TuneIn CEO's tips for entrepreneurs
(MoneyWatch) TuneIn is a service for listening to music, sports and news on actual radio stations around the globe, with over 40 million monthly active listeners and more than 70,000 AM, FM, HD and Internet radio stations. Their latest feature, TuneIn Live, allows their listeners to customize what they want to listen to. Now TuneIn users can tune-in to stations around the world and discover new favorites. CEO John Donham tells us why he decided to leave "a dream come true" position to work with TuneIn.
Rebecca Jarvis: What's your 30-second elevator pitch?
John Donham: When you get in your car and turn on the radio, you probably have about 70 choices. When you turn on TuneIn, you have over 70,000. We bring you all the world's radio with music, news, talk, sports, and play-by-play from every continent -- for free on your smartphone, tablet, or via tunein.com.
RJ: What inspired you to join TuneIn?
JD: Nearly every person on the planet consumes radio, yet it hasn't moved online yet. Radio is a medium that nearly everyone is passionate about and can fill so many different needs from information to entertainment, yet the interface to this medium fundamentally hasn't changed since it was invented, nearly 100 years ago. It is an incredibly exciting and humbling opportunity to unleash the power of this medium as it moves online.
RJ: What did you do prior to TuneIn?
JD: I am passionate about entertainment. At Playdom (now a part of Disney), I ran all product and technology and our goal was to entertain tens of millions through engaging games. Disney has the best IP in the world, and social games have an incredible reach -- the combination of the two was a dream come true. It took an opportunity like TuneIn to pull me away from that.
RJ: What is your number one piece of advice to entrepreneurs?
JD: Too many people focus on the wrong problems, and give up on the hard problems too early. The top problem for any startup can be summed up as product-market fit. Does anyone care about your product? And when they don't (and trust me, the first time, they won't), how do you create a work environment where your team is learning and iterating incredibly fast? My number one piece of advice then: Don't presume you are right -- instead, presume the opposite: Prove yourself wrong as fast as you can.
RJ: If you could ask one person for a piece of advice, who and what would you ask?
JD: The answer to this question changes every minute of every day.
RJ: Are you hiring? How do you get hired by a startup?
JD: Yes, we're growing like crazy and are hiring across every group. Check out tunein.com/careers to see what I mean. We're always looking for really smart people who are passionately motivated to make a difference. At TuneIn, there's always a chance to make a meaningful contribution to a product that is changing the way millions of people enjoy their music, news and sports.
For more on TuneIn visit their website.
