Sponsorship Opportunity
The Stepchange Show
A podcast about power grids and data centers isn't supposed to go viral. But in its first year, The Stepchange Show grew from a quiet launch to 140,000+ downloads.
“If you like Acquired, you will love Stepchange.”
Ben Gilbert, Co-host, Acquired
About The Stepchange Show
Stepchange tells the stories of human progress through the lens of transformative technologies, systems, and infrastructure. Each episode unpacks a crucial innovation that fundamentally changed how we live, work, and relate to one another.
Each episode is built like a book: we do hundreds of hours of deep research — reading everything we can find about the topic. We interview dozens of experts, and spend weeks synthesizing the core narrative to build a deep appreciation for the episode's topic.
This isn't a weekly news feed. It's a small number of carefully crafted episodes meant to be listened to, shared, and revisited as evergreen material. We produced 3 episodes in our first year (2025), and have plans for 4 episodes in our second year (2026).
The Breakout
The first two episodes — a two-part history of coal — built a foundation of listeners. A small, but highly engaged, audience that served as a proof of concept.
Then in September 2025 we released our third episode, Data Centers: The Hidden Backbone of Our Modern World.
26,000 downloads in the first week. 100,000+ downloads in four months.
The show's trajectory completely changed shape. New listeners arrived and worked backwards through the catalog and the curve kept climbing.
Year 1 of Show Growth
Cumulative downloads across all platforms
Who's Listening
The show's growth has been driven by word of mouth in podcast apps, not algorithmic discovery. 82% of downloads come through direct downloads in podcast apps — people who listen intentionally.
The Stepchange Show audience is made up of leaders in technology and energy:
“Anay and Ben are building a really cool intellectual-historical franchise here.”
Co-Founder, Halcyon
“GOLD standard work to explain how Coal has changed the course of human history.”
Investor, DeVC
“I was instantly hooked. The storytelling was so strong I went straight to Episode 1 and listened to Coal, Part 1 and Part 2. Now I can’t pick a favorite. Each episode moves through time with real momentum, connecting milestones in a way that feels cinematic. Steam. Steel. Silicon. AI. One continuous story of progress.”
Founder & CEO, Internet Subway
“Highly recommend you take the time to listen… It takes the Acquired model and applies it to an industry, not just a single company.”
Co-Founder, Cloverleaf Infrastructure (former Microsoft VP of Energy)
The show is reaching thousands of key decision-makers, builders, and investors in energy and technology.
The Numbers
140K+
Total Downloads
105K+
Latest Episode (127 days)
82%
Via Direct Podcast Apps
Featured
Apple Podcasts New & Noteworthy
2026 Season
We are planning four episodes in 2026. Each raising the quality bar, earning us a growing audience.
Up Next
The season opens with the electrical grid — how we built the machine that powers modern life, and why that machine is now being asked to do things it was never designed to do.
Each episode will continue the Stepchange approach: deep, narrative infrastructure stories designed to be timeless.
Partnership
This is the first time we're opening the show to sponsors. We'll work with no more than four partners this season: one presenting sponsor and three additional sponsors.
Because the inventory is intentionally small, we expect to finalize the season quickly. We're prioritizing partners who genuinely value the kind of work we do.
If you're interested in sponsoring our 2026 season, we would love to chat.
About Ben & Anay
Ben and Anay built their careers scaling companies through inflection points and now they bring that same intensity to storytelling. Alongside producing Stepchange, they actively invest in startups building software to accelerate energy abundance and upgrade critical infrastructure through their fund Stepchange Ventures.
Ben Eidelson founded and sold two companies (to Google and Stripe) and built products used by billions. His engineering background (Stanford BS & MS in Electrical Engineering) gives Stepchange its technical precision: episodes that earn the trust of the most technical listeners.
Anay Shah was an early employee at Remitly (led international expansion through IPO) and an executive at Tala leading a 250-person team through late-stage growth. His work across 15 emerging markets with USAID shapes how Stepchange tells global infrastructure stories and connects systems to the real lives they touch.
They share a conviction that many of the most important stories of our time—energy, infrastructure, the systems that hold civilization together aren't getting the depth they deserve. That conviction, and a shared urgency to improve the world for their kids, is what drives every episode.
Data as of January 2026. Analytics aggregated from Substack/RSS, Spotify, and YouTube.