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I have a lot of respect for Justin Kan, so this might come off a little weird, but: How the hell does he split his time between two time-intense companies and s

I have a lot of respect for Justin Kan, so this might come off a little weird, but: How the hell does he split his time between two time-intense companies and start a new startup at the same time? Am I missing something here? Edit: three companies, but I guess he isn't in Socialcam's core team (or is he?)

kurtvarner 15y ago
Plus he's a part-time partner at YC http://ycombinator.posterous.com/welcome-sam-garry-emmett-and-justin http://ycombinator.posterous.com/welcome-sam-garry-emmett-an.... I'd love to have this question answered. Edit: Apparently, he just changed his role at Justin.TV to an advisor. So I think most of his time is spent on Exec, while on the side advising YC companies, Justin.TV/Twitch.TV, and Socialcam. But still definitely a lot for one person to manage.
- trustme 15y ago
  My understanding is he only spends about one day a week at Justin.TV. I don't think he is at Socialcam.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
AznHisoka 15y ago
Is Justin.TV or SocialCam profitable too?
justin 15y ago
So, here's the skinny: I spent most of Monday at Justin.tv / TwitchTV. At TwitchTV I mostly work on strategy and management issues. My cofounder Emmett Shear runs the company as CEO along with a great management team including our COO Kevin Lin, who runs all the partnerships and operations, and CRO Jonathan Simpson-Bint, who is the founder of IGN, and runs all biz dev. Operationally the team is excellent, the company is growing well (almost 60 people now between two offices) and my services aren't really required for operational issues. Monday night I work on Exec stuff as well. Tuesday is YC day. Since we're going through YC for Exec, I'm down in Mountain View anyways. I hold office hours during the afternoon most weeks, and then attend the dinner with everyone else. Wednesday -> Sunday I'm working on Exec full time, but occasionally do calls for JTV/TTV. I also stop by the JTV office a few times a week just to hang. Socialcam is being run by our other cofounder on JTV, Michael Seibel, along with two engineers formerly from JTV. It is fully spun off as a corporate entity now. We still have a great relationship and they are part of the JTV family, but I don't have an active role. They are off to the races though and on the way to be extremely successful. UPDATE: Re-read this and it makes it sound like I work an insane amount. I don't want to make it seem like I'm Jack Dorsey-ing it. I take time on weekends and nights to relax and have a social life. I think working at a sustainable pace is important. Luckily (for me), I enjoy working at so many things because they give me a chance to exercise / learn different skills (strategy and growth at JTV, programming and pitching at Exec, talking about business ideas at YC).
- freshfey 15y ago
  Wow, really impressive! Thanks for clarifying.
- mlinsey 15y ago
  The multitasking founder is an interesting emerging trend - Jack Dorsey being the most prominent example, and Steve Jobs before him. If an effective founder is the rarest commodity, and their role at mid-to-large startups can be reduced to its most essential elements, it makes a lot of economic sense.
  - staunch 15y ago
    It's probably an anti-pattern. The only great example, Steve Jobs, took the CEO title at Pixar but my sense is that he played more of a Chairman's role there, he only really did the full CEO thing at Apple. Even Jobs had to neglect huge portions of Apple itself to focus on developing new products like the iPhone. One reason it probably can't really work very well: http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html
    - freshfey 15y ago
      I think Jack Dorsey (and now Justin Kan) are pretty good examples, too. Why are you excluding those two?
      - staunch 15y ago
        Because neither has proven that it can work yet. I can think of multiple counter-examples as well. People who are trying to run multiple organizations and doing rather poorly (as judged by results). I wouldn't want to single them out publicly though. Besides, it's rather difficult to judge the cause and effect for things like this.
        justin 15y ago
        I agree that it is hard to focus on multiple things. Certainly I am not "running" Justin.tv/TwitchTV by any means: my cofounder Emmett Shear is in every sense of it. I don't think I could have a day to day operational role at two companies. At JTV/TTV I focus on providing value by advising those people who are in operational roles.

kurtvarner 15y ago

Plus he's a part-time partner at YC http://ycombinator.posterous.com/welcome-sam-garry-emmett-and-justin http://ycombinator.posterous.com/welcome-sam-garry-emmett-an.... I'd love to have this question answered. Edit: Apparently, he just changed his role at Justin.TV to an advisor. So I think most of his time is spent on Exec, while on the side advising YC companies, Justin.TV/Twitch.TV, and Socialcam. But still definitely a lot for one person to manage.

trustme 15y ago
My understanding is he only spends about one day a week at Justin.TV. I don't think he is at Socialcam.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

AznHisoka 15y ago

Is Justin.TV or SocialCam profitable too?

justin 15y ago

So, here's the skinny: I spent most of Monday at Justin.tv / TwitchTV. At TwitchTV I mostly work on strategy and management issues. My cofounder Emmett Shear runs the company as CEO along with a great management team including our COO Kevin Lin, who runs all the partnerships and operations, and CRO Jonathan Simpson-Bint, who is the founder of IGN, and runs all biz dev. Operationally the team is excellent, the company is growing well (almost 60 people now between two offices) and my services aren't really required for operational issues. Monday night I work on Exec stuff as well. Tuesday is YC day. Since we're going through YC for Exec, I'm down in Mountain View anyways. I hold office hours during the afternoon most weeks, and then attend the dinner with everyone else. Wednesday -> Sunday I'm working on Exec full time, but occasionally do calls for JTV/TTV. I also stop by the JTV office a few times a week just to hang. Socialcam is being run by our other cofounder on JTV, Michael Seibel, along with two engineers formerly from JTV. It is fully spun off as a corporate entity now. We still have a great relationship and they are part of the JTV family, but I don't have an active role. They are off to the races though and on the way to be extremely successful. UPDATE: Re-read this and it makes it sound like I work an insane amount. I don't want to make it seem like I'm Jack Dorsey-ing it. I take time on weekends and nights to relax and have a social life. I think working at a sustainable pace is important. Luckily (for me), I enjoy working at so many things because they give me a chance to exercise / learn different skills (strategy and growth at JTV, programming and pitching at Exec, talking about business ideas at YC).

freshfey 15y ago
Wow, really impressive! Thanks for clarifying.
mlinsey 15y ago
The multitasking founder is an interesting emerging trend - Jack Dorsey being the most prominent example, and Steve Jobs before him. If an effective founder is the rarest commodity, and their role at mid-to-large startups can be reduced to its most essential elements, it makes a lot of economic sense.
- staunch 15y ago
  It's probably an anti-pattern. The only great example, Steve Jobs, took the CEO title at Pixar but my sense is that he played more of a Chairman's role there, he only really did the full CEO thing at Apple. Even Jobs had to neglect huge portions of Apple itself to focus on developing new products like the iPhone. One reason it probably can't really work very well: http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html http://www.paulgraham.com/top.html
  - freshfey 15y ago
    I think Jack Dorsey (and now Justin Kan) are pretty good examples, too. Why are you excluding those two?
    - staunch 15y ago
      Because neither has proven that it can work yet. I can think of multiple counter-examples as well. People who are trying to run multiple organizations and doing rather poorly (as judged by results). I wouldn't want to single them out publicly though. Besides, it's rather difficult to judge the cause and effect for things like this.
      - justin 15y ago
        I agree that it is hard to focus on multiple things. Certainly I am not "running" Justin.tv/TwitchTV by any means: my cofounder Emmett Shear is in every sense of it. I don't think I could have a day to day operational role at two companies. At JTV/TTV I focus on providing value by advising those people who are in operational roles.