The growth of my YouTube channel made me realize the importance of seizing opportunities, as I was gaining subscribers rapidly and wanted to capitalize on that momentum.

I decided to pursue YouTube full-time after realizing I needed to make a clean break from my tech job to fully invest in my creative endeavors.

I often find myself balancing the desire to create content I enjoy with the need to engage with my audience and meet their expectations. I take a lot from the fact that I witnessed many user and creator interviews at Patreon, which helps me understand how users relate to a product. Many people don't know what they want, but their expressed desires indicate underlying problems in user experience that need addressing.

YouTube's growth is inevitable, and I plan to leverage my position to build other ventures like restaurants and gaming companies.

I learned how to effectively talk to users, which is a crucial skill for startup founders, and realized that I hadn't truly understood this before launching Twitch.

I believed YouTube could become the destination for user-generated video on the internet. They had a spectacular team, and the product was delightful and easy to use, which led to Sequoia Capital backing YouTube's first financing.

YouTube combines my passions for technology and media, allowing me to work on technology in service of storytelling, which has been a lifelong interest of mine.

I wish YouTube had a conversation with creators before implementing significant changes that affect content visibility and monetization.

After being encouraged by founders like Drew Houston and Sam Altman, I applied to Y Combinator, despite my initial hesitation about giving up equity.