Hello hello!
Thank you for being interested in being a guest for our podcast!
We are lucky to have a lot of demand for people to come on the podcast so to make the process cleaner, all requests must come through this page.
Take the time to read through everything properly to save an awkward chat!
Here's what we'll cover:
- Free website feature
- Our pitch to you
- What we're looking for
- Group specific information
- How to pitch us
Free website feature
Our priority is our audience not the guest so we want people that can inspire who aren't simply focused on what's in it for them.
There's nothing wrong with wanting media to grow your business but that's not the aim of our podcast.
Most people who message us also aren't at the stage to come on the podcast yet but we can still help.
We can do this through free website features called "BAE Stories".
You can learn more and fill in this form to share your story.
Our pitch to you
Why would you even want to come on our podcast?
"I would love to interview you for The BAE HQ podcast.
Our goal is to inspire, connect, and guide the next generation of British Asian entrepreneurs (BAEs).
Every episode is filmed in a studio with high quality audio and video and available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
I've interviewed over 150 people across podcasts including cofounders from Netflix and Twitter." - Amardeep Parmar
What we're looking for
We want our audience to dream big and shatter the ceiling of what they believe is possible, not just slightly raise it.
We want the best of the best.
We're investing significantly in producing a top quality show with integrity. We have to keep our bar high if we respect our audience's time.
If we turn you down, it doesn't mean we don't respect your achievements, it just means you aren't what we're looking for right now and this could change.
British Asians
- We include all Asian heritage.
- You must have lived in the UK for at least several years and self-identify as British.
- If you weren't born and raised here, it's easiest for us if you are naturalised here or have a passport. There are always exceptions but we hope you can apply a base of common sense.
- You have to be available for an in-person podcast in London.
Full-timers
- If your organisation/brand isn't at the point where you could take it full-time or want to take it full-time, then it's not ready for us yet.
- A large part of what we talk about is the risk involved in going out on your own.
- There are plenty of other great podcasts aimed at a more corporate professional audience.
Storytellers
- It's a waste of everyone's time if you come on but refuse to share any of your journey.
- You also need to have a story to tell. If you've only just started your organisation or gone full-time then we'll be light on content!
- You can listen to previous podcasts to tell the style and see if you're comfortable with it.
- We want the stories of what you did rather than generic platitudes of what others should do.
We want role models.
- You need to believe in our mission and lifting others up.
- We have zero tolerance for egotistical behavior regardless of how successful you perceive yourself to be.
- We find the most on paper successful guests often tend to be easy to work with because they are doing it because they care.
- Please don't use arguments such as but you interviewed this person or that person. Our standards are evolving and often increasing. You don't know when we said yes to any individual guest.
Group-specific information
"Entrepreneur" is a broad term and The BAE HQ wants to help everyone through the mixture of what we're doing.
Yet as we said the podcast isn't about helping the guest, it's about helping the audience.
We are choosing guests through this lens and we need to be able to create an approximate equivalence amongst a diverse entrepreneurial community.
Here's our best attempt:
Businesses which have scaled and have huge ambitions.
- If its venture scale then you've at least raised pre-seed, received significant angel investment or a substantial amount of grants.
- If its a bricks-and-mortar business then a chain or have a prime flagship that is globally renowned.
- If its a regular business then pulling in at least multiple six-figures, ideally seven in terms of revenue
Startup investors i.e. VCs, angels, etc
- We generally want Partners/GPs of most VCs.
- For very large VC firms, we will take Principals e.g. Accel
- Must be willing to discuss transparently investments made and advice for founders.
Creators
- Must be your full-time gig and have significant scale.
- We're generally looking at thousand-plus engagements per post and hundreds of thousands of followers.
- Followers/views on longer-form content are rated much higher than TikTok etc.
- Must be some kind of business beyond selling sponsored content.
- We do integrity checks to ensure your following/engagement are genuine.
Entertainers
- We're looking for the established people who the up-and-comers look up to.
- Featured in X, Y, and Z isn't massively important unless it's sustained e.g. you appear regularly on the BBC.
- If you're in a household name show then you can have a cast role, and if on a smaller show then it would need to be a leading role.
- We want those who have documentaries made about them rather than those who appear in ones for a short period.
Charity/Nonprofit founders and Politicians
- These need to have made a significant impact and in a transparent way.
- We'd want you to talk about your mission but through the lens of how others could scale their own organisation for good.
- While social media activists are doing good work, they don't qualify for the podcast.
- We are looking for the ones enacting change rather than raising awareness.
Authors
- If you've had a non-fiction book published with a major publisher and we could walk into the shops now and buy it then we'd love to interview you.
- Fiction is harder to judge effectively but feel free to apply and we'll assess.
Sports/fitness/health
- Remember we are a business podcast not a health/fitness podcast.
- We have a huge number of fitness people reach out to us wanting to come on but there's nothing to truly differentiate them from each other.
- You need to be the person that others in your field would look up to.
- Doctors/ dentists/ pharmacists who run clinics are too specialist for us unless there is significant scale.
- Have you represented Great Britain?
- If you're a PT, do you coach world class athletes?
- Do you own a chain of gyms?
- Have you built a startup which tackles a health problem?
Coaches/ Consultants/ Agencies (less desired)
- There are many of these kinds of people reaching out to us and most don't stand out.
- There's often a heavy element of the guest trying to push their services which isn't the point of what we're trying to achieve.
- If you're a coach and consultant and would qualify for one of the other sections then we'd take you on.
- If you something truly exception like you coach Jeff Bezos or helped Amazon grow then we'll listen but if you can't provide evidence of such level of clients then we'll pass.
Personal finance/real estate/crypto influencers/advisors (less desired)
- We're not a personal finance podcast and it's dangerous territory as we all know, many people aren't what they might appear online.
- Likewise with real estate advice and crypto.
- At this point in time, we'd rather avoid these areas until we can work out a clearer set of standards.
- We will make exceptions for startups which are disrupting these areas.
Anything unsuitable for under 18s (instant no)
- We're a wholesome brand.
- Parents watch these with their kids and we have a responsibility.
- No gambling, pornography, drugs, alcohol, weapons etc.
How to pitch us
Thanks if you've read all that and you want to come on then it's time for you to apply!
Scroll up to the top and look at our pitch. Use that as an outline.
- Tell us you want to come on.
- Tell us the mission of your organisation/brand.
- Tell us how you fit the criteria to come on.
- Give us one killer line which sells it to us.
Some examples of a killer line (numbers are examples):
- We've raised a £5m seed round.
- We've expanded to 20 stores nationwide.
- We have 8-figure revenues.
- We trade in 10 countries.
- I've trained olympic champions.
- We have a £100m fund for early stage investment.
- My organisation has saved over 2000 refugees.
- I was awarded an OBE for services to the Asian community.
Avoid (this isn't our first rodeo ;)):
- "Successful" - success is in the eye of the beholder, give us something we can benchmark against other guests.
- "Award-winning" - what award? Why is that award credible?
- Featured in Forbes etc - Most of these are paid slots or through friends and don't necessarily prove anything. Tell us why these organisations would consider you in the first place.
Gurvir has a private market background and Amar has a creative background, between us we can validate most guests. If we are unsure, we ask others closer to the industry of the prospective guest to help us to assess.
Click the button below to send us an email with your pitch :).
Your email subject line must be the default + your name otherwise we assume you haven't bothered to read this and you're wasting our time.
Your email should be less than 100 words and follow the format above.
