Twitch

Y Combinator LogoW07AcquiredVideoGaming

A global community creating the future of live entertainment.

Twitch is the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers. More than 100 million gamers gather every month to broadcast, watch and chat about gaming. Twitch’s video platform is the backbone of live and on-demand distribution for leading video game broadcasters including casual gamers, pro players, tournaments, leagues, developers and gaming media organizations. Twitch is leading a revolution in the gaming community, working to create a participatory experience that transcends gameplay. Learn more at http://twitch.tv.

Twitch
Founded:2006
Team Size:501
Location:San Francisco

Active Founders

Emmett Shear

Emmett Shear is founder and CEO of Twitch (www.twitch.tv), the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers. Emmett is also co-founder of Justin.tv and a part-time partner at venture capital firm Y Combinator, where he advises fledgling startups on product and strategy. Emmett graduated from Yale University in 2005, where he met two of his Justin.tv co-founders.

Emmett Shear
Emmett Shear
Twitch

Former Founders

Justin Kan

Justin Kan is the CEO and co-founder of Atrium, a technology company and corporate law firm providing fast, transparent, and price-predictable business and legal services to startups. As a founder of multiple companies and an investor in hundreds more, Justin involuntarily became a power user of corporate legal services. Prior to Atrium, Justin was Founder of Twitch, Exec and Justin.tv.

Justin Kan
Justin Kan
Atrium

Michael Seibel

I am a partner at YC and CEO of YC’s startup accelerator. Previously, I was a co-founder and CEO of Justin.tv from 2007 - 2011 and the co-founder and CEO of Socialcam in 2012. During 2012, Socialcam participated in Y Combinator, raised angel financing from a group of amazing investors, and sold to Autodesk Inc. for $60m. Needless to say - it was a busy year. In 2014, Justin.tv became Twitch Interactive and under the leadership of Emmett Shear and Kevin Lin sold to Amazon for $970m.

Michael Seibel
Michael Seibel
Socialcam

Kyle Vogt

In 2016, Kyle and Cruise partnered with GM to help scale his vision for a driverless future, and in 2018 secured a $2.25 billion investment from the world’s largest technology investor, Softbank. Prior to Cruise, Kyle co-founded Twitch (acquired by Amazon), Socialcam (acquired by Autodesk), and Justin.tv, where he gained a following through an MIT email listserv ‘call to action’ and hero coded the project. A native of Kansas City, Kyle studied computer science and electrical engineering at MIT.

Kyle Vogt
Kyle Vogt
Cruise