Welcome to the inaugural episode of Media Unscripted. Who better to kick things off than Aarthi Ramamurthy, Head of International at Clubhouse – the app that is part talkback radio, part conference call and part Houseparty.

The audio-only app experienced a huge boom during the days of the Covid lockdown, at one stage receiving a US$4bn valuation. Since then, downloads have fluctuated, however the numbers are still pretty impressive, and the company recently reported 10 million weekly users.

Aarthi has been brought onboard to build global communities at Clubhouse. Aged just 37 she has already made quite an impact on the tech industry. Aarthi comes from a small village in India, and was recruited by Microsoft a year before she graduated from college, as one of their youngest product managers. She went on to build products such as Xbox LIVE and Netflix’s video streaming software.

Before her new appointment at Clubhouse she was director of product at Facebook where she led communities products, creator monetisation, and digital payments products.

In this interview Aarthi talks about:

· What inspired her to get into tech – and offers advice for women wanting to follow in her footsteps.

· How Clubhouse is challenging gender and racial gaps in technology

· What makes Clubhouse different to other social media platforms and why audio is so inclusive.

· How she went from engineer to creator, as host of the The Good Time Show, arguably the most influential show on Clubhouse, which has featured the likes of Elon Musk and Kanye West

· Those rumours about Clubhouse’s falling numbers

· How Clubhouse plans to monetise its audience

We hope you enjoy this conversation with Aarthi, and if you do, please don't forget to like and subscribe.