I am Justin Kan, cofounder of Internet startups (Justin.tv, Twitch) and investor at Y Combinator. AMA!

What's your secret?

Stand next to people smarter than you are.

What do you think of the weird phenomenon that is twitch chat?

We've created a monster!

Where do you see the future of livestreaming headed?

More people making a living streaming. I think Twitch is just the start, you'll see other sites pop up serving different categories.

Do you have much say in things Twitch-related these days? And how hard was it to let JustinTV go? (assuming you had a say in that decision?)

Not for a while! I'm no longer involved since the acquisition last fall -- Emmett is running it and continuing to do awesome things.

I actually am not that sentimental and it wasn't that hard when we shuttered Justin.tv (although I wish I'd kept the domain!). I've always been the type to be more excited about what's next up.

What inspired you to create Twitch?

It was all my partner Emmett. We had been building Justin.tv for a few years, which started off as a reality tv show and turned into a general platform for live streaming ("youtube for live video"). Around the end of 2010, we were a small company (around 25 people) that reached a large audience (30m uniques a month) but we weren't growing any longer.

My cofounders Emmett, Kyle, Michael and I got together and brainstormed ideas for things to work on to continue to grow. Emmett's idea was the gaming section of Justin.tv -- Starcraft 2 had just come out and SC2 videos were the only things he wanted to watch. Honestly he had to fight an uphill battle to convince the rest of us. Luckily, he did, and we had a small team led by Emmett and Kevin Lin (our COO) start working on gaming, which in 6 months became a separate site they named Twitch.

After we started working on gaming, I started watching to try to understand what people liked about watching gaming. I am now addicted and watch 2-4 hours of hearthstone a day.

I've heard rumours that your sole purpose for spending a decade working in tech was to build a platform for launching a successful voice acting career. Could you confirm if this is true or false?

True, although I've clearly been too distractible. Maybe the next site should be a booking site for voice actors...

Not sure how much hiring you do yourself, but what do you look for in employees that have just graduated...Would you consider High GPA's or viable work experience to be more important?

Since I'm investing now and not running a company currently, I don't do much hiring any more. However, I think the most important thing is what you've made: I look for engineers and designers who have created awesome stuff, even if they were just side projects while in school. I like working with people who want to build stuff!

Were there times when you ever felt that your ventures would fail? As a young business owner trying to expand my business, (currently shifting to selling my product in retail stores) I'm learning a lot yet somedays I find that I'm sinking so much of myself into it that there's not much time for living life..Having said that I love the work..it's just some days the climb seems steep. How did you keep going in these times ?

I've literally wanted to quit my startups every year I was working on them. Every year for 9 years.

This would usually happen during the summer, when most of my friends would be posting the awesome trips they were taking, BBQs they were having, and other fun shit they were doing on Facebook. I remember sitting at my computer in the dark thinking "wtf am I working so hard on this thing that is only kind of working?!"

Life is a trade off and there is no right answer. Lots of people are happy working at a job and living stress-free, and startups are absolutely the opposite of that. If you want to have a successful startup, you have to be willing to grind it out. But you should know that everyone goes through those moments of doubt. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Kappa or BibleThump?

Kappa all the way

More an observation than a question...

Theres too much junk. Burger King has a mobile app. McDonalds has a twitter account. The accountant office down the street has a facebook page. I get linkedin requests from people in India (I live in Kansas).

None of this is necessary to the core of any of these businesses. Its fluff, its complete crap. It adds to the overhead and subtracts from resources. That, and theres a huge number of 20-somethings that think they want to get a job related to building sites / apps like those. I think its because, like the businesses above, they think thats what theyre supposed to do.

Where are the industrial jobs? For example, one of my favorite clients needed a web based inventory tracking / ordering system for multiple warehouses. I made BANK on that. And it was far simpler than any social media shenanigans. Another was a medium sized university that just needed a course catalog scraped and made interactive.

Wonder what your thoughts on this are.

Building non-sexy software is a HUGE opportunity. I'm thinking software in construction, b2b, oil and gas, etc. Solve problems 20 something year old programmers don't even know exist.

I want to fund these companies

Hi Justin, Huge fan. How do you build a network in Silicon Valley? Where do you start? Knowing the right people seems to be key in finding great devs, VCs etc.

