It was 2007 and Robin Chan was running the mobile data business at Verizon while Justin Kan was rolling out JustinTV’s first prototype - a camera strapped to his head (literally). It was the perfect meetcute: Justin needed inexpensive mobile data to livestream his day-to-day and Robin had access to tons of it (In fact, Robin was the first one to put YouTube on a cell phone!). Turns out the deal didn’t go as planned though, and the two went their separate ways.
Then nearly fifteen years later, in 2021 they reconnected, teamed up as co-founders, and created their investment fund Goat Capital. Since then, they’ve founded and invested in dozens of companies - including Stash.
In this episode of Secret Stash, co-host Archie Stonehill and Stash co-founders - Justin Kan, Robin Chan, and Dan Borstelmann - share stories on each stage of gaming entrepreneurship:
- how the founding team got together and why it’s stuck
- creating hypotheses and knowing when to change gears
- doubling down on macro market trends
- establishing a defensible product strategy
- executing on product excellence
Read the highlights here: https://dev.stash.gg/blog/secret-stash-ep-2-justin-kan-shares-the-secret-to-finding-your-co-founder
0:00 - Meet the Stash co-founders
2:02 - How Justin and Robin met
8:21 - Justin gets arrested
10:11 - Justin and Robin reconnect
11:07 - Bringing on Dan
12:18 - Two types of product people
15:34 - Promoting Dan to co-founder
17:40 - Different career paths
20:18 - Justin’s job as a stockroom attendant
22:07 - Complementary skill sets are key
26:57 - How to find a good partner
29:17 - Pivoting JustinTV and tips
31:24 - Pivoting Fractal
36:41 - Macro vs micro investments
40:32 - How JustinTV beat out a competitive market
53:28 - Swapping entrepreneur secrets
Hit the Subscribe button wherever you listen to your podcasts!
Stash is the first of its kind direct-to-consumer platform for games.
Learn more about Stash here: https://dev.stash.gg/
