The dissolution of Off Topic is what prompted me to write this.
They were a sharp, purposeful team that consistently delivered high-quality content. I was actually the guest on Off Topic's very first episode with a guest, so hearing that they were wrapping up — even on their own terms — came as quite a surprise.
Miyatake-san, Kusano-san — thank you for everything.
That announcement also got me thinking about my own relationship with podcasting, so I figured I'd write about that too.
I currently run two podcasts. One is Zero Topic, where I talk solo — or occasionally with guests — mostly about things I've been thinking through as a startup founder. The other is Free Agenda, a casual chat show I do with my friend Hikaru.
Note: Hikaru also wrote about the Off Topic disbandment on his blog
Free Agenda came first. At the end of 2019, Hikaru and I were talking about wanting to try something new in the coming year, and we just went with the momentum and launched it in early 2020. The whole thing started because we used to meet up once a month at a Starbucks in Hibiya to catch up and bounce ideas off each other — and at some point we thought, "we might as well record this." So in the early days, listeners used to tell us it felt like they were eavesdropping on a private conversation, which I think captured the vibe pretty well.
But then COVID hit almost immediately after we launched, and as movement restrictions piled on, I started feeling this itch of "podcasting is great, but I still have so much more to say." So I started recording Zero Topic as a separate space — a solo outlet for things that wouldn't fit as the main topic on Free Agenda, like what was happening at the company, thoughts on running a business. That's how I ended up with two shows.
Going it alone
Podcasting is everywhere now — it feels like everyone and their dog has a show. But six years ago, it was actually pretty rare for business people or founders to put out their own podcast.
With Zero Topic, I was consciously trying to distill what I was learning from running 10X and share it with peers and the next generation of founders. That approach found its audience — partly because I published at an almost obsessive frequency — and the follower count grew quickly. At one point, it was featured on Apple Podcasts.
Once that happened, Zero Topic started functioning as more than just a personal creative outlet — it became the single biggest driver of awareness for 10X as a company, and a real tool for attracting both hiring candidates and prospective customers. What started as something I made out of genuine creative desire had, without me really noticing, become part of my job.
Today, Zero Topic has 5,200 followers. But that number doesn't mean much to me anymore. Plays per episode have dropped to somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 — less than half of what they were at peak. And honestly, I'm not even bothered by the numbers. These days I update the show when someone at the company asks me to, and it feels pretty mechanical.
Most of my creative drive for it is gone. I feel like I've said everything I wanted to say solo. And when it comes to taking my experience at 10X and turning it into something that speaks to the broader startup world — I'm not sure I have much left to give from that angle. Maybe I've just become less fired up about "startups" as a subject than I used to be.
Note: I haven't lost my drive for running 10X itself — that's a different thing.
After nearly a decade of building a company, I've also gradually drifted apart from a lot of the founders I started alongside. Back in the day, swapping replies on Twitter with people in a similar moment fed a lot of what I talked about. That pipeline has dried up.
So yeah — I think it might be time to record a final episode of Zero Topic and call it done. (Surprise announcement, I know.)
Doing it with someone else
Free Agenda, on the other hand — my motivation for that is still holding up. It always has been, in a low-key kind of way.
The reason is simple: recording Free Agenda is basically just hanging out with Hikaru. For me, the podcast is a chance to catch up, to shoot the breeze, to spend time with a friend. The desire to "put something out there" has never really been the point — at least not for me (not sure how Hikaru feels about it...).
Once a month, I carve out some time to hang out with Hikaru. The fact that it ends up on the internet is almost incidental. I think that low-stakes, no-pressure quality is exactly why we've kept it going through the ups and downs.
Free Agenda has no mission. Which means we can quit whenever, or keep going forever. We stop whenever we feel like stopping. We only record when the vibe is right. No goals, no expectations, no deadlines. And yet somehow, a lot of people listen. That in itself feels like something worth being grateful for — something genuinely rare, actually.
I really do appreciate how people have gone along with this loose, unstructured thing we've been doing. Thank you.
So, where does that leave me?
I think I'm done with solo podcasting.
That said, I still love podcasts as a listener, and I've been feeling a pull to actually make something with someone — intentionally, as a real creative project. If the mood strikes, maybe I'll find a collaborator and start something around youth baseball, which has been taking up most of my weekends lately. There's a genuinely strange culture there that I think would make for a great show.
