Podcast Prospect Research

This drill builds a qualified list of podcasts to pitch for founder guest appearances. It combines directory search, audience analysis, and host contact enrichment into a pipeline that outputs a ready-to-pitch list.

Input

• Founder's area of expertise (topics they can speak on)
• ICP definition (who should be listening — job titles, company size, industry)
• Target number of podcasts to find (5 for Smoke, 20 for Baseline, 50+ for Scalable)
• Names of 2-3 competitor founders or industry peers who have been podcast guests (for cross-reference search)

Steps

1. Search directories by topic

Use podcast-directory-search to run keyword searches across ListenNotes. Execute 3-5 searches with different keyword combinations:

• Primary topic (e.g., "B2B SaaS growth")
• Adjacent topics (e.g., "startup marketing", "developer tools")
• Problem-focused terms (e.g., "customer acquisition for startups")

Filter results: English language, actively publishing (episode within last 30 days), listen_score >= 20 (for Smoke; adjust threshold up for later levels).

2. Cross-reference competitor guest appearances

Use podcast-directory-search episode search to find where competitor founders or industry peers have appeared as guests. Search for their names as episode guests. Every podcast that hosted a competitor is a high-probability target — they already book founders in your space.

3. Check guest format

For each candidate podcast, verify it accepts guest interviews. Check:

• Recent episode titles: do they include guest names or "interview with" language?
• Podcast website: is there a "Be a Guest" or "Guest Application" page?
• Episode descriptions: do they credit guest speakers?

Remove podcasts that are solo-host-only, co-host conversational, or news-recap formats without guests.

4. Create and enrich the prospect table

Use clay-table-setup to create a Clay table with columns:

• Podcast name
• Host name
• Website URL
• ListenNotes listen_score
• Last episode date
• Episode count
• Guest format confirmed (yes/no)
• Topic fit score (1-5, based on keyword match and audience overlap)
• Contact method (email / form / Twitter / LinkedIn)
• Host email (to be enriched)
• Pitch status (not pitched / pitched / replied / booked / declined)

Import all candidate podcasts from step 1-3.

5. Enrich host contacts

Run podcast-host-enrichment on the Clay table. Priority: RSS feed email > Clay email finder > Apollo lookup > LinkedIn manual find. Verify all emails before outreach.

6. Score and rank

Sort the list by a composite score:

• Topic fit (40%): How closely does the show's content match the founder's expertise?
• Audience size (30%): ListenNotes listen_score as a proxy
• Accessibility (20%): Verified email = high, form = medium, no contact = low
• Recency (10%): More recent episodes = more active show

7. Push to Attio

Use attio-lists to create a list called "Podcast Targets — {date}". Push the top-ranked podcasts from Clay. Tag each with priority tier: Tier 1 (top 20%), Tier 2 (middle 40%), Tier 3 (bottom 40%).

Output

• A scored, enriched list of qualified podcasts in Attio
• Host contact info verified and ready for outreach
• Clear priority ranking for pitch sequencing

Triggers

• Run once at the start of each play level
• Re-run monthly at Scalable/Durable levels to find new shows and remove stale ones