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Maya Prohovnik

1 episode

Episodes

Building Anchor, selling to Spotify, and lessons learned | Maya Prohovnik (Head of Podcast Product)

Sep 28, 20231h 7m

Guest: Maya Prohovnik - Head of Podcast Product at Spotify. Maya was employee number one at Anchor, which Spotify acquired and turned into a leading podcasting platform, now powering over 75% of all new podcasts globally. Key Takeaways: Dogfooding Importance: Maya emphasizes the importance of dogfooding, encouraging her team to create their own podcasts to better understand user needs and improve product development. Balancing Data and Gut: While data is crucial, Maya believes in treating gut feelings as a type of data, advocating for a balance between quantitative insights and intuitive decision-making. Building Unscalable Solutions: Early on, Anchor used college interns to manually distribute podcasts to platforms, creating a seamless user experience that significantly boosted growth. Successful Integration Post-Acquisition: Anchor maintained its startup culture within Spotify by staying aligned with Spotify’s mission, building strong internal relationships, and adapting to strategic shifts. Public Speaking Tips: Maya suggests reframing anxiety as adrenaline, practicing extensively, and ensuring genuine passion for the topic to improve public speaking skills. Topics Covered: Dogfooding, data vs. gut decisions, unscalable solutions, post-acquisition integration, public speaking tips, productivity hacks, leadership frameworks.

Notable Quotes

“The biggest problem that I want to solve for podcasters is discovery and audience growth.”

Podcasting

“I think there is something very lacking in our modern lives, that connection to nature.”

Nature and Well-being

“I always tell my team the most important thing is that you're hiring passionate people.”

Hiring