RAT.HUB | Dein Startup Podcast Linda Rath

I am very honored to be calling Aela Callan as my first guest on the second season of my podcast RAT.HUB. Aela is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker, she worked as a foreign correspondent at Al Jazeera and produced documentaries for Al Jazeera's 101 East program. She was selected for a prestigious John S. Knight fellowship for journalism innovation at Stanford University and a few years ago she started her own company called head set. 




When I met Aela more than five years ago, we regularly discussed how virtual reality is going to change journalism and how it can help tell better stories. How times have changed. I remember Aela always went to all the international conferences to see the latest and best VR experiences and she's had a very clear understanding of what immersive technologies can do for journalism. i am beyond excited to speak with her.  

  

Some key takeaways:


head set is an immersive technology company that offers virtual reality training for people who work in high-risk environments, e.g. journalists, humanitarians and diplomats. head set develops immersive scenarios that help prepare physically and emotionally for what happens when you are in the midst of a big story.
She understands herself as a journalist first rather than an entrepreneur, so setting up a sales process has been something completely outside of her comfort zone.
Aela underlines: "Journalists are on a 24/7 frontline now, whether it's physically covering unrest in the streets because of Covid protests which is very relevant to our scenario or on the frontlines of Twitter with the cyberbullying and harassment that goes on now. We have a culture of many different parties attacking the media."
VR training sessions are different from traditional training sessions - "Journalists find it more realistic and more emotionally impactful than scenarios played out by actors."
With regards to her company, she states "I don't think you ever finish product development."
She tells us how she set up her company team and highlights "recruitment is difficult [...] Knowing what you need is half of the battle. But then being able to ask helps with attracting the right talent to your team and being able to keep them with interesting work and interesting projects."
Some management tips for a digital-first company:
during the pandemic, she has managed her team via zoom and slack
regular stand-up meetings help - open for anyone on the team (even if it is not their specific topics being discussed)
leave quietly at any time is possible
every day of the week is devoted to something: product development day, dev days, co-founder meetings
regular lunch roulettes 
Friday open door coffee for non-work related subjects
read-outs from every meeting with specific action items is imperative 



As a manager, you want to be checking in, not checking up.
Some tools to use
Canva
Miro
Trello
Keybase
Slack
Whatsapp
Google Drive



"An exit doesn't have to look like what investors say an exit is"


More links:


head set
Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University
Uncanny Valley
UK Research and Innovation
Prof. Albert (Skip) Rizzo - here is one of his talks: VR Exposure Therapy for PTSD
Bethnal Green Ventures
Fire Panda
I am Rohingya




Welcome to the international edition of my podcast RAT.HUB. I am your host Linda Rath and I interview entrepreneurs who I admire and look up to. I want to know more about their business AND: What drives them? What inspires them? I believe you need so much more than just talent and skills to be successful in business. So, let's find out what secrets our entrepreneurs will reveal to us. 


If you have any questions or want to share some thoughts, feel free to contact me via Twitter @Lynda420. I am your host Linda Rath and I am looking forward to connecting with you in my next episode.


This episode is brought to you by Media Tech Hub Potsdam. It is one of 12 digital hubs in Germany, initiated by the Federal Ministry of Ec

Today, I am joined by Gayatri Parameswaran. She is a journalist and co-founder of Nowhere Media, an immersive storytelling studio that explores how you can achieve meaningful  narratives through immersive experiences. Her projects have not only been featured at festivals such as SXSW, Sundance and Venice film festival. Her latest VR experience Kusunda has actually won the Tribeca Storyscapes Grand Jury prize just a few weeks ago.


Gayatri gives a raw account of the true hustle that is being a foundHER. Juggling one two three projects simultaneously, having to pitch ideas to potential investors and managing teams - all while keeping her creative juices flowing. She is a true warrior and I applaud her resilience.


When I met Gayatri, we co-organized a VR pop up studio in Berlin, we also co-participated at a panel at the Perugia journalism festival and she gave the keynote at one of the VR conferences i co-organized with Frederic Dubois. 

I've been able to explore her work over the years and I am honored that she is here with me today. 