When we got here, we knew no one. I suggest just coming out here and introducing yourself to people. We went to meetups, made friends with other entrepreneurs who were at our stage, and generally tried to be sociable and helpful. One thing we did was host a weekly dinner where we invited random people in the tech scene at our shitty apartment; one of the attendees one week ended up introducing us to the VC that led our series A investment of $2m!

How did you feel about Twitch plays Pokemon?

What's not to love? I watched a lot of it.

Do you use an attorney to do your incorporation and operating agreement? Do you fuss over those details when you're starting up or do you primarily leave them for an attorney to hash out?

How did your licensing end up working for your new project for music? I think turntable.fm and piki.fm went belly up due to royalties despite being awesome projects.

I dig your shades.

You can incorporate your business easily and at low cost using a tool like Clerky (https://www.clerky.com/ disclosure: these guys were funded by Y Combinator).

Right now The Drop uses Soundcloud's API for streaming only.

Thanks! Just got the shades (they are Bathing Apes). http://imgur.com/tNezwZX

Is there anything Justin Kan't?

reply to you, apparently

+1

I really miss justin.tv

Is there any hope of it coming back, even under a different name?

+1, would watch.

There are lots of awesome alternatives popping up. I've been checking out Meerkat (it's an iphone app on the app store). Check it out (I have no involvement other than as a user).

What is your favorite band to listen to while gaming on Twitch?

I just discovered a new producer on The Drop who I love: Sub Morphine. Check him out!

https://thedrop.club/tracks/sub-morphine-dystopia

https://soundcloud.com/sub-morphine

thedrop looks really cool, except for that colour scheme!

I wanted colors that looked turnt

2 questions...

1. Thoughts on the viability of websites using the new top level domains (like .club)? (Given that many others are using them for generating tons of spam -- many businesses I interact with have already blackholed all emails coming from those domains.)

2. How was justin.tv not sued out of existence? (Did the numerous streams of broadcast/cable network cause issues/lawsuits?)

When we launched Justin.tv, everyone we would tell about it would say "justin.tv? what's the url, justin.tv.com?". I promised myself I'd never launch another site that wasn't a .com again. Clearly that lesson didn't stick!

Justin.tv was DMCA compliant; any content rights holder could take down streams from the site.

What do you look for in a startup when you are considering investing?

I've invested in some great startups like Tilt, Zenefits and Bellabeat. To me, it's all about finding founders who have a relentless drive to create something and refuse to give up. Most startups are a 7 year+ journey (Justin.tv -> Twitch -> selling to Amazon took 8 years). You want to find people who are in it for the long haul.

Also being in a really big market helps ensure that when you do win, you win big.

That's what I've heard. It's less about the idea and more about the team.

A lot of people come to me with their ideas and want me to build them in exchange for a minority share in the equity. What would you say to those people?

no

Hey Justin, I am cofounder of a new livestreaming company focused on coding (livecoding.tv)

What would you say was the biggest mistake you made when starting up Justin.tv/Twitch?

Mistakes were too numerous to count, however, among the big ones: hiring the wrong people (some times), spending too much money, not focusing enough, not getting feedback from customers.

Hey Justin, I met you last year while hacking at YHack at Yale and really enjoyed hearing you speak! Two questions:

1) Did you enjoy the hackathon?

2) What's your favorite part of going to/speaking at events like these?

1. I enjoyed it! I wasn't able to be there for too long unfortunately due to other commitments.

2. My goal in going to events is always just to share my experiences with startups, in the hopes that I can help convince someone else to start something.

What do you feel about the controversies about streamers and partial nudity? i.e. Cleavage and bare chested guys. Also do you have a system in place to promote smaller streams? I see a lot of the same "top" streamers and I was curious.

I no longer have anything to do with policy on twitch. However, I can attest that I like partial nudity. But I understand why those policies exist: lots of kids use the site all the time.

How did the name twitch come about?

Emmett thought of it; he named it after Twitch game play: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitch_gameplay

Although you have had an affinity for business and operating startups since your college days, you were (I believe) a physics & philosophy major in college. When you got yourself into the internet startup scene, how steep was the learning curve? (i.e., what coding experience did you have; what were your expectations and how did they contrast with the reality of it?)

I'm pretty interested in cutting my teeth in the tech startup game, and I figured you're perfect to get insight from.

I was a physics and philosophy major in college.

I was a shitty programmer when I started. The original version of Kiko (a google calendar-like web calendar, only 1 month before google calendar) was hacked up by googling for javascript tutorials and copying and pasting. Mostly I learned programming by having my partner Emmett, who was a CS major at undergrad, teach me.

