An early AI startup out of NYU Tandon Future Labs turned guest interviews with recruitment leaders into a steady inbound channel, without spending on paid media.
The startup was a 16-person team building an early AI screening product that interviewed candidates. This was before AI was as advanced as it is now and it was just starting to develop buzz in the HR world. The company built in NYU Tandon Future Labs and ran pipeline almost entirely on outbound: cold email and direct outreach (which I was helping run), plus the occasional founder-network referral.
What was missing was an inbound channel. A way for the right people to find the company themselves, without depending on having an existing audience to draw from.
We launched a weekly podcast on the future of AI in recruitment. The head of sales hosted, and every guest was a leader at a recruitment company, meaning every guest was also a perfect fit for the product. The conversations weren't promotional; they were thoughtful exchanges about how AI was actually shaping recruitment and hiring.
To get it in front of the right ears, we ran targeted cold outreach within online communities (recruitment-focused Slack channels and similar spaces), sharing episodes as resources rather than ads.
Hosting an industry-relevant guest is a much warmer reason to start a relationship than, "Do you have 30 minutes to look at our product?" The show became a sales play that didn't feel like one.