Helping the world listen better with Patrick Spence of Sonos

“The reward for taking out Bose, Panasonic, and Samsung was getting to play against Amazon, Google and Apple.” That’s a common joke at Patrick Spence’s Santa Barbara-based audio giant, Sonos; which is chiefly responsible for the rise of the smart speaker. An HBA ’98 grad, Spence joined the company in 2012 and took over as CEO, five years later. But Sonos wasn’t Spence’s first rodeo in the fast-moving world of consumer electronics. For 14 years, Spence was an integral part of RIM/BlackBerry, serving a number of roles before ultimately becoming the Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing. During that time the company grew from $50 million in revenue to more than $20 billion, and from 150 people to more than 17,000. In this episode, Spence shares lessons from the highs and lows of his career, his philosophy on technology and innovation, Sonos’ legal battles with Google, and the different outlooks of entrepreneurs on both sides of the 49th parallel.