“ If I didn't have Pilot, I just wouldn't really know what's going on with the business.”
.png)
There are now over 500M podcast listeners globally. And with AI, anyone can now create high-quality audio content without ever stepping into a recording studio. But few do. That gap inspired Pierson Marks to start Jellypod, an AI podcasting software that makes it easy for leaders, domain experts, and creatives to share what they know with the world.
“The typical challenge with podcasts is they take a significant amount of time and effort to consistently make something good,” says Pierson. “You have to find a recording studio, post-process, edit, figure out how to get it on Spotify and YouTube, and then track its performance. I wanted a platform that made it easy for people to share their unique stories and voice with the world.”
Some parts of starting Jellypod came naturally. Pierson has been coding his whole life. But when it came to setting up the back office, he realized there was no playbook. He wanted to focus on building features, and was distracted by tasks he didn’t enjoy—figuring out taxes, tracking where money was going, and calling the bank. That’s why he used Pilot—to get him back to the parts he loved and launch the product.
“It was intimidating,” he recalls. “I think I’m naturally someone who, for most of my life, has been able to follow procedures. And when you put on the founder's shoes, there’s no playbook. Founding your business. Incorporating. How do you do all that? What about setting up a bank account? What’s accounting? What’s finance?”
Founding your business. Incorporating. How do you do all that? What about setting up a bank account?
These are things Pierson could have figured out if it wasn’t like adding a fourth or fifth job on top of what he was already doing. He was much more concerned with coding an AI product that’d reliably produce consistent voices to give first-time podcasters a great experience. “The back office parts are all unknowns to me, and anxiety-inducing,” he says. “Was I doing something wrong? What visibility should I have into how the business is performing? I didn’t know.”
Pierson signed up for an exclusively AI accounting software called Inkle but realized that bookkeeping is complicated and requires human judgment. “There were just a lot of mistakes. This first service I tried was supposed to relieve my stress but only added to it each time things weren’t done correctly,” recalls Pierson. Whereas Pilot was the opposite.
“I found Pilot through a recommendation and signed up. I felt that trust right away. When I onboarded with Kim, my finance account manager, I felt that human touch. That made me very comfortable with the platform,” recalls Pierson. “I think it’s that trust aspect and knowing someone’s there to take care of you.”
I found Pilot through a recommendation and signed up. I felt that trust right away.
Pilot came just in time because Pierson had a launch coming and it needed his full focus. “My strategy, to put it simply, is I’m trying to offload as much back-office work as I can into cool software that allows me to focus on what I enjoy, and not on non-differentiated tasks,” he says. Rather than second-guessing the numbers like he used to, Pierson can log in and see his profit and loss (P&L) statement, his transactions, and his cash position. Each month, his Pilot bookkeeper asks him a few questions to clarify transactions and certifies his books.
Rather than second-guessing the numbers like he used to, Pierson can log in and see his profit and loss (P&L) statement, his transactions, and his cash position.
Jellypod now has:
In Fall 2024, Jellypod had to pivot and it wouldn’t have been possible if Pierson hadn’t been able to devote his full attention to the product. “We started off as a personal, mobile app and that change to a business-to-business AI podcasting platform was harder than expected,” he recalls. “We had to design a product that gave our customers controllable, high quality conversations between their AI hosts every time, and kept building to make that experience great.”
The ultimate validation came when people wanted to pay. Users started filtering into the new platform, creating content, and upgrading for more usage. Then Google released a related product called NotebookLM and this deepened and widened the market overnight. Jellypod saw a huge spike in new searches for AI podcasting—which he’d been ready for.
And as Jellypod unleashes people to create, Pilot unleashes Pierson and his growing team to make the tools that make that possible.
”To any founder wanting to do their own finances, I’d ask, ‘Have you ever done this before? Is this really what you wanna spend your time doing? And how valuable is that time?’” says Pierson. “Maybe if you were previously an accountant, great. But you probably should be spending more time building your business and spending time on the things that differentiate your product.”
