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Lay of The Land
Trailer
Bonus
Episode 128
Season 1
#128: Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify)
Mitch Kroll, co-founder & CEO of Findaway (acquired by Spotify).
Mitch started Findaway back in 2004, a time when audiobooks were available only on CD and cassette, in order to revolutionize this business of audiobooks, connecting storytellers with listeners at scale. With this vision of audiobook democratization in mind, Mitch led the company over the next 17 years to sell over 6 million units of its Playaway audiobook device and through a honed focus on innovation, became the global leader in digital audiobook distribution and trusted self-publishing platform for independent authors around the world. From a solidified position at the center of the audiobook industry, Findaway earned the attention of the world’s largest audio streaming subscription service and was ultimately acquired by Spotify for nearly $120mm, announced at the end of 2021.
Still operating out of their Solon headquarters here in Northeast Ohio, Mitch led Findaway through this acquisition where the team continues their work at Spotify to push the proliferation of audiobook adoption, leveraging the same innovation and platform that Spotify used to disrupt music and podcasts to power content distribution to hundreds of millions of users across the world!
Mitch is a shrewd builder, deep thinker, and really just a lot of fun to learn from — I learned a great deal from our conversation today, which spans everything from the history and future of audiobooks to how Mitch thinks about culture, to professional and life lessons, to the Cleveland startup ecosystem. Please enjoy my conversation with Mitch Kroll!
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This episode is brought to you by Impact Architects. As we share the stories of entrepreneurs building incredible organizations throughout NEO, Impact Architects helps those leaders — many of whom we’ve heard from as guests on Lay of The Land — realize their visions and build great organizations. I believe in Impact Architects and the people behind it so much, that I have actually joined them personally in their mission to help leaders gain focus, align together, and thrive by doing what they love! As a listener, you can sit down for a free consultation with Impact Architects by visiting ia.layoftheland.fm!
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Connect with Mitch Kroll on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitch-kroll-1370638/
Learn more about Findaway — https://findaway.com/
Learn more about Findaway's acquisition by Spotify
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For more episodes of Lay of The Land, visit https://www.layoftheland.fm/
Past guests include Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Steve Potash (OverDrive), Ed Largest (Westfield), Ray Leach (JumpStart), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Lindsay Watson (Augment Therapy), and many more.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up for Lay of The Land's weekly newsletter — sign up here.
Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/
Follow Jeffrey Stern on Twitter @sternJefe — https://twitter.com/sternjefe
Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter @podlayoftheland
https://www.jeffreys.page/
For more episodes of Lay of The Land, visit https://www.layoftheland.fm/
Past guests include Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Steve Potash (OverDrive), Ed Largest (Westfield), Ray Leach (JumpStart), Lila Mills (Signal Cleveland), Pat Conway (Great Lakes Brewing), Lindsay Watson (Augment Therapy), and many more.
Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up for Lay of The Land's weekly newsletter — sign up here.
Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/
Follow Jeffrey Stern on Twitter @sternJefe — https://twitter.com/sternjefe
Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter @podlayoftheland
https://www.jeffreys.page/