Along with their earlier success with, the founders had a few big advantages: a reputation for technical expertise, an extensive network of great executives, engineers and designers, an eye for talent – and a bold vision that inspired the daring. It’s worth asking how a no-name, long-shot company like Sonos could attract such world-class talent. Sonos opened its second office in Cambridge – with a promise to never view one office as more of a headquarters than the other. Schulert felt the same affections for Boston as the founders had for Santa Barbara. The second step was recruiting singular talent-which took about as long. Their first step was to translate what they imagined onto paper.Īccording to Cullen, it took about three months and looked like this: This very basic sketch, though updated and enhanced in multiple directions, remains part of the foundation of Sonos products today. Undaunted, the founders went to work scoping out their vision and seeking uniquely great talent to join them. The top Internet service provider in 2002 was still America Online via dial-up, and fewer than 16 million U.S. Pandora, iTunes, Spotify, and the rest of today’s leaders in music streaming services did not exist, nor did the iPhone. Whiste the original Napster had risen and fallen as a means to find music online to play on the personal computer, digital music was still new, and the idea of streaming music directly from the Internet was far-fetched. In 2002, great music in the home meant wires hidden behind bookshelves and furniture, connecting to speakers the size of bongo drums audio jacks plugged into the right holes on the backs of receivers and players physical media primarily in the forms of compact discs and tapes - and if you wanted a multi-room experience, an afternoon (or weekend) drilling through walls to snake wires from a central receiver to speakers throughout your home. The next great start-up involving music and technology would take root between the global hubs of both more than 90 miles from Los Angeles, and more than 250 miles from Silicon Valley. The one problem, in 2002: Almost none of the necessary technology existed to achieve that. The vision was simple: Help music lovers play any song anywhere in their homes. This became the opportunity to apply their unique talents, resources, and insights. That idea did not generate the enthusiasm John had anticipated, so it was back to the drawing board.īut that drawing board soon became filled with inspiration from the four friends’ mutual love of music, and mutual frustration with the pain of storing hundreds of CDs, dealing with the tangled spaghetti of stereo and speaker wires, and enduring the expense of custom home wiring for multi-room listening experiences. The notion was an offering to enable local-area networks (or LANs) for aeroplanes, with passenger services provided within them. John’s first pitch to his three partners was actually around aviation. With all of their experience, resources and insight, the four founders naturally turned to music in the home, and… With first-ever details, what follows is the story of how. What are the frustrations and failures they experienced on the journey? Are there larger lessons to be learned? The story of what Sonos did and is doing might be familiar to many. They hired an amazing team who built amazing products from scratch, and music devotees all over the world found a new brand to fall in love with. Fuelled with the insight earned from success in the first phase of Internet-based business-building, they chose as their next mission a new way to bring music to every home - wirelessly, in multiple rooms, from PCs and the Internet, with awesome sound. Its four founders - John MacFarlane, Tom Cullen, Trung Mai, and Craig Shelburne - conjured a daring vision based on technology that didn't exist at the time. The story of Sonos might seem like that, from a distance. Hero-entrepreneur dreams up a great idea, finds a sidekick or two to help it come alive, clashes with and defeats the entrenched incumbent, and rides to glory as the credits roll. Fans of business success stories know the familiar arc they follow…
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