The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

Spotify Founder: “Spotify Was A Stupid Idea!” How A 23 Year Old Shy, Underdog, Introvert, Built A $31 Billion Business! - Daniel Ek

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How to go from the Swedish housing projects to billionaire CEO of Spotify.

In this new episode Steven sits down with the co-founder and CEO of Spotify, Daniel Ek.

Daniel Ek is a Swedish entrepreneur who started his first company in 1997 at just 14 years old. He eventually dropped out of college and founded the online marketing firm, Advertigo, which he sold in 2006 to the Swedish company Tradedoubler at 23 years old. Coming out of early retirement, Daniel founded Spotify alongside Martin Lorentzon in 2006.


In this conversation Daniel and Steven discuss topics, such as:

  • His childhood in a single parent household
  • The importance of his mother in his success
  • Growing up in the Swedish projects
  • Coming from a musical family
  • Overcoming being an introvert
  • His ability to adapt to changing situations
  • Not fitting in when he was growing up
  • How his difference helped in his later success
  • Starting his first company while at school
  • How people worry more about failing then succeeding
  • Why effort can’t always beat talent
  • People not understanding what it’s actually like to be a billionaire
  • How spare time is now his most important currency
  • Why the idea of success through University is outdated
  • What football taught him about business
  • Retiring at 23 years old
  • Why he found being rich and successful depressing
  • How the idea of ‘why-not’ helped to create Spotify
  • Realising that he had approached his career in the wrong way
  • How Spotify nearly collapsed 4 times
  • The importance of culture in organisations
  • Why you should take the risk of betting on yourself


    • Follow Daniel:

    Twitter: https://bit.ly/465g8WM


    Follow me:

    https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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