Building Anchor, selling to Spotify, and lessons learned | Maya Prohovnik (Spotify’s Head of Podcast Product)

Brought to you by Sidebar—Catalyze your career with a Personal Board of Directors | Wix Studio—The web creation platform built for agencies | LinkedIn Ads—Reach professionals and drive results for your business—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—Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-anchor-selling-to-spotify—Where to find Maya Prohovnik:• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@mayafish• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayaprohovnik/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—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 E