Lenny's Podcast · Sep 28Building Anchor, selling to Spotify, and lessons learned | Maya Prohovnik (Head of Podcast Product)
Anchor 1.0 was a loved voice-messaging app, rebuilt as 2.0 for content creation, and numbers shot up after launch. Rebuilding around RSS and export started hockey stick growth, and interns hand-submitting hundreds of thousands of podcasts to Apple helped it host about 40% of new podcasts by the Spotify acquisition.
Tips
- Fake automation with people to make a one-button feature feel magical▶ 31:14Interns made Apple accounts and submitted hundreds of thousands of podcasts, which Maya credits for much of Anchor's fast hosting market share.
- Build things that don't scale to hack early growth▶ 30:06The manual distribution approach differentiated Anchor from commoditized hosting platforms.
- Leave a well-loved product when it cannot reach your mission▶ 22:15As soon as 2.0 launched, the numbers started shooting up and a wider range of people used it as a replacement for traditional podcast production.
- Don't dismiss the most requested feature even after ignoring users once▶ 27:19The export test marked the start of Anchor's hockey stick growth.
- Hold the mission fixed and treat everything else as changeable▶ 28:51Anchor moved through three versions and kept finding fit before it took off.
- Build for the 80% and not the vocal 20%▶ 24:59
- Answer new ideas with 'yes, and' instead of 'no, because'▶ 32:45
- Stay useful to the acquirer by marketing internally and helping other teams▶ 37:47Spotify's strategy has shifted dozens of times in almost five years, and Anchor stayed relevant through each.
- Keep your startup core values and challenge unnecessary slowdowns▶ 39:58Anchor shipped a new feature every two weeks at the time of acquisition. Spotify's 'small' estimate was about a quarter, versus Anchor never building anything over three months.
- Don't fully isolate an acquired team for a year▶ 42:42
