Privacy personalization startup Canopy hires Discover Weekly creator and NYT editor

New startup Canopy caught the press’ attention for its unique approach to maintaining privacy while delivery personalized content recommendations, including for music. Helmed by a former Echo Nest exec, the company has now expanded two other high-profile hires. Canopy has hired Matt Ogle, the creator of Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlists, and Bassey Etim, former community desk editor for The New York Times.

Ogle will be responsible for leading Canopy’s overall consumer product vision. He joins the company from Instagram, but was previously a product director at Spotify. At the streaming service, he helped spearhead the launch of Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and the Daily Mix. Etim worked at the NYT Community Desk for a decade. With Canopy, he will lead development of the voice for Canopy’s recommendation architecture.

“Canopy launched in 2018 and is focused on giving users a new way to explore the world — without ever revealing their personal data,” the blog post announcing the hires explained. “We believe privacy and personalization should have been built into the Internet from the beginning: with users in control of what they discover and how. We are developing a new kind of architecture, but also a new kind of company that optimizes for delight and discovery.”