If video killed the radio star, podcasts have performed a resurrection - in a more structured and thought-provoking fashion.

Designed to bring podcasts closer to listeners around the globe, Listnr is the latest software revolution proving that - when brains talk, smart people listen!

Intended for those nurturing a special affection for the spoken word, Listnr was founded by Ananay Batra, who wanted to break the barriers of podcasting through simplifying the way we interact with audio content - easily and without recording a single word!

Quite similar to radio programs - but far more informative - Listnr offers an array of unique audio files to play and replay in every corner of the world. Human voices, smart interactions and the most refined voiceover services online, Ananay’s Listnr is far more than your humdrum audio platform.

So, how did Listnr keep up with the latest audio-software trends, leaving a unique media imprint of its own?

Read more about their journey here:

Young Ambition, First Ideas

Ananay Batra, a gifted and talented entrepreneur, was born in New Delhi, in 1998. Aware of the problematic Indian educational system from early on, Ananay’s family opted for a more fruitful future for their son - and moved all the way to friendly Canada.

There, Ananay attended York University in Toronto, where he scored a Bachelor of Science as well as a BS in Computer Science degree.

Intending to acquire as much experience in the field as possible, Ananay partook in a series of projects, spanning from 2015 to 2019. He did a bit of everything, working at Rape Free India, No Text While Driving, Hangout, and Yada. Among other projects, Ananay also participated in developing the Mean Reversion algorithm for Day Trading, using the Quantopian API.

Following his adventurous ways, Ananay got his first official job as an intern in 2019, at the National Logistics Services of Canada.

Shortly after, in September of 2019, twenty-two-year-old Ananay gathered the courage to be bold and decided to create his own summarization platform - QueNews - providing users with the latest, credible-source news worldwide - all featured in a single app.

Driven by the idea of ‘possibility meets imagination’, the young entrepreneur soon got bored with the existing tasks at hand, and decided to, instead, develop a platform to further simplify and facilitate his users’ experience.

Aiming high and enforcing changes that use state-of-the-art Speech Synthesis and Deep learning algorithms, Ananay developed the idea of reproducing humanlike voices through building a refined podcast network for users worldwide - and podcast production never looked the same.

Setting Listnr Up For Success

The idea of launching Listnr first crossed Ananay’s mind while he was working with QueNews.

Back in the day, QueNews operated like ‘Spotify for News’- a chosen team would summarize news from various credible sources, and offer it to the users as audio content. The company used a Speech Synthesis Engine to convert the news to audio clips, and this made Ananay realize that such text-to-speech conversions could come in handy for a variety of users - from podcast lovers to those in need of voiceovers.

One day, while listening to the Joe Rogan podcast, Ananay thought how cool it would be if people could do podcasting without recording a single word - an easy-peasy solution that first required a thorough examination of the industry.

As a result, Ananay created a basic landing page using email capture and distributed it around various social media channels to see if it sparks up the audience’s interest. A few days into the creation, he received major positive feedback and one important question: when would the product be released?

With a promising product in his hands, Ananay consulted with his inner circle to further refine and define the idea. After assembling a team of six to work alongside him, Ananay continued researching the podcast industry - a year later, Listnr was ready to hit the market!

In September of 2020, Listnr made its market debut establishing its main headquarters based in New Delhi, India.

A Business Model of Versatility

Listnr is a platform designed to cover all grounds of audio content through simplifying the process of producing both voice-overs and podcasts.

Given the popularity podcasts enjoy today, a platform like Lisntr can surely be seen as a ‘need of the hour’ type of business - but what makes the platform different from other podcast apps is that, now, any customer at Listnr can initiate a podcast without having to purchase costly recording equipment or additionally edit and maneuver the content.

The company boasts various key features, such as an easy one-click conversion - where customers select their desired content from any website and instantly convert it to audio format. Moreover, Ananay created a platform that uses a top-notch Deep Learning Engine, thus allowing users to listen to seamlessly humanized audios.

Through Listnr, anyone can start a podcast - and in over 30 languages worldwide!

Listnr goes the extra mile, too, and allows users to listen to audio clips in different regional dialects. Additionally, users can easily embed the audio files created with Listnr into their blog posts and websites - all by using code snippets. As if that’s not enough, the audio content users convert can be downloaded and distributed to platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google.

As of March, 2020, there has been a noticeable diversion from traditional social media to podcast hosting platforms and blogs.

What Listnr is currently doing is introducing a whole new perception of repurposing the use of podcasts - in business and everyday life, too.

Fundings & Future Growth

As a solo-founder, Listnr struggled to acquire financial business support. In other words, Ananay’s platform didn’t get any funding at all - well, not at first!

Taking matters in his own hands, Ananay pushed his way through the obstacles and self-funded the company, only to come back stronger on the other side of the business game. Presently, Listnr has succeeded in attracting a few new customers, and from various different platforms. Some of its most notable fans of Listnr include IndieHackers and Reddit, while individual users also keep on coming.

Among other accomplishments, Listnr recently formed a partnership with the Canada Angel Investment Foundation. While this collaboration would certainly help fortify the company, it’s also expected for the foundation to generously contribute to the podcast pundit - thus ensuring it a deserving place among the greatest platforms worldwide.

Regardless of its initial difficulties - funding troubles, product development, and the array of business hurdles in its way - Listnr is the perfect validation of why podcasts are the future of virtual communication - done in a sophisticated fashion!

With worldwide recognition already at the tip of their fingers, Listnr opened the way to new ways of communicating and doesn’t show any signs of stopping or backing down.

On the contrary, and for what it’s worth - Listnr sends the business world a message, loud and clear - that it’s here to stay!