Back in 2019, Pocket FM was almost out of money with just one week of cash left. Founder Rohan Nayak and his co-founders had tried pitching to over 30 investors, but no one believed in audio content.

Still, they didn't give up. Eventually, they got a $5.6 million lifeline from Lightspeed and Tencent, just in time.

Pocket FM didn’t find success right away. It took two years and ten pivots to find what worked. The winning idea? Turning binge-worthy TV-style fiction into daily audio episodes. And it worked, big time.

The platform now makes over $150 million a year, with most of that coming from the US. Popular shows like Saving Nora and Insta Millionaire earned millions and hit over a billion plays. Pocket FM's "freemium" model lets users listen to two free episodes daily, then pay a small amount to continue.

They’ve also launched Pocket Novel for online reading and are planning to expand to Europe and Latin America.

From a last-minute save to leading a global audio revolution, Rohan and his team proved everyone wrong and made audio cool again.

Gen Z takeaway? Big ideas + bold moves = game changer.