Spotify made the rare move of naming two CEOs to share its top job. Netflix may have the playbook for making it a success.
Founder Daniel Ek said Tuesday that he’s stepping down as CEO of Spotify and into an executive chairman role. Co-presidents Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström are set to take his place as co-CEOs in 2026, reporting to Ek.
Dual executives aren’t the norm, but there are prominent examples of companies that have adopted the model. In 2023, for example, Netflix named Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos co-CEOs, replacing cofounder and former CEO Reed Hastings. Online eyewear retailer Warby Parker has been helmed by CEOs Neil Blumenthal and David Gilboa for well over a decade and successfully went public in 2021.
So, how do you share the leadership of a multibillion-dollar company? Sarandos and Peters think they’ve got it down.
“I don’t think the co-CEO model is for everybody, but for our business it works really well,” Sarandos said during a September episode of the podcast “Aspire” with Emma Grede.
The unique leadership structure makes it possible for the CEO of Netflix to be in two places at once, Sarandos said.
“The real discriminating factor there is, […] do you have a set of CEOs who are bought into the model and see it as a positive rather than something that’s a compromise or obstacle they have to work around?” Peters told The Verge last year.
How big decisions get made without a sole decision-maker
Sarandos said he and Peters often “defer to each other” on their respective expertise and passions. He was concerned about how they would handle disagreements when they took on their roles, but a simple question solved that issue, he told Grede.
“‘What are the things that you know more than I do and you’re more passionate about than I am?'”
The next step is to support each other in their decisions.
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“[S]o you think about content, marketing, legal, comms, and publicity — those are on Ted’s side,” Peters said to The Verge. “On my side, for example, we’ve got product tech, ads, games, finance.”
While the two execs have their own lanes to focus on, they’re a single entity when it comes to major company decisions, like big content strategy questions, he said.
“We always say speaking to one of us is speaking to both of us, so we feel like we owe each other clarity and transparency in those conversations,” Peters said.
When the co-CEO structure was first put in place in January 2023, the two executives talked more about what happens when they don’t see eye to eye.
Ernesto S. Ruscio/Getty Images / Netflix
“We disagree, we butt heads, we talk it out,” Sarandos told Bloomberg at the time. “So did Reed and I, and so did you (Greg) and Reed (Hastings). We have different strengths. We can challenge each other, but still be deferential to our differentiated skillset.”
They also have guidance when they need it from Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings, who they said is “still in the mix” to give his “counsel and perspective” when they run into disagreements.
Despite their peers being primarily led by a solo CEO, Peters and Sarandos’ collaboration seems to be working. During the second quarter, Netflix posted record-setting quarterly revenue of $11.08 billion and 47% year-over-year earnings growth.
“[W]e seek to be a company that brings two very strong centers of excellence and capability on the creative side and on the product and tech side together,” Peters told The Verge.
