Today’s guest is an incredible leader building an incredible company. Patrick Spence is the CEO of Sonos ($SONO), a $3.5 billion dollar hardware audio company. Before Sonos, Patrick spent 13 years at Research in Motion (Blackberry) ultimately running global sales. He has overseen growth at massive scale and battled in a land of giants; taking on Apple and Google and Microsoft and Qualcomm. And at Sonos he continues to wage war in a world of giants, competing against the likes of Apple, Google, and Amazon. Sonos is a great business and brand and Patrick tells us the story and looks into the future so I hope you enjoy it. 

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You can also listen right here on the blog:

Guest: Patrick Spence

Profile: CEO of Sonos

Where to Find Him: LinkedIn, Twitter

What’s Marc Panicked About?: People listening to bad audio.

The Big Ideas:

Patrick is a big believer in ‘it’s more about what you do to yourself than what others do to you’. It is one of the many lessons he learned at Blackberry. He also experienced the classic innovator’s dilemma often faced by many companies large and small; are we a hardware or software company? It was a pivotal moment that shaped the way he thinks today. What you’re doing today may not be the thing you’re doing in the future. It takes special people to build stuff where you’re putting hardware and software together. You need the ability to innovate, and continue to innovate, year after year, especially as a startup looking for escape velocity against the Big Tech giants. 

Culture is what ultimately creates a company that will endure. Intentional flexibility with a distributed workforce is what has allowed Sonos to stay steady during the pandemic and avoid losing talent through the Great Resignation. We’re in a period where people are reevaluating their lives and want to come work for a company and build products they can be proud of.

Show Notes:

• (00:49) – Intro
• (04:42) – Welcome Patrick
• (07:14) – Taking the reins at Sonos
• (10:46) – The background on Blackberry
• (09:05) – Innovators Dilemma – Lessons from Blackberry
• (25:04) – Taking on Big Tech
• (26:59) – Hitting escape velocity 
• (29:47) – Peter Lynch – Buying what you know
• (30:43) – Partnering with IKEA
• (37:17) – Partnerships and Collaboration
• (41:01) – Tackling the Supply Chain
• (42:50) – Remote work and company culture
• (46:08) – Wrapping up
• (47:46) – Closing thoughts