Some key takeaways:


Keeping a language alive means keeping a culture alive. Kusunda is a VR experience that lets you explore the world of the Kusunda language.
"I am very inspired by reality ... We let ourselves be guided by reality and people in real life ... There is something special to immersive technologies and what it can do for storytelling."
Currently, Nowhere Media is doing research about how stories about intangible cultural heritage affects people when they are told in different media/formats.
"There is something magical over there that's happening inside the VR headset."
Kusunda started with a core team. Then they received seed funding for the prototype. Step by step, additional funding came in to start imagining what an extended version of the story could look like.
The project had some real life impact, including a language revitalization program.


Gayatri's book recommendations:


Woman at the edge of time
Any book by Ursula Le Guin


More links:


Nowhere Media was featured on Voices of VR
Another moving VR experience by Nowhere Media: Home After War



Welcome to the international edition of my podcast RAT.HUB. I am your host Linda Rath and I interview entrepreneurs who I admire and look up to. I want to know more about their business AND .... What drives them? What inspires them? I believe you need so much more than just talent and skills to be successful in business. So, let's find out what secrets our entrepreneurs will reveal to us. 


If you have any questions or want to share some thoughts, feel free to contact me via Twitter @Lynda420. I am your host Linda Rath and I am looking forward to connecting with you in my next episode.


This episode is brought to you by Media Tech Hub Potsdam. It is one of 12 digital hubs in Germany, initiated by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy – and the only one with a focus on MediaTech. it encompasses a working space, an accelerator and an annual conference and i highly recommend you check it out if you want to start a business and look for networking opportunities. I am an entrepreneur myself and our startup Vragments used to be located at the media tech lab in Potsdam.



Credits:





Produced by Linda Rath
Photo Gayatri Parameswaran by Gayatri Parameswaran
Photo Linda Rath by Stefan Walter for Causalux Fotos 
Podcast Cover by Nicole Koppe
Episode Cover Art by Stephan Gensch
Music/Jingles by Mara Niese

It took me many moons to publish this episode (Mercy and I actually talked back in September 2021). Finally, I can share this interview with Mercy Abang! She is a Nigerian journalist living in Berlin. About 5 years ago, I met her in Bonn at a workshop at Deutsche Welle. She has freelanced for the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, BBC and the Columbia Journalism School, among others. She just started working at Hostwriter as one of two managing directors. Congratulations! 

In this episode, we talk about the Twitter ban in Nigeria and what this means for the civic online space and journalism, we cover the challenges of being an entrepreneur and we discuss in how far journalists should embrace technology. She gives us a glimpse of what's important to her and how she prioritizes her work and her life.





Some key takeaways:


Social media platforms help journalists with marketing and distribution and should be used accordingly. Having the right content is simply not enough. 
However, journalists should not just focus on one platform. The more you increase the visibility on other platforms the better and when one falls flat (as we saw in Nigeria), you can rely on others. Diversify your distribution strategy.
Don't underestimate the importance of VPN and other technological opportunities to ensure free speech.
Mercy decided to go back to business school. Why? We have to start looking at money. as a journalist, you have to know business. As a journalist, you need an entrepreneurial mindset.
Content creation is more than a buzzword for gen z. 
Platforms like facebook and Google take a new role/position in the media ecosystem and changes how individual journalists can position themselves within that ecosystem.
We have no idea how the future of the media look like.
Journalists should embrace innovation and not fight it. Journalists should adapt to innovation and not fight it.
Everybody has become a journalist, everyobody has become a storyteller, everyobody has become a content creator, everybody has become a broadcaster.
Mercy expects more journalists to think outside the box and say ... the world is changing.





More links:


Mercy Abang
Mercy Abang is one of two new managing directors at Hostwriter 
Mercy Abang on Al Jazeera's Listening Post 
Tim Ferris Blog
Christiane Amanpour




Welcome to the international edition of my podcast Rath.hub. I am your host Linda Rath and I interview entrepreneurs who I admire and look up to. I want to know more about their business AND: What drives them? What inspires them? I believe you need so much more than just talent and skills to be successful in business. So, let's find out what secrets our entrepreneurs will reveal to us. 


If you have any questions or want to share some thoughts, feel free to contact me via Twitter @Lynda420. I am your host Linda Rath and I am looking forward to connecting with you in my next episode.


This episode is brought to you by Media Tech Hub Potsdam. It is one of 12 digital hubs in Germany, initiated by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy – and the only one with a focus on MediaTech. it encompasses a working space, an accelerator and an annual conference and i highly recommend you check it out if you want to start a business and look for networking opportunities. I am an entrepreneur myself and our startup Vragments used to be located at the media tech lab in Potsdam.



