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WIP-001: Mark Webster
WIP-001: Mark Webster

Last edited 312 days ago by Peter Wang

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Catching Up and Family Life

In this section, Mark and the speaker catch up on their personal lives, discussing family dynamics and how they relate to creativity.

Family Dynamics

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00:37⁠

The speaker is an only boy in a family of three children.

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01:33⁠

Being the middle child has given the speaker space to explore creatively.

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03:06⁠

The second child is often left to their own devices, which can lead to more creativity.

Personal Projects

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00:54⁠

With one child, all focus goes into that one person.

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01:52⁠

The speaker likes exploring new things and getting different perspectives.

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02:29⁠

Despite crashing a drone before, the speaker still enjoys flying it for creative shots.

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03:25⁠

Being in a startup world was intentional for the speaker who had worked for several startups before starting his own.

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`03:41`⁠
Starting a Startup

In this section, the speaker discusses his experience with starting his own startup and participating in TechCrunch Disrupt hackathons.

Starting Out

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03:41⁠

The speaker intentionally wanted to be part of the startup world and start his own company.

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04:02⁠

Participating in TechCrunch Disrupt hackathons was an intentional entry into being part of the startup world.

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`04:39`⁠
Serial Hackathon and Project Ideas

In this section, the speaker talks about their experience participating in a hackathon multiple times and the different project ideas they worked on.

Flymodo Project Idea

The first project idea was called Flymodo.

Users could tweet with a hashtag of a flight number to check into that flight.

The project also allowed users to track how many miles they've flown.

JetBlue later launched a similar promotion targeting all-you-can-get flights.

Pinocchio Project Idea

The second project idea was called Pinocchio.

It involved lying to your social network by checking into fake locations and posting pictures of food over a set schedule.

The goal was to tell a story for a couple of hours about where you were.

Side Tour Business Idea

The third project idea became the Side Tour business.

It aimed to bring authentic experiences from around the world into your own city.

They applied for Tech Stars, which helped them get recognition from TechCrunch Disrupt.

Joinable Project Idea

Joinable was another project idea that won an award at TechCrunch Disrupt's hackathon.

It allowed people without email addresses to receive voicemail and email over the phone using speech-to-text technology built on top of Twilio.

After being featured in TechCrunch, several organizations reached out wanting to use it for disaster relief efforts.

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`09:30`⁠
Hackathons and Starting a Business

In this section, the speaker talks about their experience participating in hackathons and how it led to starting a business.

Participating in Hackathons

The speaker enjoyed participating in hackathons because they could run with any idea that came to mind.

They would stay up all night working on their project until presenting it the next morning.

Participating in hackathons gave them tickets to conferences they couldn't afford otherwise.

Starting a Business

The speaker's startup, Scituate, was started with friends who shared the same vision.

Techstars helped them gain confidence and start from scratch.

Scituate focused on creating unique experiences not found on other platforms.

The speaker's background in creative marketing played a big role in creating Scituate's user experience.

Getting Acquired by Groupon

Scituate struggled with demand but excelled at supply, which caught Groupon's attention.

Groupon saw potential in Scituate's interesting subject lines and offered them an acquisition deal. I apologize, but I cannot see any transcript or video to summarize. Please provide me with the transcript or video so that I can create a comprehensive and informative markdown file for you.

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`18:53`⁠
How About We and Groupon

In this section, the speaker talks about his experience with two companies - How About We and Groupon. He mentions that his co-founder went on a date with a girl from How About We and ended up marrying her. He then talks about Groupon, its initial success, wacky culture, and how it became a liability when the business stopped growing.

Experience with Groupon

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19:33⁠

Groupon was initially the hottest thing in the world and was the fastest-growing company of all time.

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20:16⁠

The speaker's company was acquired by Groupon to change people's perception of what a Groupon is and find interesting unique inventory.

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20:57⁠

The speaker's team came up with interesting content for emails which resulted in high open rates.

