Pandora’s Westergren: ‘Being In A Rock Band Is A Lot Like A Startup’

"My first entrepreneurial experience was being in a rock band. It’s a lot like a start-up," said Pandora founder Tim Westergren. "You are involved in a creative process, there is no proven road map and it involves a tremendous amount of uncertainty. You have to build it from scratch. You have to work effectively as a group and you are all poor."

"I’ve always enjoyed wide-open pursuits where I can create and be unconstrained," Westergren continued in an interview on the Greylock Partners blog.

"It takes a tremendous amount of patience," he continued. "It’s harder than you think, less predictable than you think and many times you have less control than you think and it takes longer than you think."

On what he believe Pandora means to musicians:

"We create a level playing field that gives exposure to a large number of talented artists, many of whom have not had any type of radio play before."