Spotify founder Daniel Ek on why youth can be an advantage when starting a company

Daniel Ek was 14 when he started his first company, and 23 when he started Spotify.

In the clip below, he explains why youth can be an advantage when starting a company:

“If you ask entrepreneurs, ‘would you have done it if you knew how hard it would be?’ Most would say no. But because you’re young—and in my case, you’re quite naive—you kind of go into situations like ‘hey this can’t be too hard.’”

Daniel admits that when he started Spotify, he didn’t actually know that he would need licenses from record labels.

“I think that’s what kept me going—I saw the solution. I didn’t see the problems in the way… A lot of people—if they have a lot of experience—will say, ‘this is not going to work because of x, y, z.’ But it turns out that most things do work.”

When people approach Daniel with a startup idea asking if it’ll work, he replies: “In all honesty, I have no idea.” And he believes that’s “one of the most inspiring things ever.”

He recalls the time somebody approached him in 2004 with a company called Skype. He thought the idea would never work. But it turned out to be a pretty big idea.

“If you keep executing, the right person will figure out a way to sell umbrellas in the Sahara… It’s really all about execution. The idea is 5% and execution is 95%.”

Full video: Stanford eCorner “Daniel Ek: A Playlist for Entrepreneurs [Entire Talk]” (Jun 2012)