We interview founders of billion-dollar companies in a 60-minute deep dive to find out how they were able to build a business of this scale, to give our audience access to the knowledge that built their fortune.
Shazam Founder: The ‘Impossible’ Business That We Sold To Apple: Chris Barton | Unicorn Podcast E3
Chris Barton is a well-respected entrepreneur and one of the masterminds behind the music recognition app, Shazam. Shazam was created in London over 20years ago and caught the interest of Apple who went on to purchase the technology for a speculated $400 million in 2017. The app is now among the most popular apps on both iPhone and Android with over 1 billion downloads to date.
Chris’ career also includes companies such as Google where he worked for 8 years and Dropbox, where he held the position of head of mobile operators' business development. He has collected a wealth of knowledge and experience through his journey to make him a leading entrepreneur within the digital field and more specifically, mobile applications. He is now embarking on creating a new startup focused on machine learning and computer vision.
In today’s special episode of The Unicorn Podcast, Chris tells his story of building software that was so ahead of it’s time, as well as giving you all the highs and lows of his career, so you have the knowledge you need to replicate his success for yourself.
"Things take longer than you expect. You hit different hurdles and unknown things happen. Early revenue in your business is like oxygen. Make revenue for your business a priority from day one. If I had realised how important that was, even if it meant delaying my main vision, it would have been a better route to take."
Topics:
How Chris became an entrepreneur
Chris’ unconventional start-up approach
Shazam - How it went from an idea to a reality
Shazam - Finding an engineer to ‘invent’ the technology
Shazam - The four co-founders and their partnership dynamic
Shazam - Allocating job roles
Shazam - Raising funding
Persistence + Timing
Hiring CEO’s + getting out of your own way
Chris’ new company ‘Guard’
Apple’s acquisition of Shazam
What is it like after selling a company?
Why Guard?
One piece of advice to your younger self
Chris Barton:
https://chrisjbarton.com/
📚 FOR MORE HELP START HERE: https://purposefulproject.com
26 Apr 2022
The £1 Bet That Turned Into A Billion-Dollar Company: John Roberts | Unicorn Podcast E2
John Roberts is the Founder and CEO of AO World, the online retailer specialising in household appliances and electricals. AO operates following John’s two personal mottos of ‘treat every customer like your gran’ and ‘make your mum proud’, which has allowed the company to attain more 5* reviews than any other electrical retailer.
John started AO in 2000 after a friend bet him £1 to set up a business. He had previously been working as a kitchen salesman, and the internet was just reaching mainstream utility, so he decided to set up a company that would sell appliances online. In 2014, Roberts led AO World’s listing on the London Stock Exchange, valued at the time at £1.2 billion.
John has also supported Bolton Lads and Girls Club for 25 years, he’s a chairman at OnSide Youth Zones and a councillor at OneYoungWorld. Each of these organisations supports young people and aligns with John’s mission to leave the world a better place. In this episode, John gives us an in-depth insight into his life and career, as well as what it takes to build a billion-dollar company.
“Be really clear about what it is that you’re going to do, and be awesome at it. Obsess about being awesome, and be clear on what problems you’re solving because If you’re going to be average at it… Well, there's a lot of average in the graveyard.”
Topics:
John’s early life
The importance of learning
Relationships and treating people fairly
The £1 bet
Why being interesting is everything
Taking AO public
The Metaverse/Web 3.0
John Roberts: https://twitter.com/johnrobertsao
AO: https://twitter.com/ao
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