Steve Wozniak
Co-Founder, Apple
Chris Barton
Founder And Creator Of Shazam | Entrepreneur | Inventor | Tech Investor
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Book Chris Barton, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Speaker
About This Speaker
Chris Barton is the tech pioneer who invented Shazam, the first mass-consumer AI product in history, which changed the way the world discovers music. He has a history of using technology to make seemingly impossible ideas come to life. Beyond Shazam, Chris holds twelve patents and played key roles in the early days of Google and Dropbox. His newest venture, Guard, uses AI to detect drowning in swimming pools, a never-before-accomplished effort. In his speeches, Chris’s storytelling captivates audiences, inspiring them to create magic in defiance of obstacles.
Chris grew up with a French mother and British father, both university professors. Academics were a struggle for him, and he later realized he had undiagnosed dyslexia. He flipped this challenge on its head, learning to embrace what he now calls his superpower.
When Chris had the idea to identify music using a mobile phone, no technology existed to make it happen. Professors at MIT and Stanford told him the necessary pattern recognition algorithm was impossible. He built it anyway, along with a search engine supercomputer, the world’s largest music database, and a usable experience on basic mobile phones.
Chris came up with the idea for Shazam in 2000, three years before iTunes and eight before the App Store. It launched as a phone number you dialed, struggling near bankruptcy for six years until the App Store arrived in 2008. In 2018, Apple acquired Shazam for a reported $400 million, its sixth-largest acquisition ever. Shazam has been downloaded over 2 billion times and is used monthly by over 300 million people.
Chris was a founding member of Google’s Android Partnerships team and spent four years at Dropbox leading carrier partnerships. Prior to tech, he was a strategy consultant with two master’s degrees from UC Berkeley and Cambridge. When he isn’t working or speaking, you can find Chris enjoying the outdoors and spending time with his son, Jude.
Speaker Fee: $20,000 - $50,000
Contact an agent to get Chris's availability and ratesSpeaking Topics: Chris Barton
Build the Vision You See (But Others Don't) 
Audiences are inspired to embrace a mindset to create the next great companies
Entrepreneurs have passion, ideas, and desire but can get stuck on the difficult journey to achieving their dreams. They want to bring something truly new to the world, but need to learn how to overcome big obstacles, choose their priorities, and convince others of their vision. Chris inspires and teaches entrepreneurs using the story of Shazam's creation including the scrappy and creative hacks that transformed an idea into a product with two billion customers.
Entrepreneurs have passion, ideas, and desire but can get stuck on the difficult journey to achieving their dreams. They want to bring something truly new to the world, but need to learn how to overcome big obstacles, choose their priorities, and convince others of their vision. Chris inspires and teaches entrepreneurs using the story of Shazam's creation including the scrappy and creative hacks that transformed an idea into a product with two billion customers.
Bring Impossible Ideas to Life
Audiences learn a new framework of thinking to drive innovation through technology and AI
Technology & AI are dramatically changing what's possible in our world. Our challenge as we create new things is to dislodge from the comfort of what we already know. Chris created Shazam after being told by every "expert" that his outlandish idea was impossible. It was an idea far ahead of its time — eight years before iPhone apps even existed. In this presentation, Chris helps audiences imagine and then create new visions for the future. He inspires with jaw-dropping stories about creating Shazam and shows how innovation comes from not just an idea, but from a series of insights to overcome obstacles along the way.
Technology & AI are dramatically changing what's possible in our world. Our challenge as we create new things is to dislodge from the comfort of what we already know. Chris created Shazam after being told by every "expert" that his outlandish idea was impossible. It was an idea far ahead of its time — eight years before iPhone apps even existed. In this presentation, Chris helps audiences imagine and then create new visions for the future. He inspires with jaw-dropping stories about creating Shazam and shows how innovation comes from not just an idea, but from a series of insights to overcome obstacles along the way.
Overcome Obstacles with Imagination
Audiences learn new mindsets to break past barriers
A great idea gets you nowhere without tenacity. True disruption requires both persistence and creative solutions. In creating Shazam, Chris faced obstacles many thought were insurmountable. Most would have given up, but he refused. Instead, Chris challenged every assumption about the obstacles he faced. He shares stories and actionable lessons that inspire audiences to pursue their dreams. Chris urges audiences to question the status quo and to sweat the details on the path to redefining the future.
A great idea gets you nowhere without tenacity. True disruption requires both persistence and creative solutions. In creating Shazam, Chris faced obstacles many thought were insurmountable. Most would have given up, but he refused. Instead, Chris challenged every assumption about the obstacles he faced. He shares stories and actionable lessons that inspire audiences to pursue their dreams. Chris urges audiences to question the status quo and to sweat the details on the path to redefining the future.
Eliminate Effort to Unlock Explosive Growth
Audiences learn to identify and eliminate friction to drive growth
We all know simple is great, so why don't all organizations create amazing things just like Apple? The reality is that friction permeates almost everything we do. This "extra effort" frustrates our customers, partners, and colleagues. In creating Shazam, Chris moved mountains to make one thing very easy — identifying any song. Shazam changed the way the world discovers music. Chris combines stories from creating Shazam with his twelve years at Android (Google) and Dropbox to provide concrete examples of how we can all push boundaries to eliminate friction.
We all know simple is great, so why don't all organizations create amazing things just like Apple? The reality is that friction permeates almost everything we do. This "extra effort" frustrates our customers, partners, and colleagues. In creating Shazam, Chris moved mountains to make one thing very easy — identifying any song. Shazam changed the way the world discovers music. Chris combines stories from creating Shazam with his twelve years at Android (Google) and Dropbox to provide concrete examples of how we can all push boundaries to eliminate friction.
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