John MacFarlane
person on 3 shows · 7 statements across 3 episodes · said 28 times in 3 episodes since 2018
20VC 19 
TBPN 9 
How I Built This
On the record as a speaker too: John MacFarlane across every show, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.
Mentions by year, every show
tap a year for its mentions
20VC 19TBPN 9
2025 9 mentions in 1 episode
2021 15 mentions in 1 episode
every mention on every show, scene by scene, with the transcript →
7 statements about John MacFarlane, every show
Coogan: Sonos Admitted It Missed the Smart Speaker Wave Until Mid-2016
“Sonos had never considered building its own voice assistant, and the smart speaker era took them by surprise. McFarlane later admitted that they were late to recognize the impact of voice in mid-twenty 16.”
Hardware Companies Are Never Truly Well-Capitalized Due to Inventory Constraints
“You know, you talk about being well capitalized you're never well capitalized as a hardware company, so.”
Steve Jobs Pounded MacFarlane's Chest, Threatening to Sue Sonos Out of Existence
“He walked right up to me and pounded on my chest and said they were gonna sue us out of existence for having a scroll ring on our remote.”
Releasing the 2004 Sonos Prototype Would Have Killed the Company
“In retrospect, it wouldn't have made any difference, and we would have killed the company had we released The quality of product it was at that time.”
MacFarlane Left the Sonos Board to Avoid Micromanaging His Successor
“I didn't want to be in a position where I was second guessing what Patrick was doing. I mean, when I left, I didn't stay on the board because who wants to have the founder of the board sitting on the board of the company that you're running.”
The First Song Played on Sonos Was the Beastie Boys' "No Sleep Till Brooklyn"
“That's all true. It just fit. These were the first units that were fully assembled. We had a room that had the Quality Assurance team in it, and they were really trying to beat it up, and I thought that was the appropriate song, because they had a lot of work …”
Founder John MacFarlane left Sonos' board completely when Spence became CEO
“John McFarland stepped away completely. So unlike most founders and CEOs and large shareholders that maybe go onto the board or become executive chairman or something like that, John said, no, I've seen how this works and goes badly at many companies.”