Launching a podcast

In my case, it gave me a deep understanding of that whole environment, not just the fintech part, although people think of my podcast as a fintech podcast, but it’s much wider.

Launching a podcast

Solenne Niedercorn-Desouches

Non-Executive Director and Senior Advisor in FinTech/VC, podcast host

The drive

I’ve been listening to podcasts since forever. I run a lot so it’s a good way to keep learning things, on my morning or my evening run. I probably listen to two podcasts a day. I was learning a lot of new things. I thought “that’s amazing, I love these podcasts, I’m feeling energetic, learning new things, it really pumps me up.” At that time, I remember my son was thinking of starting a creative project, and I told him “Why don’t you make a podcast? I can help you if you want!”. But he never ended up doing it, so I thought that maybe I was the one who should start a podcast after all. The question was, what was I going to talk about? Well, I thought about it and I realized that what benefitted me the most over the past years was understanding how companies work. As I told you, I worked in that startup as a product manager, I assessed dozens and dozens of service providers on the electronic signatures they offered, their identity verification services, etc. What I enjoyed and found super interesting was understanding how the company worked, what were the obstacles to breaking into a market. I loved understanding how they started from a small service to 150 clients! And then I thought “Since studying these companies made me so enthusiastic, shouldn’t I talk about it to an audience?”

The first episodes

So, I went with this idea. I reached out to some of my friends who liked the concept, and to former clients to ask them to appear as guests on the first episodes.

The reason to continue

In my career, I worked on a lot of finance subjects. I’m curious of everything and that’s what drives me. The goal was to dive into new subjects and to share what I like to share: how companies evolve. It really gives you great insight on the market. In my case, it gave me a deep understanding of that whole environment, not just the fintech part, although people think of my podcast as a fintech podcast, but it’s much wider, it’s actually about innovation in the finance sector.

Setting a schedule

I have dedicated moments during the week where I work on the podcast in order to limit the time it takes in my schedule. It’s mainly Sunday evenings, that’s when I prepare my interviews. On Monday evenings, I work on my newsletter. I might seem a bit… a bit rigid, but that’s how I work. And then along the week, I give a few phone calls to future or potential guests. I actually record six or seven episodes over a two-day period, and the next day, I send the whole thing to my engineer. I spend two full days a month working on the podcast, and then I’m done with it until the next month, so to say. Every now and then, I post something on my socials. You can actually find a lot of articles on the internet that teach you how to start a podcast. Trainings are available as well. I read a few things, made a few phone calls and it all fell into place pretty quickly. When my guests are from France or Belgium, I make the trip there. For Luxemburgers… I like recording the podcast in a café because it makes the audio nicer. It really adds a cool vibe with the café’s background, the ambient noise… Also, the guests are more relaxed when you’re having a chat in a café. So, I do both, but I have great equipment so you can’t really hear the difference between the two.

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