Emmett Shear is the co-founder of Twitch, one of the most influential platforms in recent history. From its humble beginnings as a gaming streaming platform to becoming a cultural phenomenon, Twitch has redefined the way we connect, entertain, and build communities online. The episode is packed with stories from Emmett’s 16-year tenure as CEO and his journey to founding the company. Emmett shares product frameworks he used to grow and retain streamers, how he learned to not suck at management, and why he thinks remote is bad for most tech start-ups. Emmett also shares insights from being part of the very first batch of YC-founded startups in 2005 alongside Sam Altman and Paul Graham. Finally, Emmett shares what he’s most scared about when it comes to AI. (0:00) Intro(1:46) Welcome Emmett Shear(8:03) Products leading to Twitch(18:19) Justin.tv(28:10) Getting growth(32:40) Cultivating the community for the streamer(39:02) Google acquihire(47:05) Declining value to more money(54:16) Changes in levels of abstraction(1:00:13) Management lessons(1:08:52) Remote work debate(1:17:49) Mentors and coaching(1:28:24) Ambitions of the founder(1:36:53) Back to YC(1:44:45) AI Concerns(2:03:28) Being a techno optimist(2:17:44) Turning 40 Mixed and edited: Justin HrabovskyProduced: Rashad AssirExecutive Producer: Josh MachizMusic: Griff Lawson 🎙 Listen to the showApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/three-cartoon-avatars/id1606770839Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WqBqDb4br3LlyVrdqOYYb?si=3076e6c1b5c94d63&nd=1Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1 Follow on Socials📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshowAbout the ShowLogan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes. Executive Producer: Rashad AssirProducer: Leah ClapperMixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA 🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1 Follow on Socials 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow About the ShowLogan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.Tap follow and enable notifications to stay ahead of the game.

In 2011, when Emmett Shear pivoted the live streaming service Justin.tv into the video game platform Twitch, people warned him that gaming was just a niche. But unlike his first two ventures, video games were something Emmett instinctively understood: he and his co-founder Justin Kan had been playing them together since they were kids. Emmett built a user base on Twitch by asking streamers exactly what they wanted and giving it to them: revenue opportunities, streamer fan clubs, customizable emoji. As it grew, Twitch attracted users from the darker corners of the web, but Emmett believes the site is first and foremost a way for people to come together and build supportive communities. In 2014, Emmett sold Twitch to Amazon for just under a billion dollars but stayed on as the CEO. Today, the platform has 31 million daily visitors who stream trillions of minutes of live video every year. Not bad for a niche business. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Emmett Shear is my co-founder and the CEO of Twitch, the world's biggest live-streaming platform. Growing up, Emmett and I never lived more than a mile and a half away from each other. We've always wanted to build things: from dreaming of our own Scientology-like religion to launching an experiment with NASA into space (which we actually did as high school students). Many of these experiments failed, one turned out different - and we sold it to Amazon for a billion dollars.  On this episode, we reminisce on how the past 10 years went. We talk about writing web applications, building Kiko and Justin.tv, what we learned as investors, and whether capitalism works. Being a CEO is challenging - it's especially great to hear Emmett share some of his learnings, many of which I resonate with deeply. 🎥 Watch this episode with video: https://youtu.be/XCzPh-nq4bM🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest​🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest​

Emmett Shear, Co-founder of Twitch, discusses the journey from founding the platform to merging gaming with media. Topics include customer feedback importance, selling a functional calendar, birth of live streaming, challenges in management growth, and the evolution of Twitch. Shear highlights the significance of understanding user needs for success.

Emmett Shear, co-founder of Twitch, shares the crazy story of how Twitch grew from one guy walking around with a camera on his head to one of the biggest communities on the internet. He discusses the challenges of live streaming, building infrastructure, and the financial struggles faced during the 2008 financial crisis. Shear also talks about the intensive nature of being a visiting partner at YC and the benefits of selling a company to Amazon.