Ride Home Media

Ride Home Media operates as a podcast network company, branding itself as a "TL;DR-as-a-service" for busy professionals. The firm was founded in 2019 by Brian McCullough and James Welsh and is headquartered in New York. McCullough, a serial entrepreneur who founded ResumeWriters.com in 1999 and authored "How the Internet Happened," leveraged his experience as the host of the Internet History Podcast to create the company's flagship show. Welsh brought his media expertise from co-founding Digital Spy and serving as a vice president at Hearst.

The company's core business revolves around producing short, daily news podcasts focused on specific verticals, designed to be consumed during a commute. The genesis of the company was the success of the Techmeme Ride Home podcast, which launched in March 2018. This show, created in a revenue-sharing partnership with the tech news aggregator Techmeme, provides a 15-20 minute daily summary of Silicon Valley's top stories for an audience of tech executives, developers, and investors. The business model primarily relies on advertising revenue, with the company securing sponsorships and using dynamic ad insertion for unsold inventory. By focusing on niche, dedicated audiences, the company has been able to command premium advertising rates.

In December 2019, Ride Home Media secured $1 million in seed funding from Tiny Capital to expand its slate of podcasts. This led to the launch of shows like the Kottke Ride Home (in partnership with the kottke.org blog), the Election Ride Home, and the Celeb News Ride Home. While some shows were later discontinued or rebranded, the core strategy remained to partner with creators and brands to produce curated audio content. More recently, McCullough launched the Ride Home Fund, an early-stage venture fund that leverages the podcast's audience for both deal flow and investment capital, offering portfolio companies a unique marketing platform. According to PitchBook, the company ceased operations in March 2021, although its flagship podcasts and the associated fund appear to remain active.

Keywords: daily news podcasts, podcast network, tech news, ad-supported media, Brian McCullough, Techmeme Ride Home, curated audio content, podcast advertising, media startups, commute podcasts, news summary, Kottke Ride Home, James Welsh, Tiny Capital, podcasting, vertical media, audio content, daily briefings, digital media, Ride Home Fund, venture capital, angel investing