The key is just to get started. If you have an idea, just start hacking it up. Eventually, if you keep working on it, you'll make something useful.

Yay philosophy majors!

we are useful after all!

Who is your favorite streamer?

Trump, Kripp, Kolento

trumpW. But no seriously, do you play Hearthstone a lot as well? And what do you think about the fact that a lot of streamers are promoting some shady websites that are also sponsoring them (G2A.com, Ebettle, etc.)?

I guess streamers gotta eat :/

I play HS but not as much since my decks blowz. I usually just watch now.

When looking for startups to invest in do you look more favorably on projects grounded in catering to existing markets or something unique and original? For instance, would medical office software be a better candidate than a new social media experience?

I think it is hard to judge whether new social media experiences will work. For example: a few years ago, one of my friends showed me a new bookmarking site he had been working on. I thought it was stupid and wouldn't work. It was Pinterest.

That taught me you should invest in people first and foremost, and not ideas.

I'm sure you have been around many many high level CEO's, entrepreneurs, and all-around successful people in your life, not to mention being one yourself. What is one trait they all have in common?

relentless drive to blow down barriers

Do you look at Meerkat and think "been there, done that?"

And do you get a cut of all of iJustine's work, since you helped make her when you took your vacation?

I don't get royalties from iJustine, sadly. We should have made a contract!

I've tweeted a bit about meerkat; we had lots of problems making that model work (since most people don't have enough followers to get live viewers in the window that want to be live), but they seem to be making it work -- maybe they will figure out what we couldn't...

Would you say you have a kan do attitude?

i would say that.

Twitch is such a hugely growing medium on the Internet. Is it where you ever thought it could be?

It's way beyond where we thought it could be in the beginning! I remember we set an initial goal of 15% monthly growth for the first year, and 10% / month for the second year. If we accomplished that, we would be the biggest gaming video site online (bigger than gametrailer!). I think that was around 20m monthly uniques. Most of the debate around whether we should pursue Twitch was around whether it was a big enough opportunity to pursue.

Twitch just hit 100m viewers / month...

What is your view on bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Do you see it gaining mainstream adoption?

How many crypto related startups are there in YCombinator?

Edit: spelling. F**cking autocorrect.

At YC we've invested in a lot of btc startups, including Coinbase. I think there is high potential but we're still moving to see what the killer use cases are outside of speculation.

Wars or Trek?

trek

What are your long-term plans for The Drop?

Find dope music :D

Haha seriously I just wanted to make something I used myself every day. The Drop sits somewhere between Soundcloud (where all the new EDM exists but I can't easily discover new tracks from DJs I don't already know about) and a more general music discovery service like Pandora. I originally created it because I wanted to discover more trap, but unfortunately the front page is constantly flooded with Tropical House (the tyranny of the majority at work).

Hey Justin, if you're looking for trap, you might wanna check http://trapped.io ☺
On topic: great job with The Drop!

that's a cool site, thanks!

Obviously you made it big with Twitch / Justin.tv (and others), on top of that you were already friends with the people who founded reddit. How do you determine which ideas are likely to be successful?.

Are there a lot of ideas out there that people simply aren't taking advantage of?

There are infinite ideas that can be big startups. Well, maybe not infinity but lots and lots.

The best way to find them is to build something that you yourself want and care about. That's how you will know if you are making a good product: if you use it and it solves your own problem.

If I was a new entrepreneur and I wanted to make lots of money and ride a big wave, I might move to SE Asia or India (places where there's a large middle class wealth creation happening, and a huge smart phone adoption), and build an online service there.

As someone who has idea, but no money or means to do anything by myself, what should I do? It seems easy to try ideas when you have money, or friends that like to help, but when you're alone it is difficult.

we had no money when we started kiko. we raised 12k from YC in the beginning in 05. if you dont have money, make something that makes money. Sophia Amoruso started nasty gal selling clothing on ebay: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasty_Gal

Any advice for a recent college grad?

Get a job where you can learn a lot.

Would you consider The Drop for other genres as well?

I can imagine many underground rap artists are trying to get famous as a lot of these DJ's are.

Lots of people have asked for rap! I actually was the original creator of the /r/rap subreddit (I think in 2005). But, my music tastes have changed since then. Also, I think focus is key in building a community. So, no plans to expand yet.

