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Kenneth Musante is a writer and technology whiz from the heart of Central Wisconsin. He joined ADOTAS in June 2005, where he writes news and editorials. He's particularly fond of new and innovative ideas like podcasting and online video.

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High School is for Podcasters

Written on
October 20th 2006
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by Kenneth Musante  |
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When Wizzard Software decided to take its speech technology into the podcast industry, CEO Chris Spencer (left) never suspected that the company he had pegged as a worthy acquisition was run by two high school students.

Jake Fischer (16) of Minnesota and Weina Scott (17) of Florida started podcast hosting company Switchpod in 2005. Switchpod’s business model is similar to that of other podcast hosting companies: unlimited bandwidth, low-cost plans, iTunes compatibility. But when Jake Fischer started his own podcast, he found that, as a high schooler, he simply couldn’t afford to use any of the other services out there. He and Weina have given Switchpod a free hosting plan that supports itself by adding image or audio ads to a podcast’s feed.

Wizzard Software licenses speech-to-text and speech recognition software. When Chris Spencer started getting requests by podcasters to use Wizzard’s electronic voices to create “podcasts” of their content, he was intrigued. “I said, ‘what the heck is a podcast?’”

The speech technology market was simply not growing fast enough. And by entering a related market, Wizzard risked competing with its own customers. Requests from bloggers just didn’t stop coming. So after a little research into podcasting and finding that it fit with Wizzard’s core business, Chris decided to dive into the budding industry head-first. After calling around to podcast companies, he and Wizzard began negotiating with Switchpod as a possible acquisition.

He knew Jake (left) and Weina were in school, but Spencer assumed that meant college. “I had already been talking to [Jake] for several weeks, knowing that he was young, but assuming that he was 21 or 22.” And after Spencer asked if the two young entrepreneurs wouldn’t mind taking a semester off to work on the business full time, Jake replied ‘my parents really want me to finish high school.’ “High school!” said a surprised Spencer, “How old are you?”

“There was a long pause on the phone,” recalls Fischer. “[Chris] seemed very surprised, but he was very supportive because he also started his first business at 17.”

Switchpod started like an online businesses in a fairytale. Fischer initially paid for the business out of his own pocket, with Weina programming everything. Then, after persistently emailing potential sponsors, they started getting advertisers and putting the money back into the company. Soon thereafter, Wizzard Software came along and bought the company for $200,000 of its stock. But it’s not the millions that make headlines, as both Jake and Weina already have college paid for, and they haven’t even settled on what school they’re going to yet. Weina wants to go to Yale, and Jake may go to a state or local college, or just go to work for Wizzard. In essence, both have plenty of time.



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Reader Comments.

You know whats funny? That the website wasnt just made by 2 high school students but 3. Thats right folks, I have actual documentation that proves a 3rd student from the small town of Caledonia participated more then the other 2 ever did. Unfornately, they decided to kick him as to take away his share of the glory because they were selfish.

Posted by Shadow | 5:38 pm on October 31, 2006.

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