16 Years Of Twitch
Talks about Twitch evolution, live streaming and Justin.tv to Twitch transition
ES
Emmett Shear
Visiting Group Partner at Y Combinator
San Francisco, California
Overview
Emmett Shear is the CEO of Twitch and a Visiting Group Partner at Y Combinator. He has a background in founding successful tech companies like Twitch and Justin.TV, and has made significant investments in various startups in sectors including gaming, consumer health, and AI.
Work Experience
Visiting Group Partner
2023 - Current
CEO
2011 - 2023
As Twitch has grown from an initial team of 4 to more than ten times that, there have been new challenges at every step. My job now involves product design, hiring, legal work, hiring, management, hiring, strategizing, and hiring. And even a tiny bit of coding when I get the chance.
Twitch is a social video platform where gamers can broadcast, watch, and talk about video games.
Raised $35,000,000.00 from Thrive Capital, Nelstone Ventures, Take-Two Interactive Software, WestSummit Capital, Alsop Louie Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Angel Investor
2021 - 2021
Fathom records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings for enhanced productivity.
Raised $21,825,000.00 from Maven Ventures, Character, Kevin McCarthy, Igor Tutelman, Rackhouse Venture Capital, Telescope Partners and Active Capital.
Part-time Partner
2011 - 2016
Advising YC startups on everything from fundraising strategy to technical approach to product decisions to hiring and firing. I hold office hours about weekly, and help with the selection process for new batches.
Founder
2006 - 2011
As CTO, I was responsible for coding, hiring, and technical management. Somehow I also wound up as our DBA. And the stats guy. And occasional product designer. You wear a lot of hats when you start a company.
Justin.TV is an online community for users to freely create, share, and broadcast live videos.
Raised $16,387,887.00 from Alsop Louie Partners and Felicis.
Founder
2005 - 2006
I wrote a lot of code. V1 was a one-page app way before they became fashionable, so I had to reinvent a bunch of frameworks. I also learned how databases work, Ruby on Rails, system administration, and more about browser quirks than any human should know.
Education
BS
2001 - 2005