404: The Transcription Challenge: Building Infrastructure That Scales With The World

Jul 18, 2025 27m

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Today we’ll talk about keeping up with an avalanche of audio data and how I built Podscan’s transcription infrastructure.

This episode of The Bootstraped Founder is sponsored by Paddle.com

The blog post: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/the-transcription-challenge-building-infrastructure-that-scales-with-the-world/The podcast episode: https://tbf.fm/episodes/404-the-transcription-challenge-building-infrastructure-that-scales-with-the-world

Check out Podscan, the Podcast database that transcribes every podcast episode out there minutes after it gets released: https://podscan.fmSend me a voicemail on Podline: https://podline.fm/arvid

You'll find my weekly article on my blog: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com

Podcast: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/podcast

Newsletter: https://thebootstrappedfounder.com/newsletter

My book Zero to Sold: https://zerotosold.com/

My book The Embedded Entrepreneur: https://embeddedentrepreneur.com/

My course Find Your Following: https://findyourfollowing.com

Here are a few tools I use. Using my affiliate links will support my work at no additional cost to you.- Notion (which I use to organize, write, coordinate, and archive my podcast + newsletter): https://affiliate.notion.so/465mv1536drx- Riverside.fm (that's what I recorded this episode with): https://riverside.fm/?via=arvid- TweetHunter (for speedy scheduling and writing Tweets): http://tweethunter.io/?via=arvid- HypeFury (for massive Twitter analytics and scheduling): https://hypefury.com/?via=arvid60- AudioPen (for taking voice notes and getting amazing summaries): https://audiopen.ai/?aff=PXErZ- Descript (for word-based video editing, subtitles, and clips): https://www.descript.com/?lmref=3cf39Q- ConvertKit (for email lists, newsletters, even finding sponsors): https://convertkit.com?lmref=bN9CZw

AI-Generated Summary

The Unique Challenge of Scalable Transcription

Arvid discusses the unique challenges faced when building a transcription infrastructure for Potscan, highlighting that unlike typical software businesses, his resources scale with the unpredictable number of new podcast episodes released daily, requiring a robust system designed for this specific workload.

Building the Initial Prototype

He shares the process of creating the initial prototype for Potscan, utilizing the Podcast Index API for data and leveraging an open-source library called Whisper for transcription. He explains that starting small with manageable loads was key as he moved toward a more expansive system.

Managing Transcription Workloads

The episode dives into how he structured his transcription process into a queuing system based on priority levels for different podcasts, ensuring that high-impact episodes are transcribed quickly while managing costs and resources effectively.

Optimizing Infrastructure and Costs

Arvid discusses the exploration of various technologies and cloud computing solutions to find an economical way to handle his transcription needs. He emphasizes the importance of selecting the right type of GPU hardware to maximize performance at a lower cost.

Challenges of Quality and Data Management

He examines the ongoing challenges related to transcription quality, including handling different audio qualities, speaker diorization, and managing vast amounts of data created by transcripts, underlining the necessity of implementing quality checks and optimizing data storage.

Lessons Learned and Future Outlook

Concluding with reflections on the requirements for a successful transcription business, he stresses the creative solutions born from constraints and the importance of adaptability and strategic decisions in infrastructure scaling.