About

Pandora provides a joyful Internet radio service for consumers and enterprises. The service is free/ad supported or available via subscription (Pandora One). Pandora is available on iOS, Android and hundreds of consumer electronics devices.

Founding Team

Founders
Tim Westergren, Founder
Joe Kennedy, CEO
Tom Conrad, CTO
Jessica Steel, VP Business Development
Current Team

Milestones

Founded in 2000.

2004: On the verge of bankruptcy, Walden leads re-birth round in Savage Beast Technology and joins Board; Recruited Joe Kennedy, CEO; Tom Conrad, CTO; Jessica Steel, VP Business Development; Walden's Bill McDonagh joins as interim CEO (until 2010) and Bob Kavner joins as outside Director.

2005: Launches (and renames) Pandora radio on the web.

2006: Crosslink (Jim Feuille) leads next round and Peter Gotcher joins the Board. Company moves to free/ad supported. 2008 Pandora launches "Pandora everywhere" initiative" and begins supporting some mobile phones.

2009: Pandora in position on iPhone, sees rapid transition to mobile first.

2011: Company IPO's with Walden owning over 15% having invested in every round.

2015: Brian McAndrews joins as CEO and builds out new team to broaden product line. Pandora has 50% penetration on smartphones in the United States and 10% share of radio listening.

The Initial Sprout

Music Genome Project…a recommendation engine / technology based on the core traits or "genes" of music. The methodology requires trained musicologists to listen to and ingest songs. We appreciated how superior the engine was and led a re-birth round to recruit new management to supplement Founder Tim Westergren and create a consumer facing service.

Partner
Larry Marcus

Year Partnered
2004

Notable Press

How Pandora Slipped Past the Junkyard

About

Founding Team

Milestones

The Initial Sprout

Notable Press

Pandora IPO June 2011 by Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Citi, William Blair, Stifel Nicolaus Wiesel, and Wells Fargo