Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed: Daniel Ek
by Scott Edward Walker on May 23rd, 2012To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.” Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics. This week, we present Daniel Ek, the founder and CEO of Spotify and a brilliant, serial entrepreneur.
In this fascinating interview (courtesy of Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner), Daniel shares a number of solid nuggets and insights, including:
- his definition of an entrepreneur – i.e., “someone who has an itch for a problem and is annoyed enough by that problem to go out and seek a solution”
- the advantage of youth and how naivety allows you to be solution-oriented
- the importance of execution – “It’s really all about execution. Ideas are 5%; execution is 95%.”
- the importance of patience and perseverance – “The one trait that I have is this itch, and I never, ever, ever give up.”
- the effectiveness of testing to get to a “crisp” solution
- management/leadership tips, including the importance of physical presence, the sharing of company information and focusing on 3-5 key, measurable results
- “surround yourself with people smarter than yourself”
- the importance of being obsessed with “the few things that matter” and learning to say “no”
- “hire fast and fire fast”
I hope you enjoy it. Many thanks, Scott
Tags: Daniel Ek, Entrepreneurship Corner, execution, helping entrepreneurs, investor, serial entrepreneur, Spotify, Stanford