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

... we were obsessed with reducing friction. This was, like, our constant battle. And so we hired a couple of college interns and we, (laughs) brought them in and we were like, "People are gonna push, push this magical one button in the Anchor app and they're gonna say, 'I want to distribute my podcast,' and your job is gonna be to do all that same manual stuff manually. But to them, it's gonna feel magical and like it happened automatically." I, I still don't know how many people know this. I think people think that we had some secret door, like, backdoor deal with, with Apple for distribution, but we, uh, we just had college students (laughs) making Apple Podcast accounts and then submitting, like, hundreds of thousands of podcasts through these accounts. And I think that was a really big part of why we got so much hosting market share so quickly, because it was such an insane benefit over the other platforms, which otherwise had been, sort of, commoditized at that point.

(instrumental music) Welcome to Lenny's Podcast, where I interview world class product leaders and growth experts to learn from their hard won experiences building and growing today's most successful products. Today my guest is Maya Prohovnik. Maya is Spotify's head of product for podcasting, where she oversees product design and engineering teams responsible for building the tools and experiences for podcasters and their listeners. Maya was also employee number one at Anchor, which Spotify acquired about five years ago, which became the core of Spotify's podcasting hosting platform, which now powers over 75% of all new podcasts created in the world. In our conversation, we dig into why Maya is obsessed with dogfooding and why she encourages everyone on her team to create their own podcast. She's got four podcasts of her own, which are all very highly rated and people love. We dig into how she stays productive and organized in a very hectic senior leadership role, what she's done to allow for Anchor to continue to operate like a startup within a larger organization, also a bunch of really fun early Anchor stories, including how interns uploaded podcasts to Apple and Spotify manually before they could automate that, plus how to find a balance between using your gut and using data to make decisions. Also, public speaking tips, so much more. Maya's amazing and I'm really excited for you to hear this episode. With that, I bring you Maya Prohovnik after a short word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Sidebar. Are you looking to land your next big career move or start your own thing? One of the most effective ways to create a big leap in your career, and something that worked really well for me a few years ago, is to create a personal board of directors, a trusted peer group where you can discuss challenges you're having, get career advice, and just kind of gut check how you're thinking about your work, your career, and your life. This has been a big trajectory changer for me, but it's hard to build this trusted group. With Sidebar, senior leaders are matched with highly vetted, private, supportive peer groups to lean on for unbiased opinions, diverse perspectives, and raw feedback. Everyone has their own zone of genius, so together we're better prepared to navigate professional pitfalls, leading to more responsibility, faster promotions, and bigger impact. Guided by world class programming and facilitation, Sidebar enables you to get focused, tactical feedback at every step of your journey. If you're a listener of this podcast, you're likely already driven and committed to growth. A Sidebar personal board of directors is the missing piece to catalyze that journey. Why spend a decade finding your people when you can meet them at Sidebar today? Jump the growing wait list of thousands of leaders from top tech companies by visiting sidebar.com/lenny to learn more. That's sidebar.com/lenny. This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio. Your agency has just landed a dream client, and you already have big ideas for the website, but do you have the tools to bring your ambitious vision to life? Let me tell you about Wix Studio, the new platform that lets agencies deliver exceptional client sites with maximum efficiency. How? First, let's talk about advanced design capabilities. With Wix Studio, you can build unique layouts with a revolutionary grid experience and watch as elements scale proportionally by default. No code animations add sparks of delight while adding custom CSS gives total design control. Bring ambitious client projects to life with any industry with a fully integrated suite of business solutions, from e-commerce to events, bookings, and more. And extend the capabilities even further with hundreds of APIs and integrations. You know what else? Their workflows just make sense. There's the built-in AI tools, the on-canvas collaborating, a centralized workspace, the reuse of assets across sites, a seamless client handover, and that's not all. Find out more at wix.com/studio. Maya, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the podcast.