Client Background
Luminary Media, LLC is a global digital media company focused on premium, subscription-based podcasting. The company set out to enter a highly competitive audio market dominated by advertising-driven platforms, requiring a fundamentally different cost structure, talent model, and product experience to succeed.
Objective
To design, validate, and execute a paid-subscription podcast platform—including product strategy, engineering architecture, and investment narrative—capable of supporting a seed and Series A capital raise and long-term independent scale.
Challenges Faced
- Entering a podcast market optimized for ad-based monetization, not subscriptions
- High upfront content acquisition and talent compensation costs
- Need for differentiated product experience to justify recurring payment
- Unproven subscription economics within podcasting at the time
- Requirement to rapidly move from concept → prototype → infrastructure at scale
Our Approach
Phase 1: Market Discovery & Investment Strategy
We conducted deep market and ethnographic research across subscription media and adjacent entertainment industries to identify viable monetization, pricing, and feature strategies. This work informed:
- Subscription market sizing and unit economics
- Core feature definition and differentiation strategy
- Competitive positioning and category narrative
- Capital requirements for seed and Series A execution
All findings were synthesized into investment-grade fundraising materials, including pitch decks, financial models, and early design prototypes.
Phase 2: Product & Platform Development
Following successful fundraising, we translated strategy into execution by:
- Designing MVP product architecture across web, desktop, and mobile
- Developing UX and feature prototypes aligned with subscription retention
- Building and scaling the engineering organization
- Establishing infrastructure to support content ingestion, distribution, and analytics
Phase 3: Operational Scaling & Infrastructure Support
Our team continued to support Luminary post-launch by:
- Maintaining and scaling platform infrastructure
- Supporting content acquisition workflows and talent onboarding
- Ensuring operational continuity during rapid growth
- Advising leadership through early-stage scaling challenges
This sustained engagement lasted over three years as Luminary matured into an independent subscription media company.
Results
- $4.2M Seed round and $100M Series A raise supported through strategic fundraising packaging
- Successful launch of a subscription-based podcast platform
- Engineering organization scaled to 30+ engineers
- Platform infrastructure sustained through multi-year growth phase
- Company positioned as a leading premium podcast network and active M&A candidate
Feedback
“By applying business models from adjacent entertainment industries, the team helped define the feature sets and prototypes that underpinned one of the podcast industry’s most significant capital raises. Beyond fundraising, they supported product design and sustained engineering execution for over three years. Luminary is now growing independently with experienced industry leadership.”
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