Being a student teaches you many valuable skills, but many of the skills you need to found your own company are best taught by the people who know best – successful startup entrepreneurs. From the basics of founding a business to crafting a winning marketing strategy, these seven podcasts are all packed with valuable insights on how to build a successful startup.

Recommended reading: 48 hours to build a business: Startup Sprint 5

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferris is one of America’s leading startup investors and influencers, along with being an advisor to Facebook, Evernote, Twitter, and more. He also wrote The 4-Hour Workweek, a smash hit among entrepreneurs. If that wasn’t enough, Tim also has a brilliant podcast – The Tim Ferriss ShowOn Tim’s show, you’ll find interviews with influencers like Seth Godin, and discussions about how the best of the best go from startup to success. It’s essential listening for students who want to learn from the masters.

She Did It Her Way

Female students will adore Amanda Boleyn’s excellent podcast, She Did It Her Way. On her podcast, Amanda covers topics specific to lady entrepreneurs and startup wannabes. If you want to know how to build a winning business, without sacrificing your independence, listen to She Did It Her Wayto make sure you do it your way.

Startup

If you want to get into the startup game, it makes sense that you listen to the trials, tribulations, and wins of your peers – Startup offers exactly that. The podcast began by commenting on the journey taken by its parent company, Gimlet Media, from startup to becoming a leading business in its field. Suffice to say, it gives a brilliantly revealing, warts and all insight into EVERYTHING that goes into starting a business.

Marketing Speak

One of the most important parts turning a business from a twinkle in your eye to a glowing sun is to tell people about it through marketing – as Apple did. Marketing Speak is hosted by Stephan Spencer, an expert in marketing and an SEO influencer. On Marketing Speak you find out how to shift with markets, shout effectively about your brand, and much more – it’s not the ideas-based soul of being a startup, it’s the lipstick applied to its mouth.

Product Hunt Radio

By their nature, most startups are selling something and this usually falls into one of two categories – products or services. As you’d expect from its name, Product Hunt Radio covers what goes into the products sold by a business. The podcast gives you interviews from startup founders, along with tech specialists, making it a vital learning tool for students thinking about launching a startup.

Unemployable

Some people start their own company because they have a grand idea, others they want to break away from the family business. However, many startups come about because people realize they aren’t cut out to work for someone else – if you’re one of these people then Unemployable is the perfect podcast for you. Hosted by Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger, Unemployablefeatures a range of people who have forged their own business success – from punk hero Henry Rollins to digital marketing entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk.

How to Start a Startup

I end with the first podcast startup-minded students should listen to – the helpfully named How to Start a Startup. Spanning 20 episodes, How to Start a Startupis brought to you by Sam Altman and features lectures on topics such as how to manage a business, how to build your company up to enterprise level, and how to hire people that fit your culture. As far as startup introductions go, students will be hard-pressed to beat How to Start a Startup.

 

Starting a business is exciting, terrifying, exhausting, enthralling, and much more. It can be difficult to take the first step as a startup, let alone the many more that come each and every day afterwards. While these seven podcasts are not the be all and end all of being a startup, students who want to forge their own future in business will have a much clearer idea of what they need to do after listening to them. So stick on one of these great podcasts and start your journey from student to successful entrepreneur!