PocketFM doubled ARR to $500M after going all-in on AI production
rohanpaul_ai · x · 2026-09-11
PocketFM founder Rohan Nayak reveals the audio-drama app doubled ARR from $250M to $500M after pivoting fully to AI content production, staying EBITDA profitable while adding $250M in a single year.
- Production explosion: annual output went from 35,000 hours to 2.5 million hours (400,000 new stories) — nearly 1,500x Netflix's 1,700 hours of original TV per year
- Scale: 200M listeners averaging 135 minutes/day; the format is 10-minute episodes ending on cliffhangers
- Two key moves: partnering with ElevenLabs to cut audio production costs by 90%, and training a SOTA AI fiction writer on their own data instead of hiring 1,000 more writers
- Growth playbook (from the founder's long post): the 0-$10M acquisition playbook (90-second audio-drama trailers as ads) works in every country; localization beats translation; retention and monetization hacks; experimenting with $1M internal seed checks
Related event: Pocket FM hits $500M ARR and EBITDA profitability on AI-driven content(6 posts)→
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