I remember the days when the back ground to Justin TV was all black, the thumbnails had a blue boarder and the streams were choppy. I just wanted to say the platform was a great way to get non gamers into gaming as well as educate gamers on how to be better gamers by watching others. In your opinion how has Twitch transformed the gaming community today? Where do you see it going within the next 10 years? I think your idea of the music voting is pretty cool it sounds like a version of face smash.

I loved the original gaming section of Justin.tv (I remember watching a lot of GTA4 there).

I think Twitch has clearly transformed gaming: more and more games are trying to figure out to make watchable competitive modes because its a great way to get exposure with new players. Also, Twitch is a big revenue stream enabling pro-gamers / streamers to make a living doing what they love. I think this will continue to grow as the # of people watching games globally continues to grow, and that eventually gaming will be as big as many of the top viewed sports out there.

What are your favorite subreddits and which is the most niche you use on a regular basis?

/r/hearthstone

Was there a big reason behind why you guys ended up selling Twitch to Amazon instead of Google?

I think our acquisition process was pretty well covered by the media leaks

What are your favorite games? What was your inspiration to start Justin.tv?

Favorite game: Hearthstone.

Inspiration to start Justin.tv: a conversation Emmett and I had been having about what to do with our failing calendar business. We thought the convo was interesting, which led us to thinking about starting a podcast, which led us to thinking about a 24/7 audio stream, which became a 24/7 video stream.

How did you convince and gain the first users for your startups?

mostly its begging friends and family to try it out

What is your day to day like at YC? Do you just listen to pitches all day?

Mostly it is working w/ startups through office hours. Basically I spend time either 1 on 1, or as a group, with startups and talk about their metrics, their biggest bottlenecks, and what I would do to address those (and grow). Lots of applying my operational experience and connections in trying to solve their problems. It is split between startups in the current batch and alumni (who we work with a lot).

What are you most looking forward to in the next 2 years? In the next 10?

Self driving cars. I am investor in Cruise (one of my Justin.tv cofounders' self driving car company, which one of my brothers currently works at), and self driving cars are pretty close!

10 years: I'm hoping they will be able to regrow organs. Specifically, livers.

Do you think a site that rewarded its streamers with lower subscription costs, i.e. 75% to streamer and 25% to site, would entice more streamers to a newer site? Or maybe a gradient where high volume streamers get lower subscription costs over a certain number of subscribers?

I doubt it - Twitch has a network effect where because it drives a huge number of viewers, it is hard for a new site to break in and offer something compelling to streamers. 75% of nothing is nothing.

How important would you say it is nowadays for people to learn some level of programming (regardless of their major), specially when talking about tech startups?

I think it's an extremely useful skill. And, it's not that hard to learn. I recommend the programming bootcamps that have popped up, like Dev Bootcamp, which many of my friends have been through.

Evening. Thanks for including Grime on The Drop. I was surprised to see it since it's generally left out. Are you a fan of Grime?

...I keep getting badges :-)

+1 grime

What do you think of my Dealyze?

I'm a fan, and an investor!

Hey Justin. Do you have any twitch streamers you like to tune into and watch if you are not streaming?

Trump, kripp, kolento are my favorites.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into programming/coding that has no experience in it but wants to start? (Politics Degree...living in SF..) TIA!

Check out Dev Bootcamp. My brother went through it and is now a programmer.

At what point did you realize that what you were doing actually made it big?

when 1 billion dollars.

What would be your message/guideline to the the youth, more specifically, undergrads who dream to have their own startup?

Get started building something. Step 1 is the hardest step.

What are your top 5 TV Shows?

• the shield
• spartacus
• deadwood
• rome
• entourage

What is your opinion on Twitch Being purchased by Amazon?

pretty positive!

Is Twitch looking into expanding into other fields of streaming other than music and games?

can't speak for them now, as I'm no longer there, but I think Emmett was always really good about focusing on the specific community of broadcasters that were into gaming, so I'd be surprised.

What is your favorite project that you've worked on?

It's always whichever one I'm working on at the moment.

wanna meet up at BM?

Sure, you can find us on Titanic's End, the art car I built last year (with help from Spez!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QcufcnuMbM

Hi Justin, Looking back at when you just started as an entrepreneur, is there anything you wish you would have known or done differently back then?

There are lots of things I should have done differently, but I was probably too ignorant to do them differently even had someone told me what to do. Some lessons you have to learn yourself.

