Returning to Spotify after a six month sabbatical
Last week I came back to Spotify after a six month sabbatical. In this post, I share what I did, what I learned, how I’m feeling, and what’s next.
Welcome new subscribers! Lachlan here. I’m an American, living in Sweden, working in product. I share learnings on startups, product, and strategy in this newsletter and on LinkedIn. If you have questions, feedback, or just want to say hi, HMU!
Six months ago, I began a sabbatical from Spotify to try out the entrepreneurial life.
I’d been interested in starting a company for a long time and wanted to find out if I’d enjoy the work and if I could do it. So, I took a tjänstledighet.
For my non-Swedes, a tjänstledighet is a leave of absence that Swedes take to study or start a business. It’s generally unpaid, but your employer is legally obligated to hold your spot.
Here are some of the things I did
Gather: I piloted a new way for people to find community in a new city
Founder community: I built a mini community for myself of entrepreneurs, mentors, advisors, and investors.
Consultant: I consulted on product management and strategy for two early stage startups at $400/hr.
Read: I read a lot of books, newsletters, posts, podcasts, YouTube videos.
Wrote: I wrote some posts in this newsletter and on LinkedIn.
Went viral: I went viral on Tik Tok after my brother’s girlfriend made of video of me and my family that got 12M+ views across Tik Tok and Instagram.
Traveled: Italy (Umbria), USA (SF, LA, Boston, NYC, San Diego), Germany (Hamburg, Berlin), Egypt (Luxor, Aswan, Cairo), Thailand (Phuket), Singapore
Muay Thai: I trained Muay Thai every day for a month in Thailand.
Chess: I played a lot of chess.
Here are some things I learned
Asking for help: basically every day I was doing something I hadn’t done before. That was hard – mentally and emotionally. What helped most when stuck was asking other entrepreneurs for help.
Structuring the unstructured: one of the best and hardest parts of the sabbatical was having so much freedom on what I worked on and how I worked on it. After some flailing, I developed a process for figuring out what to work on and how to work for myself. I’ll likely tinker with that system forever, but it’s helped enormously to have something in place that works pretty well for me.
I love writing: I love writing. Unfortunately, writing well regularly is really hard. I want to write more regularly without burning out. I’m not sure how to do that. LMK if you have advice!
Joining a startup ain’t it: never say never but… I don’t think joining a startup, especially pre pmf, is worth it to me. I either want all the risk, all the learning, and all the upside (founder) or mitigated risk and chill work life (employee at big tech).
Differentiated founder-market fit: it’s not enough to have “founder-market fit” ie have a relevant mix of skills, experience, and domain expertise. You need to have “differentiated founder-market fit” ie have relevant skills others don’t have. More on that point here. Of course, optimal founder-market fit is moot without a market.
How I’m feeling
Grateful: over the last six months, I grew a lot as a person and a budding entrepreneur and had a lot of fun. Most people can’t take six months off work and get their job back.
Proud: I did something that felt scary because I knew I wanted to do it and grew because I overcame that fear.
Bittersweet: I learned so much and did so much and experienced so much in a handful of months and am now back at the same job. It’s nice to see old co-workers but a part of me feels like I’m going backwards. I’m not the same person I was six months ago. I want new and different things and I don’t know if I’ll find those at Spotify.
Optimistic: I know what I want and believe I can get it.
What’s next
Day job: Senior Product Manager at Spotify on the New Product Innovation team. I’ll be working on making Spotify work better for <13 year olds and their parents (Gen Z who???).
Other work-related interests: I’ve recently gotten really interested in how to reduce unnecessary and ineffective meetings. I spend more time than I’d like in bad meetings. Maybe you do too. I wonder if/how we could all have fewer, better meetings.
Non-work: settling back into a more predictable work / life rhythm. Currently I’m keen to cross country ski more.
Cheers,
Lachlan
PS: If you host a lot of meetings, DM me! I’d love to chat with you.
In return, you’ll be part of helping all of us have fewer, better meetings.
Some photos from the sabbatical.
I read this on Substack before Linkedin! And I'm glad to see you think out loud. Keep writing!
Very original blog! Love to read it. I would love to connect over LinkedIn. And was looking for interning at Spotify, it would be great to get a referral from you, if you see fit. Thank you so much, I appreciate it.