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21:13⁠

The speaker became head of product for "G Live," a joint venture between Live Nation Ticketmaster and Groupon to sell tickets to live events.

Challenges faced at Groupon

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19:57⁠

When growth flattened out, eccentricity became a liability for Andrew Mason who left the company.

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20:36⁠

The entire group on business was run within Salesforce which made it difficult to integrate different systems.

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21:35⁠

The speaker's team had to build an integration between Groupon and Live Nation/Ticketmasters ticketing system which proved to be an absolutely brutal project.

Failed Ventures at Groupon

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22:35⁠

The speaker pitched a business called "Groupon movies" but couldn't get traction on it.

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23:14⁠

The speaker tried to reinvent tours and activities and local content on Groupon but found it miserable.

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`23:54`⁠
Challenges of Reinventing Tech

In this section, the speaker discusses the challenges faced while trying to reinvent tech and build a tech platform in a sales-driven culture.

Challenges Faced

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23:54⁠

Building a tech platform in a place that wasn't their DNA was challenging.

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24:12⁠

Groupon was in the middle of reinventing itself, which made things harder.

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24:33⁠

Trying to be a change agent from the New York office when it's based in Chicago was difficult.

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24:52⁠

The incentive structure for pitching ideas at Groupon was brutal.

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`25:13`⁠
Lessons Learned from Acquisition

In this section, the speaker talks about lessons learned from being acquired by Groupon and how they did things differently during their second acquisition by Adobe.

Lessons Learned

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25:13⁠

Being acquired by Groupon led to cultural challenges due to breaking up into different groups with different bosses.

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26:14⁠

During their second acquisition by Adobe, they stayed as a unit to avoid cultural challenges.

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`26:49`⁠
The Birth of Safe Spring

In this section, the speaker talks about how they came up with the idea for Safe Spring and why it is unique.

Idea Generation Process

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26:49⁠

Safe Spring is an idea that came out of left field and is considered one of the best ideas ever had.

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27:11⁠

The big insight behind Safe Spring was designing voice assistants for aging populations since there were no design and prototyping tools available at that time.

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27:32⁠

They spent time looking into software solutions for aging populations before coming up with the idea for Safe Spring.

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`28:49`⁠
Building Safe Spring

In this section, the speaker talks about how he built Safe Spring and how it was a simple process. He also discusses how they met the team at Era and joined their accelerator program.

Building Safe Spring

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29:08⁠

The speaker built a prototype of Safe Spring and joined Era's accelerator program.

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29:30⁠

The speaker met Koivan, who was from Adobe, and gave him a demo of Safe Spring. Koivan was impressed with the app and thought it should exist.

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29:46⁠

People started using Safe Spring quickly, and growth took off. Koivan went back to Adobe and convinced them to acquire the team behind Safe Spring.

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30:07⁠

Koi went on a secret charm offensive on behalf of the team inside Adobe for six months.

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`30:23`⁠
Interview with Subtraction

In this section, the speaker talks about an interview they did with Subtraction, which helped spread awareness of their product within Adobe.

Interview with Subtraction

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30:43⁠

The speaker did an interview with Subtraction that was passed around inside Adobe.

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31:01⁠

The article wasn't a puff piece; the interviewer asked hard questions.

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`31:25`⁠
Acquisition Conversation

In this section, the speaker talks about how they had a call with Corp Dev to discuss building plugins for other design tools. They showed them a working demo of a Sketch plugin that became part of an acquisition conversation.

Acquisition Conversation

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31:45⁠

When showing their Sketch plugin to Adobe's VP at the time of XD, they realized it could fit into their tools and ecosystem.

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32:03⁠

The plugin was the missing piece that bridged the gap between their independent tool and Adobe's complicated ecosystem.

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`32:27`⁠
Workflow for Voice Design

In this section, the speaker talks about how there was no established workflow for working in voice design and how they discovered a weird workflow at VaynerMedia.

