Sachin Shah and Adam Miller quit venture capital and consulting jobs to build Kindling, an APAC technology media company.
Their podcast's big break was getting Malcolm Turnbull, a former Australian prime minister, on the show, with clips reaching millions of viewers.
Kindling bets on distribution-first media and creator parasocial relationships, citing Colossus, Turpentine, and Tegus as similar models.
Two 25-year-olds quit venture capital and consulting to build media
Sachin Shah and Adam Miller, 25-year-old best friends, quit venture capital and consulting to build Kindling, a technology media company for Australia, Asia Pacific and India. Their bet is that distribution comes first, since media builds the audience, the data and the insights that products like edtech or customer intelligence can follow. They argue the US media market is already crowded while APAC's stories are untold, and that parasocial ties to creators will deepen as AI makes software cheap to build.
Takeaways
They quit VC and consulting to build media. Sachin Shah left venture capital and Adam Miller left management consulting to work on Kindling full time, a technology media company for Australia and Asia Pacific. The Sachin and Adam show sits under the Kindling umbrella alongside newsletters and TikToks.
Media is the distribution wedge for products. Adam Miller says they are passionate about edtech and customer intelligence platforms and see media as the best place to start because it gives distribution and data, not just eyeballs. The US market is heavily penetrated while Asia Pacific still has many stories to tell.
Creator parasocial ties will keep deepening. Sachin Shah predicts an average 18-year-old will feel more connection with the creator they spend most time with than with any traditional media platform. He cites Logan Paul's Prime and MrBeast's chocolate brand as distribution-first companies that are here to stay.
They argued over whether to go all in. Adam Miller wanted to move to San Francisco and work hundred-hour weeks at a top venture firm. Sachin Shah argued 25 was the last realistic moment to go all in together, invoking a Bezos regret-minimisation framework, and says he would already be in New York otherwise.
They moved home and cut their pay. Both moved back in with their parents and cut their pay drastically, and Adam Miller has almost completely removed alcohol from his diet. He says their alignment means they could work a hundred hours a week and still create something worthwhile.
Colossus and Turpentine are the models. Colossus signed David Senra and aligned with Tegus, its customer intelligence platform, meshing media and data. Erik Torenberg's Turpentine followed OnDeck, which he started, and Product Hunt, where he was the first employee and has invested in hundreds of companies.
How the podcast became a company
They met on exchange in Utrecht, both struggling to find housing, and ended up living together, becoming inseparable within three weeks.
They started the podcast out of boredom in an economics history lecture, at first a generalist show with political activists, bodybuilders, positive psychology experts and Trump supporters.
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On this episode 2
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It became a technology and venture show through guests including Tim Fung of Airtasker and Adam Milgrom of Giant Leap Fund, who is now one of their investors.
Malcolm Turnbull, a former Australian prime minister, came on and clips reached millions of viewers, the first time Sachin Shah thought the podcast could go somewhere.
Back in Sydney, Sachin Shah joined Airtree after meeting John Henderson through the podcast, and Adam Miller was a year behind him in consulting at Deloitte.
Adam Miller came second for a job at Second Quarter Ventures, then decided to move to the United States, which set off the argument about going all in.