in episode count. 10 episodes fit cleanly into the Q2 window (April-June) with a weekly release schedule. The extra two episodes justified by the stronger guest pipeline and revenue from podcast sponsorships.
- **Selective video for 3 episodes.** Rather than doing video for all episodes (too much production overhead) or none (missed YouTube opportunity), selected 3 episodes with the most visually engaging guests for video. This tests the YouTube channel without committing to full video production.
- **Founder-focused theme, not pure engineering.** The shift toward entrepreneurial topics was a deliberate audience expansion move. Refactoring's readership increasingly includes developers who are also founders or aspire to be. This theme serves them while maintaining technical credibility through the "building" angle.

## Notes

- Average downloads per episode reached 3,400, significantly exceeding the 3,000 target. The standout episode was a conversation with an indie hacker who publicly shared their journey from $0 to $25K MRR, which was shared widely on Twitter/X and LinkedIn.
- The 3 video episodes performed well on YouTube (~4,000-6,000 views each), which is a promising signal for a channel with no prior content. The production cost was manageable because Riverside.fm captures both audio and video in the same recording session.
- [[person-david-kim]] appeared as a guest for an episode on developer tool startups. His insights on distribution in the developer tools market were among the most practical advice shared on the show.
- Content repurposing worked exceptionally well this season. 6 newsletter issues drew directly from podcast conversations (exceeding the 5-issue target), and the cross-promotion between newsletter and podcast continued to be the primary growth engine for [[measure-podcast-downloads]].
- Podcast sponsorship revenue reached $2,500/month during the season, representing meaningful incremental revenue on top of newsletter sponsorships. The combined sponsorship revenue contributes significantly to [[2025-reach-22k-mrr]].
- Season 3 was the first season where the podcast felt like it was pulling its own weight as a growth channel, not just a newsletter supplement. This has implications for resource allocation in [[25q3-podcast-season-4]].
