The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Sonos CEO Patrick Spence on His Biggest Lessons Building and Growing Blackberry, The Right Way to View Competition and Innovation Cycles & How To Make The Transition From COO To CEO Most Effectively


Listen Later

Patrick Spence is the CEO @ Sonos, the sound experience company connecting millions of listeners around the world to the content they want. Prior to their IPO, they raised over $450M from the likes of Mike Volpi @ Index, Satish @ Redpoint and e.ventures to name a few. As for Patrick, prior to Sonos, he spent an incredible 14 years with RIM (makers of Blackberry) across multiple different roles.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How Patrick made his way into the world of tech and startups and became an instrumental part of the exec team at Blackberry? How that led to his joining Sonos as COO and later becoming CEO?

2.) How did building and growing RIM influence everything that Patrick does at Sonos? From the battle with Apple, what were Patrick's biggest lessons on the right way to approach competition? How does Patrick think about both partnering with Google today whilst also suing them at the same time?

3.) From COO to CEO: How did Patrick make the transition from COO to CEO so successfully? What were the most challenging elements to scale into? How does Patrick empower his team to have the confidence to stand up and say no to the CEO? How can one encourage debate and dissent in the team?

4.) How does Patrick feel about the role that vulnerability has to play in leadership? How does Patrick approach his own self-doubt as a leader today? How does he manage it? How does he advise founders unsure if they can scale into their leadership roles? What mentors does Patrick have? What has he learned from them?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode

Patrick’s Favourite Book: The Infinite Game: How Great Businesses Achieve Long-Lasting

As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The PitchBy Harry Stebbings

  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4

4.4

484 ratings


More shows like The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

View all
This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

This Week in Startups

1,280 Listeners

a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

a16z Podcast

1,060 Listeners

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors by SaaStr

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

172 Listeners

Equity by TechCrunch, Rebecca Bellan, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, Max Zeff, Theresa Loconsolo

Equity

339 Listeners

Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

223 Listeners

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

9,502 Listeners

Grit by Kleiner Perkins

Grit

192 Listeners

ACQ2 by Acquired by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

ACQ2 by Acquired

267 Listeners

The Logan Bartlett Show by by Redpoint Ventures

The Logan Bartlett Show

189 Listeners

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

134 Listeners

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

464 Listeners

AI + a16z by a16z

AI + a16z

31 Listeners

Lightcone Podcast by Y Combinator

Lightcone Podcast

19 Listeners

Training Data by Sequoia Capital

Training Data

40 Listeners

Uncapped with Jack Altman by Alt Capital

Uncapped with Jack Altman

41 Listeners