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Overcoming the impossible with a creative persistence mindset

Chris Barton

travels from UK, USA

Founder and Creator of Shazam, Entrepreneur, Inventor, and Tech Investor

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5 out of 5 stars

Chris is a charismatic speaker who shared his inspiring story of how a seemingly impossible dream with insurmountable obstacles eventually came to life. In a very personal and honest tone, Chris shared the many lessons learned from the challenges of creating Shazam – from the power of persuasion and convincing people to believe in their project to building credibility and sharing their passion. The overall message was very inspiring and uplifting and our audience at our UNLEASH show loved having him as a speaker!

Marc Coleman, Founder & CEO UNLEASH Group See all references

Reasons to Book Chris Barton

  • Chris invented Shazam, the music identification app, and listeners will learn how he overcame what was said to be impossible, through the use of creative persistence.
  • With years of experience working for Google, Dropbox and his own company, Guard, Chris has a wealth of knowledge that he delights in sharing with his audience.
  • Chris has actually patented 12 inventions, and his innovative thinking and creative mindset ensure that listeners will walk away from his keynote speech with a new way of looking at problems.
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About Chris

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Keynote

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Spend time with inventor Chris Barton and you’ll be inspired to believe anything is possible. His positive energy to make seemingly impossible ideas come to life is absolutely contagious. Chris’s latest venture, Guard, uses AI to detect drowning in swimming pools – a never-before accomplished effort. Chris’s best-known creation is Shazam, the app that changed the way the world discovers music. With over 2 billion downloads, Shazam is a global phenomenon and Apple's sixth-largest acquisition. The app lets people identify songs out of thin air from anywhere they are, making it nothing short of pure magic. Chris holds 12 patents and played key roles in the early days of Google and Dropbox. He believes his dyslexia helps him uncover novel solutions to obstacles and to achieving audacious goals. In his speeches, Chris shares his Start From Zero thinking method of questioning assumptions and challenging conventional wisdom. His amazing story and storytelling completely captivate audiences and inspires them to make big things happen in their organizations – to create magic in defiance of the obstacles.

Reasons to Book Chris Barton

  • Chris invented Shazam, the music identification app, and listeners will learn how he overcame what was said to be impossible, through the use of creative persistence.
  • With years of experience working for Google, Dropbox and his own company, Guard, Chris has a wealth of knowledge that he delights in sharing with his audience.
  • Chris has actually patented 12 inventions, and his innovative thinking and creative mindset ensure that listeners will walk away from his keynote speech with a new way of looking at problems.

Chris grew up with a French mother and British father – both of whom were university professors. However, academics were a struggle for Chris. Chris would come to learn he had undiagnosed dyslexia. Over the years, Chris learned to embrace what he now calls his superpower. Chris believes that dyslexia has allowed him to overcome barriers to achieve his many accomplishments.

Shazam is a great example. When Chris had the idea to identify music using a mobile phone, no technology existed to achieve his goal. In addition, he was told by Professors at MIT and Stanford that this application of pattern recognition was impossible. Besides inventing a new technology that didn’t yet exist, he had to build a search engine supercomputer from scratch, create the world’s largest music database, and create a user experience on very basic mobile phones. Did Chris ever think maybe the experts were right? “No,” he says.

When Shazam was founded in 2000, it was far ahead of its time. It was three years before iTunes, seven years before the iPhone, and eight years before the App Store. The nascent Shazam struggled in the early days, teetering near bankruptcy for six years waiting for key digital advancements to arrive, allowing Shazam to unleash its full potential on the world.

In 2018, Shazam, and its 200 employees, was acquired by Apple in Apple’s 6th largest acquisition of all-time. Today, Shazam has been downloaded over two billion times and is considered one of the world’s most popular apps. It has become an integral part of our everyday lives, with its ability to instantly identify songs and provide information about the music such as lyrics. Shazam has even become a verb, as in “Can you Shazam this song for me?” In addition to its widespread usage, Shazam has also been the inspiration for a popular game show hosted by Jamie Foxx called “Beat Shazam,” which has aired for four seasons on the Fox Network challenging contestants to recognize songs faster than the Shazam app.

Chris has also played a key role in tech history as a founding member of Google’s Android Partnerships team where he created Android’s mobile operator partnership framework. He also spent four years at Dropbox where he led carrier partnerships and was one of the first 100 people at the company.

Holding 12 patents, including one found within the Google search algorithm that billions of people use, Chris has made significant contributions to the tech industry. He also invests in a wide range of start-ups, including artificial intelligence for heart health and inflammatory disease therapeutics.

Today, Chris spends much of his time building his third startup company, Guard, a system that detects drowning in swimming pools using artificial intelligence.

When he has the time, Chris enjoys speaking at events and sharing lessons learned from his experiences achieving the impossible. He inspires people with stories of the unexpected mindsets that are necessary to overcome challenges and achieve success. Chris gives audiences a new framework for thinking about the obstacles they face and motivates them to take action.