Credits:


Produced by Linda Rath
Photo Mercy Abang by Mercy Abang
Photo Linda Rath by Stefan Walter for Causalux Fotos 
Podcast Cover by Nicole Koppe
Episode Cover Art by Stephan Gensch
Music/Jingles by Mara Niese

Today, I am joined by Mariana Santos. She is a journalist and founder of Chicas Poderosas, a non-profit organization that aims to empower women, journalists and the leadership of women in media. Chicas provides training to have more leadership skills, to navigate better and to come up with one's own story ideas. Also, LGBTQ+ and other minorities whose voices have been marginalized in media orgs are supported by Chicas Poderosas. 




Mariana started this community in 2013 while she was an ICFJ fellow. Today she runs it full-time with her team and a board of directors and experts in the different areas of journalism, entrepreneurship, business, innovation and design thinking. 

Mariana was also a JSK Knight fellow at Stanford in 2015 and a Knight International Journalism Fellow back in 2013-14 working all across Latin America in major newsrooms and with independent journalists. 




I met her many moons ago at Stanford where she organized a week-long workshop/conference evolving around entrepreneuship and innovation in journalism. Years later, she invited me to Lisbon to talk about immersive journalism and again, she was able to bring together people from all over the world creating a save space to experiment and innovate. She says about herself that she is a "Portuguese girl who wants to change the world, and is working on it right now."




Some key takeaways:


The drive of chicas is the magic of being together, feeling the energy of each other ... so the pandemic has been extremely challenging. 
Being a chica means believing in yourself. it is a mindset
"We need to find role models. We should be listened to."
"We've been very passionate about changing the reality for women."
"I thought about quitting."
"I wanna be there for my team, I wanna hug them."
"My energy became my currency."
 "We want to bring more women into technology."
Great team exercise: Try to do the tasks of your colleagues. We need to see each other as team mates and understand what we each of us are doing. 
Important question: How do you establish a culture of trust?
To do projects, you need: talent, time, and money.
Mariana is living in Portugal, running a business in the US that has actions in Latin America.
i am not a business woman naturally, but i became one.
No toxic people, no toxic environments. 




Mariana's book recommendations:

Lead together

Welcome to the international edition of my podcast Rath Up. I am your host Linda Rath and I interview entrepreneurs who I admire and look up to. I want to know more about their business AND .... What drives them? What inspires them? I believe you need so much more than just talent and skills to be successful in business. So, let's find out what secrets our entrepreneurs will reveal to us. 


If you have any questions or want to share some thoughts, feel free to contact me via Twitter @Lynda420. I am your host Linda Rath and I am looking forward to connecting with you in my next episode.


This episode is brought to you by Media Tech Hub Potsdam. It is one of 12 digital hubs in Germany, initiated by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy – and the only one with a focus on MediaTech. it encompasses a working space, an accelerator and an annual conference and i highly recommend you check it out if you want to start a business and look for networking opportunities. I am an entrepreneur myself and our startup Vragments used to be located at the media tech lab in Potsdam.



Credits:





Produced by Linda Rath
Photo Mariana Santos
Photo Linda Rath by Stefan Walter for Causalux Fotos 
Podcast Cover by Nicole Koppe
Episode Cover Art by Stephan Gensch
Music/Jingles by Mara Niese

Today, I am joined by Julia Hildebrand. As part of the award-winning Correctiv team, Julia leads a project called beabee. It is a tool that helps newsrooms turn audiences into engaged communities. Before that, Julia had worked for the social startup ChangeX in Dublin where she developed community-software that allows people to start their own local projects. I met Julia while we both worked for Germany's international broadcaster Deutsche Welle. During that time, she was developing new social media strategies, guidelines and workflows for more user participation. 




Julia's expectations of community-journalism is high: “There is so much more potential for civic participation. Community-Journalism for me is a way, to unleash that potential and empower people to improve their own environment.”




I am very happy that she agreed to do this interview. We discussed civic participation and in how far journalism can or should foster that.




