We turn hour-long podcasts into 2-minute reads.
PodBrief is an AI-powered podcast briefing platform. We listen to every episode of the world's top podcasts, generate accurate transcripts, and produce a structured brief — key takeaways, deep-dive sections, and notable quotes — so anyone can absorb the substance of a show without spending 45 minutes on it.
The problem
Podcasts are the fastest-growing long-form medium on the internet, but they're also the least scannable. There's no way to skim a 90-minute interview, no way to know in advance whether the episode you're considering is worth your time, and no way to revisit a key insight without scrubbing through audio. The result: most listeners stick to a tiny handful of shows, miss great episodes from unfamiliar hosts, and consume audio passively rather than for learning.
What we built
PodBrief is a native iOS app and a public web library of AI-generated podcast briefs. Each brief is produced by an in-house pipeline that:
- Continuously scans thousands of podcast RSS feeds and pulls new episodes within minutes of release.
- Transcribes audio on GPU infrastructure using state-of-the-art speech-to-text models.
- Generates a structured brief — top takeaways, deep-dive sections, and an executive summary — with a large language model, grounded in the transcript.
- Surfaces the result to subscribers via push notifications, a personalized daily feed, and shareable web pages.
The iOS app is built natively in Swift with a custom playback engine, a daily personalized feed, and full transcript search. The marketing site at podbrief.info hosts ~10,000 free-to-read briefs as a public knowledge base and the primary SEO acquisition surface.
Where we are today
PodBrief launched on the iOS App Store and has been growing organically through SEO and word of mouth. We monetize through a Premium subscription ($4.99/month or $35.99/year) that unlocks unlimited briefs and the personalized daily feed; the free tier offers a generous sample so users can validate the value before subscribing.
The team
The founding team brings together backgrounds in software engineering, product, and operations.
John Malloy
Leads product and engineering at PodBrief. Background in software engineering and AI/ML systems; oversees the iOS app, transcription/summarization pipeline, and backend infrastructure.
Josh Hascall
Leads operations and growth at PodBrief. Background in finance and operations; oversees go-to-market, partnerships, and business strategy.
Harper Smith
Leads design and user experience at PodBrief. Background in product design and brand; oversees the visual identity, app UX, and customer-facing storytelling.
Get in touch
We're always happy to talk to listeners, podcast hosts, investors, and partners. Reach the team at john@podbrief.info, or follow along on Twitter and LinkedIn.