SpokenLayer was founded in 2012 by Will Mayo. Even though audio was not as ubiquitous as it is today, Will’s vision was that audio, and particularly spoken word audio, would be a primary media and brand vehicle, and listenership would skyrocket in the years to come.

Driving that understanding of audio’s importance was the fact that Will is dyslexic, and because reading was difficult, a key method of learning as a child was from audiobooks and recordings that his father would put on tape for him of his school books and stories.

Couple this with his background as an engineer and as a musician, and Will was off to build a company that put audio first and that understood how it worked in the digital age. He named the company SpokenLayer, as his focus was to become the spoken layer of the web, powering digital audio storytelling.

As Will shaped the business, people could see his vision for what spoken word and audio were going to mean. The business was launched at Techcrunch Disrupt, and soon after, matter.vc took interest in mentoring Will to help scale the business. 
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Soon after that, the company signed its first ten media publishers to create and produce audio, and SpokenLayer was off to the races. When Apple added SpokenLayer’s product into the podcast platform, more publishers signed on as they saw this as a huge distribution source for their content.
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In 2017, SpokenLayer joined Betaworks Voice Camp, and that year was a real inflection point for the company. As voice assistants from Amazon and Google became prevalent, the need for audio content to surface on these devices became huge. SpokenLayer immediately became the de facto audio factory publishers turned to produce content and distribute it to smart speakers and beyond. It was also then that the company solidified its position as the leader in short-form, spoken word audio, as this content length and type played well on these devices.

In 2019, the company raised its Series A, with Beasley Media Group, Guardian Media Group Ventures, North Base Media, and Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) participating as lead investors in the round. Later that year, the company hired Andy Lipset, a veteran in the digital audio ecosystem, as its Chief Executive Officer, with Will transitioning into the Chief Strategy Officer position. Soon after, Jeff O’Connell was brought in as the company’s Chief Technology Officer, after building audio and video platforms over his entire career.
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Today, the company continues that focus on short-form, spoken word digital audio. We create and produce over 1000 pieces of content every week, for over 100 different media brands from the Economist, Time, Men’s Health, WIRED, the Wall Street Journal, and the Anchorage Daily News. In addition, we now service major advertisers and brands such as Verizon, Starbucks, State Farm, and Audible. The company has been recognized industry-wide for its expertise in digital audio creative and recently was awarded “Best Audio Campaign” by Digiday for its work with Mindshare and General Mills for their Lucky Charms brand.

As Will shaped the business, people could see his vision for what spoken word and audio were going to mean. The business was launched at Techcrunch Disrupt, and soon after, matter.vc took interest in mentoring Will to help scale the business. 
‍
Soon after that, the company signed its first ten media publishers to create and produce audio, and SpokenLayer was off to the races. When Apple added SpokenLayer’s product into the podcast platform, more publishers signed on as they saw this as a huge distribution source for their content.
‍
In 2017, SpokenLayer joined Betaworks Voice Camp, and that year was a real inflection point for the company. As voice assistants from Amazon and Google became prevalent, the need for audio content to surface on these devices became huge. SpokenLayer immediately became the de facto audio factory publishers turned to to produce content and distribute it to smart speakers and beyond. It was also then that the company solidified its position as the leader in short-form, spoken word audio, as this content length and type played well on these devices.

In 2019, the company raised its Series A, with Beasley Media Group, Guardian Media Group Ventures, North Base Media, and Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) participating as lead investors in the round. Later that year, the company hired Andy Lipset, a veteran in the digital audio ecosystem, as its Chief Executive Officer, with Will transitioning into the Chief Strategy Officer position. Soon after, Jeff O’Connell was brought in as the company’s Chief Technology Officer, after building audio and video platforms over his entire career.
‍
Today, the company continues that focus on short-form, spoken word digital audio. We create and produce over 1000 pieces of content every week, for over 100 different media brands from the Economist, Time, Men’s Health, the LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Chicago Tribune. In addition, we now service major advertisers and brands such as Verizon, Starbucks, State Farm, and Audible. The company has been recognized industry-wide for its expertise in digital audio creative and recently was awarded “Best Audio Campaign” by Digiday for its work with Mindshare and General Mills for their Lucky Charms brand.