The stakes have been raised. Podshow, Adam Curry’s new-new-media startup, has reportedly secured $8.85 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. (Hat tip: Podcasting News) The proceeds will give Adam more than enough money to pay his bandwidth bill for the year.
If the facts on this are straight, this means that Podshow wants to go public. That’s what KPCB does. If they paid in almost $9 million in an early phase, they’re probably valuing Podshow in the hundreds of millions, either now or in the near term. Time will tell whether another big investor agrees. If you see a name like Softbank, Benchmark Capital, or Hummer Winblad jumping in with Podshow, then a lot of Silicon Valley dollars are betting that podcasting is ready for the stock market, and that will open up a lot more room at the trough.
After his MTV days, Adam Curry started a web hosting and design business that eventually went public. As he mentioned once on a podcast, the company, unlike many dot coms, had actual clients and real revenue. He and Dave Winer, who sold his software company to Symantec in the early 90’s, were semi-retired, invented podcasting, and have become tireless podcast evangelists.
That Curry’s company got almost 9 million in VC money is absolutely a sign that podcasting is going big time.