Blue Wire, a podcast company started by Kevin Jones in 2018, is opening a new community financing round that will enable private investors to have a stake of ownership in the country. Its goal is to raise at least $1 million at a $25 million valuation cap, according to Jones, who will be part of an announcement on Tuesday with Wefunder. The company has primarily received its funding from former athletes, including former NBA guard Baron Davis, along with venture capitalists and Wynn Resorts. Jones is optimistic that the company will exceed expectations entering this new round, leveraging its library of content featuring personalities such as Lolo Jones, Chris Long and Gilbert Arenas among others.
“Blue Wire is offering individual investors the opportunity to join our movement,” Jones said in a statement provided to Barrett Sports Media. “Independent podcasters are building thriving content businesses, and our infrastructure can support this explosive growth. In a market dominated by major conglomerates and publishers, Blue Wire is building a different type of business. We believe in ‘strength in numbers,’ and this crowdfunding campaign further highlights this core value.”
The independent media company is entrenched within an ecosystem featuring numerous other personalities and brands trying to do the same thing. Colin Cowherd, who started The Volume in February 2021, estimates the brand to be worth $100 million; and Bill Simmons has experienced massive success with The Ringer, which was acquired by Spotify in 2020 for $196 million.
Moreover, John Skipper and Dan Le Batard partnered together to launch Meadowlark Media, which is the home of the hit digital program, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. Pat McAfee also decided to start his own company and sports talk show, leveraging his personality to ultimately lead to a multiyear, multi-million dollar contract to bring his show to the ESPN airwaves.
“I’m a grassroots, independent type of entrepreneur,” Jones said in an interview with Front Office Sports. “We’ve gotten here by all this participation in our network. We want to add a participation channel for potential investors, [and] we think we might surprise ourselves.”
Blue Wire currently has partnerships with both the Action Network, RotoGrinders and Fubo Sports despite losing more than half of its revenue last year. The brand has about three million unique monthly listeners on 120 million annual downloads, offering more than 300 shows across its portfolio. The platform has helped Davis, along with lead NFL on FOX analyst Greg Olsen, gain invaluable experience in the media industry and further propel their careers. With this latest round of funding, Jones wants to make it clear that the company is a place for growth and has the potential to redefine its niche of the sports media ecosystem.
“Anyone can invest in this round,” Jones emphasized. “It can be as little as $100. Substack just did a round like this in the spring, [and] they were able to raise $7 million from 6,000 individual investors. So we’re breaking down the walls.”
