Gimlet Media didn’t make podcasting, but they certainly helped popularize it. Now with their acquisition by Spotify, they will help paywall it. It’s a shame, but it is also a trajectory which was predictable from the first episodes of the Startup podcast. Like so many internet companies, the tie to venture capital meant that it wasn’t enough to make money, even serious money, as Gimlet obviously did. It had to make VC-sized returns and be acquired for a VC-sized payout.