(BNS) John Borthwick Of Betaworks
John Borthwick on Betaworks shares his journey from a tech-savvy youth to a prominent figure in the New York City tech scene. He discusses his early experiences with computers, the transformative impact of the World Wide Web, and the vibrant tech culture of the 90s. Borthwick reflects on his role in creating Total New York, the lessons learned from the AOL acquisition, and the challenges faced during the dot-com bubble burst. He also highlights the rise of social media platforms like Photolog and the evolution of BetaWorks as a hub for innovation, particularly in the AI space. Throughout the discussion, Borthwick emphasizes the importance of creativity, constraints, and the ever-changing landscape of technology.
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Building Anchor, selling to Spotify, and lessons learned | Maya Prohovnik (Spotify’s Head of Podcast Product)
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Maya Prohovnik is currently Spotify’s Head of Podcast Product. She was employee #1 at Anchor, which was acquired by Spotify in 2019 and now powers more than 80% of all new podcasts created in the world. In 2023, Maya was named one of the Most Important People in Podcasting by The Hollywood Reporter. In today’s episode, we discuss:• How Maya operationalizes “dogfooding”• How to balance data-driven decision-making and intuition• Strategies for preserving startup culture in a large organization• Tactical tips to improve at public speaking• How Radical Candor and the Eisenhower matrix transformed her approach to managing people• What’s next at Spotify for Podcasters
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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-anchor-selling-to-spotify
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Where to find Maya Prohovnik:
• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@mayafish
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayaprohovnik/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Maya’s background
(04:34) Spotify’s podcasting platform
(06:24) Maya’s personal podcasts
(11:36) The importance of “dogfooding”
(13:24) How Maya operationalizes dogfooding
(16:31) How to balance data-driven decision-making and trusting your gut
(21:38) Building Anchor 2.0
(26:24) The beginning of Anchor’s hockey stick growth
(28:08) How Anchor utilized interns to make the Apple Podcasts integration “magical”
(35:36) Anchor and Spotify’s successful integration
(37:50) Maintaining a startup culture within a large organization
(39:20) Transitioning from a startup to a large company
(42:02) Challenges brought on by the acquisition
(48:49) How Maya’s leadership approach is guided by Radical Candor
(51:53) The Eisenhower matrix for prioritization and task management
(52:46) Productivity tips
(55:10) How to get better at public speaking
(59:38) The future of Spotify for Podcasters
(1:00:58) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• What is “Dogfooding”?: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/business/dogfooding.html
• The Derry Connection: A Stephen King Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ixSiYlj3A9NqEXZDBgycf
• Blood on Their Hands: A Big Brother Fancast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4VP16lTL8sUniQXCFeBInv
• Time Share: A Children of Time Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/38yhl2lNOUajccfsdluh5j
• The End of the World as We Know It: A First-Time Parenting Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3TUr0LxcueYo2nvnyR5rML
• Forgotify (stream Spotify songs that have never been played): https://forgotify.com/
• Michael Mignano on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mignano/
• Lessons from scaling Spotify: The science of product, taking risky bets, and how AI is already impacting the future of music | Gustav Söderström (Co-President, CPO, and CTO at Spotify): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/lessons-from-scaling-spotify-the-science-of-product-taking-risky-bets-and-how-ai-is-already-impacting-the-future-of-music-gustav-soderstrom-co-president-cpo-and-cto-at-spotify/
• Radical Candor: https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Candor-Revised-Kick-Ass-Humanity/dp/1250235375
• What is the Eisenhower matrix?: https://www.figma.com/resource-library/what-is-the-eisenhower-matrix/
• Todoist: https://todoist.com/
• Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0143126563/
• Spotify for Podcasters: https://podcasters.spotify.com/
• Children of Time: https://www.amazon.com/Children-Time-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/0316452505
• It: https://www.amazon.com/Novel-Stephen-King/dp/1982127791/
• Poker Face on Peacock: https://www.peacocktv.com/stream-tv/poker-face
• Barbie on Prime: https://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Margot-Robbie/dp/B0CB1TMKR6
• Deadly Games: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096741/
• 1-800 Contacts: https://www.1800contacts.com/
• Lovevery: https://lovevery.com/
• CoopCrate: https://www.coopcratechickens.com/
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
20VC: Betaworks' John Borthwick on Why The VC Model Is So Inefficient, Why Venture Fund Cycles Are Too Short & Why Frontier Tech Could Only Have Been Disappointing Over The Last Year
John Borthwick is the Founder & CEO @ Betaworks, the New York-based startup platform combining 3 areas of expertise. They have a studio where they have built products including Giphy, Dots, Bitly and more. They have a fund with prior investments including Tumblr, Medium and Kickstarter. Finally they have a camp, a thematic accelerator program for companies in frontier technology sectors. As for John, Prior to Betaworks, John was an SVP at Time Warner Inc following John's previous company, WP-Studio, being acquired by AOLTW.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How John made his way from AOL and Time Warner to founder of Betaworks?