The biggest one, however, is that you should always be talking to your users.

What emerging technology field interests you the most and why?

Drones: because for the first time they allow programmatic interaction with the real world outside of a pre-defined environment

Self driving cars: changes the world by giving people hours of each day back, reduces traffic and congestion, reduces shipping costs, reduces the need for car ownership.

Synthetic biology: make micro machines that can produce anything you want!

Hey Justin, I'm a Kan as well and we're probably related... May I borrow some money?

I won't give you money, but I will give you advice: get a job.

Hey Justin. Do you think there's anything you can do to fix these reddit servers?

nothing I can do! on the plus side, I think they've improved immensely in the past couple years

When can we look forward to your next nude calendar?

10 year anniversary edition coming soon!

Do you think we are in another bubble nowadays, akin to the previous internet bubble?

Also, can you envision a world in which everything, and I mean everything, is done online?

Love your work by the way. You've built so many cool things from the ground up, including a good programmer/inventor in yourself.

I don't believe we're in a bubble, because the internet / # of internet users is way way bigger than in the nineties. This is a pretty good article on it: http://www.wired.com/2014/05/mary-meeker-sees-no-bubble/

Also, the absolute dollar amounts going into seed stage are still really low as an asset class.

I think we are rapidly moving a world where most things are purchased / done online. You can now order a car, book a restaurant, hotel, massage, get something delivered instantly, pay your taxes, apply for visas, send and receive money, call your mom, take a university class, get a date, all online. what else is there to do?!

Do you think there's room in the market for more streaming companies for video games? What do you think makes Twitch different than some of the other companies providing a streaming platform?

I think twitch has a strong network effect and it's unlikely that other sites will be able to break in now. But I am biased!

Justin, did you ever stream on Twitch?

I didn't, although I am going to start soon.

Justin, you have been interviewed multiple times, which interview did you like the most and would you recommend us to watch?

I'm currently watching the one you did at Startup Grind 2014 in San Franciso

I like this one: http://justinkan.com/my-interview-with-interloper-films

What is your opinion on the reptilian shapeshifters?

they scare the fuck out of me

Hi Justin! Congrats on the successful startups.

Which kin of startups stand out for you at Y Combinator? To be more clear, is there any one thing you see in a startup that makes you sure you want to invest? (Amount of previous traction, growth, founders personality ect?)

determination of founders, followed by explosive growth

When you are preparing to launch a startup, do you have an end goal (read "exit strategy") in mind, or do you just take it day by day?

day by day. build a good company and exit opportunities will come to you.

Do you think that learning to code is a necessity to run a start up? Or is it okay for a founder to focus on the big picture while having a team of coders?

It is very helpful to have knowledge of programming so you can know what is accomplishable. That said, there are plenty of tech startups run by non-programmers.

If you aren't a programmer, you should find a partner who is a good programmer.

What is the best way to get Y Combinator's support? Do you have any tips on getting a seed tech business idea financed?

Just apply! Every application is looked at: http://ycombinator.com/apply

Howdy.

What upcoming tech/net based project are you most excited about?

Self driving cars

Hi Justin, huge fan of Twitch.

Do you expect live streaming to eventually surpass simply gaming and infiltrate other segments?

We've definitely started to see this trend, and with the traction e-sports are picking up, I would think others would follow.

I think there will be more and more live streaming services focused on specific verticals over time. You're already starting to see Twitch do more and more in music. Gaming is just the beginning for live streaming online.

My company just switched over to Zenefits, what are some of the things I can look forward to with this platform now as an employee?

I'm not privy to upcoming features, but they've continued to add new services at a fast clip, so I'm sure you'll eventually be able to manage almost all aspects of your employment on it.

What's your next project ?

Just investing in startups through Y Combinator and spending a few hours a week hacking on The Drop!

Hello Justin. What is it like to be a partner at Y Combinator? What advice do you have for a single startup founder applying to YC? (no co-founders but I have teammates)

Being a partner at YC might be the best job on earth: get to work with the smartest, most driven people out there, lots of time to travel, pretty lucrative. I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing.

There's no advice for single founders that differs from having cofounders. Basically, your goal is to convince us that you are the team to make your startup happen with or without us. When talking to any investors, you want to instill a major sense of FOMO.

2 questions

1) how can I get my twitch name changed to Rama.

2) how come no one called me back about a SE job?

Not sure: I would tweet at @twitch. Can't speak for the recruiting process.