So, some news. Last month I got swept up in the latest round of layoffs at Spotify.
The news was admittedly… surprising. On a Wednesday night, I was celebrating the launch of Spotify Wrapped, in particular the Sound Town feature I co-authored; it was the top trending topic on social that day, garnering coverage in the New York Times. On Monday morning, I learned my time at Spotify was over.
I eventually pieced together what happened. For the past two years, I’d been working on a team with real ambitions for Spotify in the live concert space. Upwards of 70% of this team was let go amidst a change in scope. I’d spent the last few months largely away from the team, focused on shipping Wrapped. I was thus no longer mission-critical, the business vertical I was working on was shut down entirely, and frankly I wouldn’t have been a good fit with the team’s new direction had I stayed.
I’m really proud of the work I did at Spotify. I learned a ton and was able to impact several important initiatives. Among the highlights:
➡️ I was one of the go-to insights practitioners across the company for podcasts, helping grow podcast MAU grew from <10M to >100M and overtake Apple as the world’s leading podcast platform.
➡️ I had the opportunity to present work to the CEO on multiple occasions, and to the rest of the senior management team on many more.
➡️ I created the content valuation methodology used to evaluate hundreds of millions of dollars of investments in podcasts, and personally built the deal models for some of the biggest investments like Spotify’s deal with Joe Rogan.
➡️ I contributed analysis to M&A deals like Spotify’s acquisition of The Ringer.
➡️ I built a team from scratch and hired a bunch of wonderful, talented data scientists.
➡️ I did a wide range of stuff for Spotify’s internal startup dedicated to live concerts: I built predictive models, ran financial simulations, presented to many industry partners, proposed novel business models, and even spent a few months booking concerts.
➡️ I was the data science lead for this year’s Wrapped and co-authored the viral Sound Town feature.
I’d always been a ride-or-die Spotifier, and fully expected to spend 10+ years there, which makes the abrupt end all the more disappointing. That being said, I’m feeling incredibly motivated, and am looking forward to the chance to talk to some amazing companies and find a new home.
If you’d like to help: I’d love an introduction to smart people working on cool stuff where I might be able to lend a hand. I’d also appreciate if you could share this post to increase the odds that the right person sees it! And of course, I’d love to catch up and see what you’re up to, particularly if it’s been a while.
What’s next? I plan on enjoying this Bills playoff run, trying to land tickets to Phish at the Sphere, and heading to the west coast for a while to avoid the worst of the New York winter.
Thanks to all my friends and colleagues for the support. I had a blast!
