How I Built This with Guy Raz Twitch: Emmett Shear
20 snips
Jul 18, 2022 
Emmett Shear, co-founder and CEO of Twitch, shares his fascinating journey from the early days of Justin.tv to transforming it into a gaming giant. He discusses the skepticism surrounding gaming as a mainstream entertainment option and how he built a thriving community by listening to streamer needs. Shear reflects on the challenges faced by early streamers, including safety issues and funding struggles. He also highlights the significant role of community in driving Twitch's success, leading to its lucrative acquisition by Amazon.
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Kiko Calendar
- Inspired by Gmail, Emmett and Justin created Kiko Calendar, an online calendar application.
- Their monetization plan involved targeted advertising based on users' schedules.
Selling Kiko on eBay
- After Google Calendar launched, Emmett and Justin sold Kiko on eBay for $265,000.
- This generated publicity and gave each founder about $65,000 after expenses.
Justin.tv Launch
- Justin Kan wore a webcam 24/7, streaming his life on Justin.tv.
- This was partly a publicity stunt and partly a test of their live-streaming technology.
