How a Vulgar Card Game Helped Shape Transistor & Disrupt Podcast Hosting

On this episode of Ground Up, Transistor cofounder Justin Jackson shares why he and his co-founder Jon started a “boring” podcast hosting company, how they netted their first 100+ customers, and how they modeled their growth in order to grow without outside investment.

Rachael Bassey on October 7, 2019 (last modified on September 19, 2021) • 1 minute read

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For Justin Jackson, a great morning consists of jumping on his bike, riding to his local coffee shop, and talking with some of his friends and neighbors.

Then, he rides over to his co-working space and works on the product he and his co-founder Jon launched over a year ago, called Transistor.

A podcast hosting and analytics tool, Transistor was born out of the offices of Card Against Humanity.

Yes, that Cards Against Humanity. The card game you can’t play with your Mom or your kids around…

Jon, Justin’s cofounder at Transistor, was working at Cards Against Humanity, and while Justin and Jon were building out a tool to help Cards with their podcasting efforts, they figured, what if we launched this for everyone?

Justin likes to say, every day someone wakes up and starts a podcast.

So, for them, they saw this as an opportunity to capitalize on that momentum.

This didn’t come without challenges. As a self-funded company, there have been plenty.

But now, a year and a half later, those bike rides aren’t the only thing building momentum every day.

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How a Vulgar Card Game Helped Shape Transistor & Disrupt Podcast Hosting

Subscribe to Ground Up in your favorite app and get the next episode in time for your morning commute 🙌🏻

For Justin Jackson, a great morning consists of jumping on his bike, riding to his local coffee shop, and talking with some of his friends and neighbors.

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