- Unheard Roots
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- Unheard Roots of Spotify (PT.1) 🎵
If you listen to any from of music odds are you stream it on Spotify.
The Swedish duo, Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, have revolutionized our relationship with music and our favorite artists.
With that said, how many of us truly know how the $27,000,000,000 company was founded?
If you’re curious about how Spotify came to be and how you can replicate this kind of success, you will want to read this issue.
👨💼 The 14 y/o Business Man 💼
Daniel Ek, the current CEO & Co-founder of Spotify, has a fascinating entrepreneurial story.
The very first business of Daniel was an accidental web design company he founded at 14.
This was 1998 and the internet was starting to boom. The number of businesses with websites was on the rise.
However, there was one major issue. The few web design agencies in the market charged crazy amounts like $50,000 for a single homepage.
One day a business in need of a website approached the 14 year old Daniel Ek and asked him to build their website.
They knew the 14 year old would be substantially cheaper than all the agencies out there.
💵 $10,000 at 14 💵
Despite being tech savvy Daniel had never built a website before. So, he rejected the offer.
If the other guy had left at that moment, there is a chance Daniel might have never ventured into entrepreneurship
Instead, the guy asked Daniel to name his price and the 14 year old, in an attempt to brush the guy off, said $10,000.
Surprisingly, the other guy accepted and Daniel was paid $10,000 at 14 for a simple homepage.
🤑 The Accidental Success 🤑
After building the first website, Daniel got an offer from another business. This time he was adamant about not doing another website.
So when, in an attempt to bargain, the other business asked Daniel to name his price, Daniel gave them an even crazier number like $20,000.
And once again they accepted.
The more websites Daniel did, the more clients he got through word of mouth. Soon enough the 14 year old amateur web designer turned into an entire agency.
🧑💻Selling the Company 💸
As his web design business was taking off, Daniel also tried building a couple of other startups including an alternative to Google but ended up failing with all of them.
After lots of ups and downs including near bankruptcy, Daniel sold his web design agency.
During the acquisition Daniel met a guy called Martin Lorentzon, the entrepreneur that would go on to be the co-founder of Spotify.
Ready to hear about the main adventure?
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Coming this Saturday :)
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