Nadav and Gideon Keyson, two Dutch-Israeli brothers, initially built a live debating platform called Debater.tv where politicians could argue over video. They managed to get Dutch politicians on board but couldn't get anyone to watch. As Nadav later recalled, "when we stopped that debating platform, no one ever asked us, hey, where is it?" — a clear sign the product had no market pull.

The Pivot

The brothers pivoted to remote podcast recording after noticing podcasters were frustrated with Zoom's cloud-based recording quality. Gideon engineered a breakthrough: recording audio and video locally on each participant's computer, then uploading studio-quality files to the cloud. This solved the fundamental problem of internet-quality audio ruining professional podcasts.

Perfect Timing

They soft-launched Riverside on Product Hunt in March 2020 with just 2 paying customers — right as COVID-19 sent every podcast host home. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Within 6 months, Hillary Clinton's podcast producer found them through word of mouth, and the team landed Disney, Spotify, and BBC shortly after.

From Recording to Content Suite

By 2024, Riverside had grown to ~170 employees, raised $80M total across 4 funding rounds (including Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six), and expanded from pure podcast recording into a full content creation suite with AI-powered editing, transcription, and repurposing tools. The platform serves over 70,000 podcasters and brands worldwide.

• Debater.tv: Failed (nobody watched)
• Product Hunt launch: March 2020 (2 paying customers)
• Hillary Clinton: September 2020 (6 months later)
• Series A: $9.5M led by Alexis Ohanian (April 2021)
• Series B: $35M (April 2022)
• Series C: $30M (December 2024)
• Total funding: $80M
• Clients: Disney, Spotify, BBC, Microsoft, NFL