Workflow for Voice Design

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32:48⁠

There was no established workflow for working in voice design.

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33:08⁠

They discovered a weird workflow at VaynerMedia where people were making flowcharts in some tool and then working with a developer.

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`33:44`⁠
Sketch Plugin Idea

In this section, the speaker talks about how he came up with the idea for a Sketch plugin and how it was developed.

Development of the Sketch Plugin

The speaker had an idea for a Sketch plugin that would work similarly to the Safe Spring platform.

He discussed the idea with his team at Safe Springs and they started working on building a prototype.

The team found that building the plugin was straightforward as the APIs for SketchUp were easy to work with.

A working prototype was built within two weeks and shown to Adobe, who expressed interest in integrating it into their products.

The announcement of the acquisition by Adobe was made in April 2018, just 11 months after raising money.

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`35:29`⁠
Acquisition by Adobe

In this section, the speaker talks about why he chose to be acquired by Adobe and how it helped his business.

Reasons for Choosing Adobe

The speaker had used Adobe tools throughout his career and wanted to work for them.

He believed that being acquired by Adobe would give them access to a wider audience and better distribution channels.

Brands were already experimenting with voice technology, making it an emerging market with potential growth opportunities.

Benefits of Being Acquired by Adobe

Integration into XD gave them access to a larger user base and more resources.

They were able to build their product natively into XD, which made it easier for users to adopt.

Being part of Adobe allowed them to focus on developing their product without worrying about distribution or marketing.

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`38:02`⁠
Adobe's AI-First Platform for Working with Spoken Audio

In this section, the speaker talks about how Adobe came up with an AI-first platform for working with spoken audio. They discuss the starting points of their AI strategy and how they pitched the idea to higher-ups at Adobe.

Starting Points of AI Strategy

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39:03⁠

The team focused on creating an AI-first platform for working with spoken audio.

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40:09⁠

The team started with text-based editing, which had been sitting in Adobe research since 2014.

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40:24⁠

They also developed an enhanced speech service that makes any spoken audio sound like it was recorded in a studio.

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40:41⁠

Another service they created was Mic Check, which gives users feedback on their recording environment and mic settings.

Pitching the Idea to Higher-Ups

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40:58⁠

The speaker pitched the idea to various people at Adobe but faced resistance due to difficulty in getting new projects started.

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41:15⁠

Eventually, they reached out to Scott Belsky, Chief Product Officer at Adobe, who agreed to listen to their pitch.

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41:30⁠

The team put together a deck outlining their vision for an audio platform that would integrate into all of Adobe's tools.

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`42:46`⁠
Pitching the Power of Audio

In this section, the speaker talks about how they pitched the power of audio to a potential investor and why audio is such a powerful medium.

Mini Podcast Pitch

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43:07⁠

The speaker came up with the idea to pitch the power of audio using a mini podcast instead of a visual slide deck.

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43:31⁠

They created five two-minute episodes that introduced the idea, proposed what they would build, explained how it would impact customers, and made their ask.

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43:52⁠

The potential investor listened to the podcast series before their meeting and was sold on the idea.

Power of Audio

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44:47⁠

The speaker believes in the power of audio because it creates a strong parasocial relationship between the listener and speaker.

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45:07⁠

Audio-only content with headphones on while doing something else occupies the listener's mind without visual distractions, making it more powerful than other mediums like video or social media.

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`47:44`⁠
The Function of Audio in Social Media

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of considering the function of audio in social media and how it can capture visual attention. They also talk about their personal experience with parasocial relationships and how it can be affected by the presence of other people.

Importance of Functionality

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47:44⁠

It's important to consider the function of audio in social media.

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48:03⁠

Audio clips with animated text captions can capture visual attention.

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48:41⁠

Parasocial relationships can be affected by the presence of other people.

Personal Experience with Parasocial Relationships

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48:24⁠

The speaker shares their experience with Peloton classes during the pandemic.

