How We Built an AI Podcast (While Building With AI Every Week)

In late 2024, we had a problem.

We were building new AI tools every week—some wild, some scrappy, some weirdly useful—but we weren’t documenting the process. Twitter was too short. Newsletters felt too late. We wanted a format that matched the pace of real-time building.

So we created Built This Week — a podcast about AI made while building with AI.

This is the real story behind our AI podcast—how we launched, how we record, the tools we use, and how we’re growing it without taking time away from shipping products.

Step 1: Why Even Start an AI Podcast?

We didn’t want to start a podcast to “build an audience.”

We wanted to:

• Document what we were actually building
• Share the tools we found each week (so others didn’t waste time)
• Keep a public record of product drops, wins, and lessons learned
• Stay accountable—if we said we’d ship weekly, we had to do it

It’s not a theory podcast. It’s not a news podcast. It’s a real-time AI builders podcast. That clarity helped us make fast, sharp decisions from Day 1.

Step 2: Nail the Format First (Before You Hit Record)

A lot of AI podcasts suffer from the same problem: they’re too long, too vague, or too guest-dependent.

So we made a rule:

👉 Every episode must deliver value in 3 parts:

1. What we built this week
2. The 3 most important AI/tech stories
3. One AI tool we actually used and recommend

That structure became our superpower. People know exactly what they’re getting—and we can record fast without filler.

Step 3: Ship First, Then Talk About It

Unlike other podcasts, our show doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s tied to our startup studio, RYZ Labs, where we ship new AI products every week.

That means:

• We’re not brainstorming hypotheticals—we’re reporting from the trenches
• We test the tools we talk about
• We show the receipts (the tools, the problems, the launches)

One week we built a podcast clipping tool with GPT-4 and React. Another week it was an AI photo booth, a no-code contract generator, or a Stripe-integrated payment bot. If it’s on the pod, it’s real.

That makes the show different—and sticky.

Step 4: Our Stack (The Tools We Use to Produce)

We keep it lean, builder-style:

🎙️ Mic & Audio

• Mic: Shure MV7 (USB and XLR)
• Interface: Focusrite Scarlett Solo
• Recording: Riverside or Descript (with backups)

📺 Video

• Camera: iPhone + Camo Studio
• Editing: Final Cut + Descript + CapCut for social

📡 Publishing & Hosting

• Podcast host: Transistor.fm
• Website: Webflow (connected to RSS)
• YouTube: Manual upload with chapters from Descript

✂️ Social + Distribution

• TikTok & Instagram: Clipped via GPT + CapCut
• Publer: For scheduling posts
• LinkedIn: Weekly drops with unique voice

🧠 AI Tools We Use

• GPT-4: For writing titles, show notes, and episode summaries
• Whisper API: For transcriptions
• Suno & Voicemod: For music and trailer voiceovers
• ChatGPT: For outlining, headlines, and blog posts like this one

Step 5: Growth Without Burnout

We don’t have a massive podcast team. We’re builders first. But we treat podcast growth like a product:

• Weekly Clipping Engine: We clip highlights and run 3–10 TikTok accounts.
• Newsletter Drops: One email per week, short and tool-focused.
• SEO Content (like this!): Every blog post brings in traffic and backlinks.
• LinkedIn Waves: Sam and Jordan post 1–3x/week with behind-the-scenes content.
• Reddit + Hacker News: Sharing launches in the right channels (not spammy).

We’re also experimenting with things like:

• Street marketing (stickers, QR codes, billboards)
• AI-generated trailers using Veo & Suno
• Syndicating clips to YouTube Shorts, Reels, and X Video

Step 6: Results So Far

• 🚀 New listeners every week, mostly via SEO and short-form video
• 🔄 Higher retention from people who ship or manage product
• 📈 Increasing inbound interest from founders, investors, and operators
• 💥 Our builds get more visibility—and sometimes real users—from the pod

And maybe best of all: we now have a public record of everything we’re building at RYZ Labs. That’s priceless long-term.

Why This Matters for You

You don’t need a full-time content team to make a podcast that actually helps your startup. You just need:

• A tight format
• A consistent drop schedule
• One person to clip and post
• A reason to do it besides growth

If you’re building with AI, launching products, or just want to think sharper each week—you don’t need to start your own podcast.

You just need to listen to one that’s already shipping.

🎧 Listen to Built This Week — the real-time AI podcast for founders, indie hackers, and product obsessives.

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