David Senra told me he’s unmanageable. Despite that, he’s managed to build a wildly profitable podcast business and has turned down every offer to buy it.
Founders, Senra’s original podcast, launched in September 2016. He’s always run it alone—no full-time employees, two subcontractors handling clips and thumbnails—and turned it into a business generating millions of dollars a year in profit. He laughed dryly when he recalled turning down acquisition offers valuing the show upward of $50 million. “Who knows what people would offer today?” he mused.
He’s not selling regardless. “If someone gives you money, they want influence,” Senra told me. “I’m not interested in doing my life’s work any way other than the way I want to do it. I couldn’t have investors or a corporate parent. I’m just not suited for that.” He called the show “part of my soul.”
The audience Senra has built is, by any measure, abnormal. Jeff Bezos listens. So do Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Michael Dell, and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. Serial acquirer Brad Jacobs—who has built eight billion-dollar companies—credited a single Founders episode with $750 million in capital raised from listeners.
Ramp, now valued at $44 billion, is Senra’s largest advertiser. The company came to him. Senra didn’t pitch them.
An interesting kicker: earlier this year, OpenAI acquired breakout podcast TBPBN for hundreds of millions of dollars. But Senra had advocated for TBPN when it had fewer than 1,000 listeners, vouched for it to Ramp, and helped put it on the map. Senra took zero equity. He received 50 texts the day the deal closed.
“I’d rather build wealth from the products I make, not from writing a check into someone else’s company and getting lucky with a 250x,” he said. “That’s deeply unsatisfying.”
Read my full profile on David Senra here.
See you tomorrow,
Lily Mae Lazarus
X: @LilyMaeLazarus
Email: lily.lazarus@fortune.com
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VENTURE DEALS
- Quantum Systems, a Munich, Germany-based defense tech company, raised $1.2 billion in Series D funding. Blackstone, Noteus, Airbus, and Advent led the round.
- Venice AI, a Las Vegas, Nev.-based platform designed to provide private and unrestricted access to AI models, raised $65 million in Series A funding. Dragonfly led the round and was joined by Coinbase Ventures, North Island Ventures, and others.
- geoSurge, a London, U.K.-based platform designed to help brands measure and improve how they show up inside large language models and AI search, raised $12 million in seed funding. AlbionVC led the round and was joined by Play Ventures, Octopus Ventures, Celero Ventures, and others.
- Immigrify, an Omaha, Neb.-based platform designed to help consultants and businesses track and navigate clients and employees through the U.S. immigration system, raised $1 million in pre-seed funding. M25 led the round and was joined by Invest Nebraska, Neltnet, and others.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- JLL Partners recapitalized CAI, an Indianapolis, Ind.-based professional services firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Riverwood Capital invested $180 million in LeapXpert, a New York City-based business communication, governance, and compliance platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOs
- Cumberland Farms, a Charlotte, N.C.-based chain of convenience stores, filed to go public on the Nasdaq. The company posted $16.6 billion in sales for the year ended March 31.
- Jersey Mike’s Subs, a Tinton Falls, N.J.-based chain of sandwich restaurants, filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company posted $714 million in sales for the year ended March 31.