YouSaid · the spoken record

Daniel Ek

lines on the record: 215
first: 2025-09-28
most recent: 2025-09-28
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I read it. It was like really seminal for me. So I kind of made that number. I figured to myself I worked really hard. I could get there when I was 40. I was 22 when I got there. And so that wasn't really part of the plan, right? And so I, um,”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And, you know, so I was like, okay, well, now I've got all this money. And, you know, this was my worldview. I can go out in nightclubs and I'm going to be the cool guy. And I had fun for a while. I'll tell you that. But it also was incredibly hollowing because I realized that these girls weren't with me because of me. They were with me because, you know, I had status and I was able to use money to buy status and be a cool guy for a small moment of time. And so that taught me a lot, right? And actually, you know, I kind of walked away for over a year not doing anything at all and just sort of deeply reflecting on life what I wanted to do because for me, you know, I had a magic number. Was 10 million. If I got that number, I would retire. That was the gold. And I was thinking to myself how old.”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, content is the right word. I wasn't happy. So I was content for a moment of time. I was 22. I never had much success with women because it was a computer geek. And back then computers was not the coldest thing in the world.”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You mentioned you thought some people don't go from pack because they're content. When was the last time, like you're definitely not content now, right? So I've gotten to know you once. We've talked for hours and hours and hours, and this is why I wanted you to be the first person to have this conversation with. And I was curious if you could say that. It's like, no, no, I know you have this inner burning desire and fire inside of you, which is. Me, you're outside is like you're very calm, you're very articulate, and you're very polite, but you have that like the same thing I read in these books all the time. It's just like this person had a burning desire to achieve mission success The way I think about it You content after you sold your first company? We were like 22, 23.”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To using AI to make a better experience for their customers and automate as much of your business's finances as possible. In fact, Kareem just wrote this. AI is all I think about these days. It is our duty to be first movers and push limits so we can make the greatest possible product experience for our customers. RAMP uses a combination of craftsmanship and rapid iteration to invent new products for their customers. Many of the fastest growing and most innovative companies in the world are running their business on ramp. Make sure you go to ramp.com to learn how they can help your business save time and money. Let AI chase your receipts and close your books so you can use your time and energy building great things for your customers. Because at the end of the day, that is what this is all about building a product or service that makes someone else's life better. That is what I'm trying to do. That is what Daniel Eck has dedicated his life to doing. And that is what Ramp has done to get started today by going to ramp.com.”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One of the things I admire most about Daniel Eck is his relentless dedication to improving his craft and to improving his product. It's a mission that he's still on nearly two decades later. It'd be impossible to argue that Spotify isn't one of the most well crafted products ever created. And Daniel and his team's dedication to constantly improving their product reminds me a lot of my friend Kareem, who's the co-founder and CTO of Ramp. Kareem was one of the greatest technical mines working in finance. I spent a lot of time talking to Kareem in every single conversation centers around his obsession with crafting a high quality product and using the latest technology to constantly create better experiences for his customers. Kareem and Daniel both believe that nothing is ever good enough and that everything can always be improved. Kareem is running one of the most talented technical teams in finance and they use rapid, relentless iteration to make their product better every day. So far this year Ramp has shipped over three hundred new features. Ramp is completely committed.”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of conversations is about almost reflecting back. It's not about sort of me projecting onto other people what I think they should do, but in listening to Dara, it was just so.”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Can take lessons from other people 100% because some of my stories, some of my conditions, some of the waves, the structures, even how to structure a company, you have to structure differently if you're a European company versus American companies. You have to go back to sort of first principles and kind of find this sort of principled answer to anything and what works for you. And so I've had to kind of self-motivate myself for most of my life. And only, I would say in the last maybe five years, I've come to realize that, you know, in a way, I may be a better coach than I am a player. And so I've kind of understood more and more that actually that sort of drive that intensity is actually something that can be taught. It's not entirely innate. And it's about almost letting people know that that's okay. And so much of that comes from those type of”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've just grown to kind of like self motivate myself constantly. And I think this, by the way, kind of comes from like a much deeper thing, right? Like I came from pretty much what was the project in Sweden. And I was not the normal kid. I was kind of probably a middle of the pack kind of kid, but I certainly stood out. I didn't belong to any social group. There was no social cohesion, et cetera. Sweet, you felt like an outsider even at that age? Oh, yeah. Do you still today? Yeah, every moment in my life, even among other fellow entrepreneurs, I sometimes feel like an outsider because like right now, for instance, you and I were in Silicon Valley. I'm not American. So there's an element of myself where I don't belong to the club. And I've always felt that way. And because I've always felt that way, I've had to.”