"We just see this as the next big emerging medium where influencers will proliferate," Kozera said. Their startup Podcorn, a matchmaking platform for podcasters and brands, has onboarded 27,000 creators, lured in hundreds of advertisers, and facilitated thousands of ad campaigns since it launched a year ago, Kozera said. Many of Podcorn's early users arrived through partnerships with podcast-hosting platforms like Buzzsprout, Podomatic, Captivate, and Omny Studio. But the team is also eyeing YouTube stars they used to work with who have since launched spoken-word shows. "YouTube channels that are diversifying to podcasting sort of have a different identity in their podcasts," Kozera said. "Whereas with YouTube people focus more on tutorials, lookbooks, unboxings, here it's a lot more about original and more journalistic creative storytelling."