The Art of Curation

Craft chocolate DJing 🍫 Spencer Hyman, Cocoa Runners

Episode Summary

Despite being a “craft chocolate DJ,” Spencer Hyman has perspective on curation that goes way beyond cacao. He sees curation as a solution for discovery challenges across many consumer categories. "Curation is the flipside of knowing what you want," he says.

Episode Notes

“Ever since I was at Amazon, I've been intrigued by the way in which discovery needs to be a bit more than search, and how curation is almost the flipside of knowing what you want…Helping you identify what you would get delight from is very often the result of curation.” — Spencer Hyman

As a “craft chocolate DJ” who runs a subscription service called Cocoa Runners, Spencer Hyman has plenty to say about the art of curating delicious, ethical chocolate bars. He’s deeply immersed in everything about the subject, from its history and the science of taste to how its cultivation impacts local farmers and the planet. 

Add in his experience as a general manager at Amazon and chief operations officer of Last.fm, and you’ll quickly hear that Spencer’s perspective on curation actually goes way beyond cacao. He sees curation as a solution for many categories of goods — like music, film, wine, coffee, gardening — where consumers don’t typically know how to find the best stuff out there.

Highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

👋 Say "hi" to Spencer. 

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