Prior to his audacious technology career, Chris was a strategy consultant and earned two master’s degrees from UC Berkeley and Cambridge University.

When he isn’t working or speaking, you can find Chris enjoying the outdoors and spending time with his son, Jude.

See keynotes with Chris Barton
Keynote by Chris Barton

Create Your Own Shazam Magic

Disrupt Your Thinking. Defy Barriers. Inspire Delight.

From the moment Chris Barton dreamt up Shazam, he was told identifying songs out of thin air was impossible. His path from a dream to a $400 million acquisition by Apple is a story out of a Hollywood movie. Meanwhile, Shazam has racked up over two billion downloads! Chris’s story and insights give people the inspiration and tools to accomplish big things within their own organizations. Chris customizes the emphasis of this presentation for each individual audience. He introduces lessons learned from founding Shazam, as well as his pioneering involvement with Android at Google and mobile partnerships at Dropbox. Concepts like “creative persistence” and his Start from Zero methodology are new ways of thinking and overcoming barriers. Startups use these concepts to tackle insurmountable obstacles, and you should too. Make big things happen and create Shazam-like magic in defiance of all odds.

The format can be a presentation or moderated conversation. Chris can tailor an inspiring message on creativity, innovation, leadership, resilience, collaboration, and more. Audiences learn how to make big things happen by:

  • Questioning the familiar to distill to the basic truths
  • Overcoming barriers with creative persistence
  • Remaining focused on core insights despite resistance
  • Making things simple and friction-free
  • Replacing “uninspiring” with “delightful” by connecting to emotions

Speaker Chris Barton keynote topics

Chris inspires audiences with keynotes about innovation and overcoming the impossible. Therefore he believes every keynote should be crafted for your audience and your goals. He creates customized messages and unique experiences to achieve the results you need.

Examples on keynote topics could therefore be:

  • Innovation from First Principles – How Perspective Leads to Superior Results.
  • Picking Your Bets – The Best Decisions Only Become Obvious in Retrospect.
  • Creative Persistence – A Mindset and Methodology to Overcome the Impossible.
  • Every Employee as an Innovator – How Shazam Was Created by Many People’s Innovations.
  • The Hard Thing about Simplicity – Why it is Worth Every Ounce of Pain.

 

Watch speaker Chris Barton in action!

Creative Persistence

Watch speaker Chris Barton in action!

The Challenge: Create a Database Containing Every Song

Watch speaker Chris Barton in action!

An Audacious Idea Ahead of Its Time

Watch speaker Chris Barton in action!

What’s the Name of That Song?

See keynotes with Chris Barton

References

Chris was awesome. Some of the feedback from our executives in attendance included: Powerful message…Loved the message about starting with the end user and working backwards… and Very inspirational.

Sarah Lietz

Chief Experience Officer Members Development Company

Chris was an inspiring and sincere keynote speaker. His talk was very engaging … the audience was fascinated by his personal insights on entrepreneurship and business strategy. Very on point, with a convincing message!

Thomas Mosch

Head of CEBIT

Chris Barton is an incredibly engaging speaker-our enthusiastic YPO’ers were very inspired by his accomplishments and foresight. His personal insights on business development and strategies to strengthen bonds within the fraternity were enlightening, and a definite take home learning for us. In fact his motivational speech left us hungry for more! Sincerely wish him the very best as he spreads his vibrant energy across the globe to truly reach greater heights!

Shrenik Chowdhary

YPO India

Chris’s keynote completely captivated our audience of 1700+ SAP customers, partners, and employees. His talk was truly entertaining and inspiring. Our audience’s perception of entrepreneurial innovation was completely transformed

Michael Locher-Tjoa

SAP Switzerland

Chris is a charismatic speaker who shared his inspiring story of how a seemingly impossible dream with insurmountable obstacles eventually came to life. In a very personal and honest tone, Chris shared the many lessons learned from the challenges of creating Shazam – from the power of persuasion and convincing people to believe in their project to building credibility and sharing their passion. The overall message was very inspiring and uplifting and our audience at our UNLEASH show loved having him as a speaker!

Marc Coleman

Founder & CEO UNLEASH Group
Non-binding request for Chris Barton

Send a simple request. You’ll get a quick reply with fees and availability

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Chris Barton
Chris Barton

5 out of 5 stars

Chris is a charismatic speaker who shared his inspiring story of how a seemingly impossible dream with insurmountable obstacles eventually came to life. In a very personal and honest tone, Chris shared the many lessons learned from the challenges of creating Shazam – from the power of persuasion and convincing people to believe in their project to building credibility and sharing their passion. The overall message was very inspiring and uplifting and our audience at our UNLEASH show loved having him as a speaker!

Marc Coleman, Founder & CEO UNLEASH Group See all references

Keynote topics with Chris Barton