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And for me, that's my definition of impact. And it's not right there at the moment that I feel that. Actually, many cases, I feel it much longer, but it's when I go back and I reflect on accomplishments or moments of impact, then I feel true happiness. And so...”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I sort of advised him to hey, you should go for this. And that's a far greater thing. And that's going to be far, will lead to much more happiness, not just for you, but also for other people. Did somebody do that for you? Did somebody tell you to optimize for impact over happiness? Or is this just the way you work? I think a self-motivate myself that way. Okay. To do the hard things. You know, like many other people, I'm quite lazy by nature. I try to take the simple road out often enough. But what I've learned has given me the greatest joys is overcoming the biggest adversities and overcoming the biggest adversities usually has been solving a problem of some kind for someone or something that no one else had been able to figure out.”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Only you can define what impact means for you. So I think it means different things for different people. But I do think it's a trailing indicator. So the way I would put it in this case is what was obvious for me with someone like Adara was he was content. He wasn't happy. And he had gone through a phase, knowing him for a while where he had a lot of ups and downs with Expedia and all that stuff. And he kind of mostly figured it out. And so he was content. And I think that in his case, you know, where he was at his life, it was such an obvious thing that he didn't even realize that he'd just grown content. And so for me, you know, Uber is a very special company. And to be even be asked to be the CEO of that and the impact, I knew he could have on that company just felt to me like an obvious thing. And so...”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Can have an impact on Uber, which is a really important company in the world that's shaping the future of cities. And I thought to myself, my God, this is so obvious. I've got to take a shot. I knew it was going to be uncomfortable. Can you just explain how you think about optimizing for impact over happiness and why? Well, first off, it's incredibly kind of Dara to say that. I think about this. I think happiness is a trailing indicator of impact. And I think it can be, you know, you can feel happiness in small bursts and small moments. And you can have a lot of variance in your life. So you can choose to have that part, which is the ups, the downs of life, et cetera. So I'm not saying you can have happiness, but I think truly sustained happiness comes from impact. And impact is something that's deeply personal to you.”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That Daniel's advice changed the career. So I'm going to read something. There was an interview given by the CEO of Uber, who's a friend of yours, Dara. And I'm going to read this excerpt, which was absolutely perfect. And he was talking about contemplating, should I take this job or not? Like, this is a huge opportunity, but also kind of scary. And this is tied to your idea that you should optimize for impact over happiness. I haven't heard anybody else articulate that. And so Dara says, I was reading about all the issues happening with Uber in the news, the various challenges that were coming up there. So when I first got the call to be the CEO, I said, heck no, I'm not crazy. I'm not up for this. But I had one particular conversation that really shifted me, which was with Daniel Eck, who's a good friend. And I still remember I was talking to him about my career at Expedia and how happy I was. And he looks at me and he did this to me too. And he looks at me and he goes, since when is life about happiness? It's about impact.”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, I want to consider this conversation like a continuation of the conversation we had last year in New York. It was by far the most impactful conversation I had the entire year. It is in large part the reason we're sitting down and actually recording this conversation. And what I loved was I thought about how the advice you gave and the stories you told really fundamentally changed my approach to my work and then also like my philosophy of how I'm living my life. And because you, it's very rare. Like this year I'm going to hit over 400 biographies read for the podcast, right? And somebody asked me recently, it's like, do you ever uncover new ideas? It's like, no, I feel like I'm telling the same story, the same personality type over and over and over again. And you'll get a new idea or a novel idea, you know, every once in a while, but certainly not all the time. But you shared something at the dinner that was a truly novel idea. And then a few months later, I read this interview and I was like, oh, I'm not the only.”
2025-09-28 · Founders · My conversation with Daniel Ek: Founder of Spotify · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT