Twitch began as Justin TV, where my co-founder Justin streamed 24/7 with just one camera. The initial version had no video games and was very basic, but it was a starting point for the platform.

At Justin TV, we were hiring aggressively, and I realized how much noise there is in the hiring process.

The initial idea for Justin.tv emerged from discussions about what to do with Yahoo, leading to the unconventional decision to live stream their lives, which eventually evolved into a platform for others.

We eventually opened the Justin TV platform to everyone, allowing anyone to broadcast live video, which was a shift back to our technological roots. We had a failed project and startup, but instead of giving up, we decided to repurpose our efforts and keep going.

After launching Justin.tv, we quickly realized that while we gained initial excitement and media coverage, we struggled with viewer retention and decided to pivot to a tech company that opened the platform for everyone instead of trying to create entertainment ourselves.

Before Twitch became a billion-dollar empire, it started as Justin.tv, a 24/7 live stream of one person's life without any script or plan, created by founders who were just trying to survive after selling a calendar app on eBay.

The founding team at Justin.tv was extremely technical, which allowed us to tackle any technical challenge without intimidation.

I invested in Justin.tv, which aimed to livestream everything, and while it struggled initially, it eventually pivoted to Twitch, focusing on video game streaming, which became a huge success.

The idea for Justin.tv came from the realization that people were interested in what I was doing, even if I wasn't entertaining.