Afternoon:
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Daniel Ek co-founded Spotify, the online music streaming service, with Martin Lorentzon in 2008.
It first launched as a private, invite-only service in six European countries but now has seven million registered users.
There are six and a half million tracks available on Spotify, with 10,000 new tracks being added every day. Born in Sweden, Daniel, 26, now lives in London but travels regularly in Europe and to the US. Here he gives his rules for success:
THINK OF IDEAS
"A lot of people ask how to come up with watertight ideas for a new venture but ideas are only five per cent of a business. The other 95 per cent really comes down to great execution. Share your ideas, get feedback and then iterate."
HAVE A GREAT TEAM
"Surrounding yourself with a great team is vital. I can only be in one place and do one thing at a time and having people that I can count on to continue to improve every aspect of Spotify - from adding new tracks to launching Spotify on the mobile phone, to our customer services team - gives me a lot of strength and confidence as we look towards 2010."
SEE OPPORTUNITIES
"The inspiration for Spotify came from seeing an opportunity to create a legal alternative to music piracy. Users wanted access to as much music as possible but the market had not provided an easy and legal way to do that. We filled that gap."
HAVE FAITH IN YOUR PRODUCT
"Nothing beats hard work and total faith in your product. To build a successful business you can't take short cuts and have to put one hundred per cent of yourself into it. Those around you feed off your belief, so stay strong and focused."
DON'T STOP INNOVATING
"There's always someone close behind with similar products and services so you need to be quick, and continue to delight your customers."