2.) Why is John skeptical of the traditional VC model? Why does John believe that the market has adapted but the VC model has not?
3.) Why does John believe fund cycles are simply too short, in the same school of thought as Matt Ocko @ Data Collective? What are the problems with this?
4.) How does John evaluate Fred Wilson's post on the consumer downturn? Why does John think we are addicted to short term rapid fire hits?
5.) Why is John not surprised that AI, Bots, VR and AR are being 'labeled a disappointment for the last year? What does he think will be the catalyst for their rise?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
John's Fave Book: King Lear
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and John on Twitter here!
Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
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Recode Decode: Betaworks CEO and co-founder John Borthwick
John Borthwick, CEO of the "startup studio" Betaworks, tells Peter Kafka why mobile apps still rule, why he's still bullish on Twitter user growth and more. Later, Lauren Goode and Kara Swisher talk TV streaming, and Kurt Wagner unpacks the daily fantasy controversy.
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20 VC 079: BETAWORKS WEEK: East vs West Coast Investing with Peter Rojas, EIR @ Betaworks, Co-Founder @ Weblogs & Engadget
Peter Rojas is an entrepreneur-in-residence at betaworks focusing on early stage investments. Prior to joining betaworks he was VP of Strategy at AOL. He also co-founded several startups, including Weblogs Inc (with previous guest Jason Calacanis) (acquired by AOL in 2005), where he created tech sites Engadget and Joystiq; he also created gdgt, a social commerce platform (acquired by AOL in 2013); and gadget blog Gizmodo (now part of Gawker Media). Previously Rojas worked as an editor at the original Red Herring, a columnist on emerging technology for The Guardian, a contributor to Wired, The New York Times, Fortune, Money, and many more.
One of Betaworks investments on the west coast is the amazing ProductHunt, and you must check out ProductHunt’s new podcast section, which is the best discovery platform for finding new and amazing podcast episodes!
Also, would you like the chance to win a signed copy of Venture Deals by Brad Feld? All you have to do is leave a review on iTunes and then email harry@thetwentyminutevc.com with the name that you left the review under!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) From tech blogger and entrepreneur to founding Engadget, and then a product person and now at Betaworks. Peter gives a snapshot of his career so far?
2.) What is Peter doing on the West Coast when Betaworks is based in NYC? How do you compare the two technology environments and ecosystems?
3.) What is involved in being EIR at Betaworks? Why has this position become so popular over the last few years?
4.) How does Peter and Betaworks approach the changing world of seed and as I have seen recently, pre seed investments? Do you have any set metrics that you stick to? What KPIs are always the first ones you look at?
5.) What VCs does Peter admire and look to emulate?
6.) What has Peter learnt from his 1st month in venture? What has been the biggest surprises and challenges about the industry?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Productivity Tools: Reeder
Peter's Fave Blogs or Newsletter: Jason Hirschhorn: REDEF, ProductHunt
Peter's Fave Book: Antifragile
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Peter on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side of Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
20 VC 078: BETAWORKS WEEK: Matt Hartman, Director of Seed Investments @ Betaworks
Matt Hartman is director of seed investments at betaworks. Prior to joining betaworks, he was co-founder of ReferBoost, a profitable b2b company in the real estate and social media space, and JustBecause, a mobile app used by Uber, Birchbox, Jackthreads, and other e-commerce companies for customer acquisition. He started his career building the technology platform for Trammell Crow Company (acquired by CBRE) before joining Hot Potato (acquired by Facebook).
