Dear Media Raises $8 Million for the 'Future of Audio & Commerce'

Sam Blake

Sam primarily covers entertainment and media for dot.LA. Previously he was Marjorie Deane Fellow at The Economist, where he wrote for the business and finance sections of the print edition. He has also worked at the XPRIZE Foundation, U.S. Government Accountability Office, KCRW, and MLB Advanced Media (now Disney Streaming Services). He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson, an MPP from UCLA Luskin and a BA in History from University of Michigan. Email him at samblake@dot.LA and find him on Twitter @hisamblake

Dear Media Raises $8 Million for the 'Future of Audio & Commerce'

West Hollywood-based Dear Media announced Thursday that it raised $8 million from Magnet Companies, a private equity-backed holding company with offices in New York and Los Angeles.

Dear Media is a podcast network focusing on female voices, with a roster of over 40 hosts including lifestyle guru Lauryn Evarts of "The Skinny Confidential," Jackie Schimmel of "The Bitch Bible," and wellness and nutrition experts Wendy Lopez and Jessica Jones. The network, whose podcasts can be heard on typical channels like Apple Podcasts and Spotify, targets an audience of mostly millennial and Gen-Z women who want to engage with podcast hosts across multiple channels, chief executive Michael Bosstick told dot.LA.


"We look at this space as needing a serious update," Bosstick said.

The firm's "360 degree business model" provides hosts with production support from idea generation to distribution, and works across a host's portfolio of multi-platform media outlets for promotion. In this way Dear Media aims to usher in what it calls the "future of audio and commerce."

"We view a lot of talent on this network as not just shows but brands themselves," explained Bosstick.

Dear Media is a West Hollywood podcast network focusing on female voices.

For advertisers this means that working with Dear Media enables them to reach consumers not just through podcasts, but also other touch-points that hosts have with their fans, such as online video, social media and blogs. Coordinating such a marketing approach in turn means Dear Media offers its talent a "unique monetization model that allows creators to make more in a much smarter way," Magnet Companies co-founder Jeff Berman described in a statement.

Bosstick told dot.LA that Dear Media is also interested in investing in companies, whether they be complementary bolt-ons or those that its roster of talent wants to pursue. In this sense he sees Dear Media as an "incubator" rather than a mere media company.

Dear Media's shows have exceeded 150 million downloads and its hosts' collective reach extends across 25 million social media followers, according to the company. And the firm believes its roster is destined to grow, thanks in no small part to co-founder Raina Penchansky's connection to United Talent Agency, which acquired her influencer marketing company, DBA, in 2019.

"(Dear Media) will have ample opportunities to work with an industry-wide roster that includes unique access to talent cross-collaborations within UTA and DBA's collective reach," the fundraising announcement said.

The funds will reportedly be used to grow Dear Media's content slate, fund investments, and expand its internal team to bring on more advertisers. Bossttick noted that the podcast space has been "limiting" to some brands, and he wants to leverage his company's approach to help overcome those limits and bring in new entrants.

Bosstick started the company with Penchansky in 2018 after having spun up a podcast of his own, with his wife, and noticing the shortcomings of what he described as a narrow approach.

"We joined a prominent network and the experience was limiting, because they'd only focus on a subset of the brand," he said. "So we said let's go back to self-producing and build it how we wanted it to be done." This experience has proven beneficial in multiple ways, Bosstick said. It has allowed him to relate to the many pain-points that podcasters face, and has served as an on-ramp for several Dear Media hosts, who originally were guests on his show.

The fundraise comes at a promising time for podcasts in general and particularly in Los Angeles. Spotify has reportedly spent over half a billion dollars on podcast acquisitions since the start of 2019, and representatives from the company have told dot.LA that Los Angeles is the "center of gravity" for its podcast strategy.

Dear Media's numerous L.A.-based podcast company counterparts include Wondery, Neon Hum, and Crooked Media.

Bosstick is bullish on the space.

"I think you'll see a lot of new brands and money moving in," he said. "It's an exciting time for podcasting."

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From The Vault: VC Legend Bill Gurley On Startups, Venture Capital and Scaling

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

Bill Gurley in a blue suit
Bill Gurley

This interview was originally published on December of 2020, and was recorded at the inaugural dot.LA Summit held October 27th & 28th.

One of my longtime favorite episodes of Office Hours was a few years ago when famed venture capitalist Bill Gurley and I talked about marketplace-based companies, how work-from-home will continue to accelerate business opportunities and his thoughts on big tech and antitrust.

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Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: Deep 6 AI and Point Predictive Gain New CROs
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

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