The Metrics Brother Hiatus

We’ve decided, after 122 episodes, to put The Metrics Brothers podcast on hiatus. Let me explain how I think about that decision.

On October 20, 1974, the Grateful Dead played what was then billed as their final show before an indefinite hiatus. The band was burned out. The touring operation had grown so large that they were increasingly touring to support the machinery of touring itself. It was time for a break. To rethink and regroup.

That’s roughly where Ray and I are with The Metrics Brothers today. While we’re not operating at quite the same scale (and our listeners wear far less tie-dye), the show does have an audience that could fill Madison Square Garden.

We’d rather pause at the top. Our numbers have never been better. We built a sizable audience, sustained strong listening and engagement rates, and regularly charted in the Top 25–50 in the Apple Podcasts Management category. More importantly, we successfully pivoted the show from SaaS metrics into discussions about AI and the changing nature of the software business.

But that pivot also raised the bar. The newer AI-focused episodes demanded more prep, more research, and more spirited brotherly disagreement. At one point, I’m pretty sure Ray left a horse head on my pillow over an argument about agentic workflows. Well, at least, I hope that was Ray.

Podcasts are a treadmill. The weekly cadence is relentless, particularly when you’re trying to produce something thoughtful. What started as a fun hobby slowly acquired deadlines, obligations, production schedules, and all the other characteristics of work.

On my end, the biggest casualty was Kellblog: my posting rate fell by roughly half in 2025 as a direct consequence of the podcast.

So What’s Next?

Ray is writing his own post on what he’ll do going forward. Though when he talks about spending time in “the big house,” I hope he’s referring to a quaint B&B somewhere in Vermont. How’d that tax audit end up, anyway?

As for me, I’ll largely be doing more of the same: working with the Balderton Capital portfolio, serving on my four boards, and helping my advisory clients navigate CXO, strategy, positioning, and go-to-market challenges.

I’ll also be putting more time back into writing — particularly now that I’ve finally completed the migration off WordPress. Writing posts is fun again, thanks to Ghost.

We’d like to offer a huge thanks to everyone who spent time with us across 122 episodes of enterprise software nerdery. Hopefully we provided some useful perspective — and maybe a little laughter — about SaaS, metrics, AI, and the strange evolution of the software industry.

Our most underappreciated content was our 50th-episode Car Talk-style credits. Our Italian growth marketing specialist was Anita Mopipa, our sales productivity expert was Carrie Akwota, our M&A roll-up strategist was Tucker Inn, and our PE financing analyst was Lee Verup. Where was the love? We were operating at NPR-adjacent levels of sophistication here.

Let me conclude by discussing our greatest failure: despite Ray’s many lavish, expense-paid trips to Schenectady, we were never able to land Katie O’Byrnes Irish Pub as our primary sponsor. Though, to be fair, a suspicious amount of Guinness was reported missing during the negotiations.

The hiatus announcement episode is here.

Thanks again to everyone. If you have thoughts on The Metrics Brothers or ideas about what we should do next, please leave them in the comments.