To any founder wanting to do their own finances, I’d ask, ‘Have you ever done this before? You probably should be spending more of your time building your business.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
There are now over 500M podcast listeners globally. And with AI, anyone can now create high-quality audio content without ever stepping into a recording studio. But few do. That gap inspired Pierson Marks to start Jellypod, an AI podcasting software that makes it easy for leaders, domain experts, and creatives to share what they know with the world.
“The typical challenge with podcasts is they take a significant amount of time and effort to consistently make something good,” says Pierson. “You have to find a recording studio, post-process, edit, figure out how to get it on Spotify and YouTube, and then track its performance. I wanted a platform that made it easy for people to share their unique stories and voice with the world.”
Some parts of starting Jellypod came naturally. Pierson has been coding his whole life. But when it came to setting up the back office, he realized there was no playbook. He wanted to focus on building features, and was distracted by tasks he didn’t enjoy—figuring out taxes, tracking where money was going, and calling the bank. That’s why he used Pilot—to get him back to the parts he loved and launch the product.
“It was intimidating,” he recalls. “I think I’m naturally someone who, for most of my life, has been able to follow procedures. And when you put on the founder's shoes, there’s no playbook. Founding your business. Incorporating. How do you do all that? What about setting up a bank account? What’s accounting? What’s finance?”
Founding your business. Incorporating. How do you do all that? What about setting up a bank account?
These are things Pierson could have figured out if it wasn’t like adding a fourth or fifth job on top of what he was already doing. He was much more concerned with coding an AI product that’d reliably produce consistent voices to give first-time podcasters a great experience. “The back office parts are all unknowns to me, and anxiety-inducing,” he says. “Was I doing something wrong? What visibility should I have into how the business is performing? I didn’t know.”
Pierson signed up for an exclusively AI accounting software called Inkle but realized that bookkeeping is complicated and requires human judgment. “There were just a lot of mistakes. This first service I tried was supposed to relieve my stress but only added to it each time things weren’t done correctly,” recalls Pierson. Whereas Pilot was the opposite.
“I found Pilot through a recommendation and signed up. I felt that trust right away. When I onboarded with Kim, my finance account manager, I felt that human touch. That made me very comfortable with the platform,” recalls Pierson. “I think it’s that trust aspect and knowing someone’s there to take care of you.”
I found Pilot through a recommendation and signed up. I felt that trust right away.
Pilot came just in time because Pierson had a launch coming and it needed his full focus. “My strategy, to put it simply, is I’m trying to offload as much back-office work as I can into cool software that allows me to focus on what I enjoy, and not on non-differentiated tasks,” he says. Rather than second-guessing the numbers like he used to, Pierson can log in and see his profit and loss (P&L) statement, his transactions, and his cash position. Each month, his Pilot bookkeeper asks him a few questions to clarify transactions and certifies his books.
Rather than second-guessing the numbers like he used to, Pierson can log in and see his profit and loss (P&L) statement, his transactions, and his cash position.
Jellypod now has:
In Fall 2024, Jellypod had to pivot and it wouldn’t have been possible if Pierson hadn’t been able to devote his full attention to the product. “We started off as a personal, mobile app and that change to a business-to-business AI podcasting platform was harder than expected,” he recalls. “We had to design a product that gave our customers controllable, high quality conversations between their AI hosts every time, and kept building to make that experience great.”
The ultimate validation came when people wanted to pay. Users started filtering into the new platform, creating content, and upgrading for more usage. Then Google released a related product called NotebookLM and this deepened and widened the market overnight. Jellypod saw a huge spike in new searches for AI podcasting—which he’d been ready for.
And as Jellypod unleashes people to create, Pilot unleashes Pierson and his growing team to make the tools that make that possible.
”To any founder wanting to do their own finances, I’d ask, ‘Have you ever done this before? Is this really what you wanna spend your time doing? And how valuable is that time?’” says Pierson. “Maybe if you were previously an accountant, great. But you probably should be spending more time building your business and spending time on the things that differentiate your product.”
To any founder wanting to do their own finances, I’d ask, ‘Have you ever done this before? You probably should be spending more of your time building your business.
.svg)