Some key takeaways:


beabee is about allowing more people to start local organizations that have journalistic practices and organizing communities at their focus
it is all about supporting the smallest newsrooms
building a community means having to have patience.
building a community is hard and hands-on work: it goes beyond just providing stories. It encompasses working together, organizing workshops and being open to co-creation
journalism can help increase engagement in local communities and tracking impact can be done by looking at voting turnouts
it is about creating safe public digital spaces and owning the infrastructure, owning the data
we need more players that are not driven by profit
team-building and motivation techniques include
taking time - it is imperative that everyone knows what the goals are - making sure that everyone know what's going on
stand-ups in the morning - having that little connection in the morning including a ritual "reasons to be cheerful" - sharing sth more personal, sth positive
invest in bringing people together







More links:

Beabe

Correctiv

Bristol Cable 

Rheinhausen Community Project

Campfire Festival

Barcamp Bottropp




Welcome to the international edition of my podcast Rath Up. I am your host Linda Rath and I interview entrepreneurs who I admire and look up to. I want to know more about their business AND .... What drives them? What inspires them? I believe you need so much more than just talent and skills to be successful in business. So, let's find out what secrets our entrepreneurs will reveal to us. 


If you have any questions or want to share some thoughts, feel free to contact me via Twitter @Lynda420. I am your host Linda Rath and I am looking forward to connecting with you in my next episode.


This episode is brought to you by Media Tech Hub Potsdam. It is one of 12 digital hubs in Germany, initiated by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy – and the only one with a focus on MediaTech. it encompasses a working space, an accelerator and an annual conference and i highly recommend you check it out if you want to start a business and look for networking opportunities. I am an entrepreneur myself and our startup Vragments used to be located at the media tech lab in Potsdam.


Credits:





Produced by Linda Rath
Photo by Julia Hildebrand
Photo Linda Rath by Stefan Walter for Causalux Fotos 
Podcast Cover by Nicole Koppe
Episode Cover Art by Stephan Gensch
Music/Jingles by Mara Niese

Today, I am joined by Binoy Prabhakar. He is the executive editor at Moneycontrol, one of India's largest business news platform. Binoy is also a former Senior Editor at the The Economic Times and was a fellow at the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism in New York. Currently, he runs an efficient newsroom, working with interdisciplinary teams, building successful journalism products for the Indian market and finding innovative business solutions. 

I met Binoy during our fellowship at CUNY and it was so good to catch up. We discussed monetization plans for media platforms, how to build a great work environment and the myth of work-life-balance.




Some key takeaways:


Moneycontrol is the flagship but there are other products Binoy is working on
he is working on a live streaming service which is highly challenging,
Binoy leads a team of 100 journalist and is planning on hiring more journalists
editorial team works very closely with the tech and product team (how to monetize products and how to do events) as well as the audience engagement team (they do so to understand consumer complaints)
very agile understanding of a continuous innovation process, always looking for ways to develop new products
diversifying revenue streams is key. you can monetize e.g. through
ads
branded content
subscription



newsletter is a lucrative product - new experiments with what time to send it out is very helpful
the collaboration process is very transparent and structured - easy to use tools (Slack, Zoom etc.), 
journalists should be good human beings
Binoy tries to always create a lot of warmth in the newsroom (focusing on little things, helping each other out)
empathy is very important
leaders should be hands-on and obsessed about their product
while building the team, Binoy started with people having financial skills and then included skilled journalists




More links:





Moneycontrol
The Reboot
Monocle
Axios Media Trends
Jeremy Caplan's newsletter
Beautiful AI
Instapaper

Welcome to the international edition of my podcast Rath Up. I am your host Linda Rath and I interview entrepreneurs who I admire and look up to. I want to know more about their business AND .... What drives them? What inspires them? I believe you need so much more than just talent and skills to be successful in business. So, let's find out what secrets our entrepreneurs will reveal to us. 


If you have any questions or want to share some thoughts, feel free to contact me via Twitter @Lynda420. I am your host Linda Rath and I am looking forward to connecting with you in my next episode.


This episode is brought to you by Media Tech Hub Potsdam. It is one of 12 digital hubs in Germany, initiated by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy – and the only one with a focus on MediaTech. it encompasses a working space, an accelerator and an annual conference and i highly recommend you check it out if you want to start a business and look for networking opportunities. I am an entrepreneur myself and our startup Vragments used to be located at the media tech lab in Potsdam.


Credits:





Produced by Linda Rath
Photo by Binoy Prabhakar
Photo Linda Rath by Stefan Walter for Causalux Fotos 
Podcast Cover by Nicole Koppe
Episode Cover Art by Stephan Gensch
Music/Jingles by Mara Niese