[2][3][4] It was launched by Luminary Media LLC, a venture-backed company, that was co-founded in 2018 by Joe Purzycki,[5][4] and Matt Sacks.
Nicholas Quah, writing for Vulture.com, described Luminary's launch week as "horrific",[8] with licensing and permission issues,[8] and other controversies.
[10][11] In May 2020, Bloomberg News called Luminary a "money-losing podcasting startup" with an app that "has struggled to find an audience since its debut in April 2019.
[12] Nicholas Quah, for Nieman Lab, commented that in light of Bloomberg's report "it would seem that Luminary's fundamental problem is that it didn't end up signing anybody who had a powerful enough pull to drive that many paid listeners.
[7] However, after scanning "the company's website before my chat with Malhotra, and nearly all of the shows featured on the front page hadn't posted new episodes in the past six months.