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48:55⁠

They prefer classes without a studio because it interferes with their parasocial relationship with the instructor.

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`49:10`⁠
Presenting Concepts Without a Product

In this section, the speaker talks about presenting concepts without a product and how it allows for a focus on overall concepts. They also discuss using visuals versus narrative when presenting information.

Presenting Concepts Without a Product

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49:36⁠

Presenting without a product allows for a focus on overall concepts.

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49:54⁠

This approach allowed for more freedom to figure out what they wanted to build.

Using Visuals Versus Narrative

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50:13⁠

There is a parallel between using documents as narrative versus using visuals as decks.

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50:33⁠

Amazon culture emphasizes not hiding behind visuals and using six-pagers.

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`51:03`⁠
Adapting to Changes During Pandemic

In this section, the speaker discusses how their product was built during the pandemic and how they adapted to changes. They also talk about adding recording functionality due to the pandemic.

Building During Pandemic

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51:03⁠

The entire product was built during the pandemic.

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51:26⁠

The team added recording functionality due to difficulties in recording audio content during the pandemic.

Adapting to Changes

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51:41⁠

The team had to figure out recording as well in order to deliver their vision.

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52:05⁠

Recording became a forefront feature of their product when they launched beta.

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`52:45`⁠
Adobe's Podcast Editing Software

In this section, the speaker talks about how Adobe developed its podcast editing software and bundled different projects together to create a comprehensive experience.

Development of Adobe's Podcast Editing Software

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52:45⁠

Research had several projects, including Lex, Awesomeizer (renamed), Mic Check.

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53:03⁠

These projects were bundled together to create a comprehensive experience that included recording.

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53:24⁠

The recording piece changed and local recording was added to solve quality issues.

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53:42⁠

Enhanced speech service is run on each track individually which makes it sound much better.

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53:57⁠

Individual tracks allow for AI features such as eliminating crosstalk automatically.

Features of Adobe's Podcast Editing Software

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54:22⁠

Initially, only the recording piece with transcription was built but later an end-to-end solution was created.

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54:52⁠

The editing piece took 18 months to build and is still behind a waitlist.

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55:16⁠

Project Shasta was launched in December 2021 and received a huge response from the community due to its colorful design and real people building it.

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55:55⁠

Over the summer, single serve pages were built for enhanced speech and mic check so that users could experience what they do.

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56:33⁠

Enhanced speech is considered pure magic by the team and has been a total home run in the market.

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`57:34`⁠
Adobe's Acquisition of Behance

In this section, the speaker talks about how Adobe acquired Behance and the challenges they faced during the go-to-market phase.

Adobe's Risk-Taking Culture

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58:03⁠

Adobe understands creative people and knows how to do acquisitions.

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58:22⁠

Belski has been a great supporter of Behance and protected them from the overhead of the organization in the beginning.

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58:41⁠

The team took a lot of career risks by launching Project Shasta without any legal review or marketing support.

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59:16⁠

Taking calculated risks has been a big contributor to their success, but they are always careful not to put Adobe at risk.

Behance's Approach to Risk-Taking

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59:55⁠

They take risks because they feel confident that they are not introducing any real risk.

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01:00:13⁠

They have a high bar for execution and are careful about what they do with people.

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01:00:30⁠

They still have to go through security privacy review, but they are an experienced button-up team who has done this before other places.

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`01:00:49`⁠
Building Products within Adobe

In this section, the speaker talks about building products within Adobe and how Behance used XD to design their podcast.

Building Products within Adobe

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01:00:49⁠

The speaker pictured Behance building their product within Adobe.

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01:01:11⁠

The podcast was very clear that it is for podcasters, which is why it was named "Adobe Podcast."

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01:01:35⁠

Although unrelated, XD was used to design the podcast.

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`01:02:16`⁠
Audio Space Products

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WIP-001: Mark WebsterWIP-001: Mark Webster