In this interview with Matt we talk about one of Betaworks investments in ProductHunt and I would love to direct you all to go check out ProductHunt’s new podcast section, it’s the best way to find new and amazing podcast episodes, check it out!
To win a signed copy of Venture Deals by Brad Feld? All you have to do is leave a review on iTunes and then email harry@thetwentyminutevc.com with the name that you left the review under!
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How you has Matt ended up at the amazing Betaworks, what was his career pre-Betaworks?
2.) How does Matt define betaworks and his role in particular in the Betaworks organisation? What makes this model the most effective and successful in Matt's view?
3.) How does Matt believe the structure of social networks alters user behavior and therefore impacts distribution? How do social networks include habit forming behaviours to ensure user retention on their networks?
4.) What does Matt think makes a strong community? What was it about ProductHunt that signaled to you this was the beginning of a rapidly growing community?
5.) With Betaworks investment in Gimlet Media, how does Matt see the future of podcasting? Does investing in Gimlet not break the rule that it has to be a potentially $bn exit?
6.) Question from Ryan Hoover, Founder at ProductHunt: ‘What product or app has impressed Matt the most in the past year and what really gets Matt excited when trying new products both as an investor and as a user’?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Most Read Blog or Newsletter: Founder's Notebook by David Jaxson
Matt's Favourite Book: The Psychology of Pursuasion by Robert Cialdini
Matt's Fave Productivity Apps: Drafts
Most Recent Investment: Disruptive Multimedia by Ryan Leslie
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Matt on Twitter here!
If you would like to see a more colourful side to Harry with many a mojito session, you can follow him on Instagram here!
Product Hunt Radio Episode 16 w/ Matt Hartman, Maya Prohovnik, & Brian Donohue
During my trip to NYC I swung into betaworks HQ to meet a few distant product hunting Twitter friends in the flesh. Matt Hartman (Investments at betaworks), Maya Prohovnik (Community at betaworks), and Brian Donohue (Builder at Instapaper) join me to chat about emojis, GIFs, podcast apps, and also surprised me with a 3D printed Ryan. Looks just like me (http://instagram.com/p/qSOR2jD9f1/)! Listen in. Products mentioned: - Instapaper (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/instapaper) - Save articles to Read Later - Giphy Chrome Extension (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/giphy-chrome-extension) - Respond to emails, tweets & more w/ GIFs in a jiffy - Structure.io (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/structure) - 3D Sensor for iOS - Yo (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/yo) - A simple app to say "yo" to friends. - Yo, Postcard (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/postcards-yo) - "Yo" your friends via snail mail - Get Shitter (http://www.getshitter.com/) - Tweets on toilet paper - Ultratext (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/ultratext) - Type-to-create interface for GIF creation in seconds - Giphy Chrome Extension (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/giphy-chrome-extension) - Respond to emails, tweets & more w/ GIFs in a jiffy - Gif Yourself (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/gif-yourself) - Add your face to a gif - Emojili (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/emojili) - The emoji-only network (pre-launch) - Emoji Dick (http://www.emojidick.com/) - Moby Dick in emojis - Picturelife 3.0 (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/picturelife-2) - The smart home for photos - Launch Center Pro (http://contrast.co/launch-center-pro/) - Speed dial for everyday tasks on iOS - Overcast (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/overcast-podcast-player) - The powerful, simple podcast app from Marco Arment - Quibb (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/quibb) - Professional network to share industry news and analysis - Knozen (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/knozen) - Rate & share personalities w/ co-workers anonymously - Pushbullet (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/pushbullet) - Send files, links, and more to your phone and back, fast! - LokLok (http://www.producthunt.com/posts/loklok) - Messenger app that works right on the lockscreen