June 10, 2024 • 41min

Justin Kan: Pattern Breaker Personified

Pattern Breakers

Justin Kan is a serial entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Justin.tv and Twitch. In this episode, he discusses his entrepreneurial journey from his first startup attempts as a teenager through the massive success of Twitch and beyond. Kan shares candid insights about his successes, failures, and personal growth as a founder. The conversation covers Kan's early ventures, the pivot from Justin.tv to Twitch, selling Twitch to Amazon, his subsequent startup Atrium, and his current focus on incubating new companies. Throughout, Kan reflects on the lessons he's learned about entrepreneurship, motivation, and playing to your strengths.

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Key Takeaways

Justin Kan has a natural talent for catalyzing communities and getting people excited about ideas and projects. This is his "superpower" that he's leveraged throughout his entrepreneurial career.
Chasing extrinsic goals like building a billion-dollar company often leads to dissatisfaction. Kan learned to focus more on intrinsic motivations and doing work he genuinely enjoys day-to-day.
Storytelling and communication skills were crucial to Kan's success, but were learned over time rather than innate abilities. He studied techniques to become a more confident and persuasive communicator.
Defining the core customer and having a differentiated product are critical for startup success. Kan cites the lack of this as a key reason his legal tech startup Atrium ultimately failed.
Societal expectations about careers and roles are largely invented. Kan advises thinking from first principles to design your work around your unique skills and interests.
For startup success, Kan recommends:
- Stick with what's working and compound growth over time
- Do what you love and focus on your strengths
- Be willing to take unconventional approaches
Kan now focuses on incubating companies where he can leverage his strengths in ideation, storytelling, fundraising and strategy while partnering with others who excel at product and management.

Introduction

Justin Kan is a serial entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of Justin.tv and Twitch. In this episode, he discusses his entrepreneurial journey from his first startup attempts as a teenager through the massive success of Twitch and beyond. Kan shares candid insights about his successes, failures, and personal growth as a founder.

The conversation covers Kan's early ventures, the pivot from Justin.tv to Twitch, selling Twitch to Amazon, his subsequent startup Atrium, and his current focus on incubating new companies. Throughout, Kan reflects on the lessons he's learned about entrepreneurship, motivation, and playing to your strengths.

Topics Discussed

Early Entrepreneurial Experiences (2:42)

Kan traces his entrepreneurial roots to watching his immigrant mother run her own small business growing up. While he didn't explicitly plan to be an entrepreneur, he absorbed her work ethic and drive.

His first startup experience came in college with Kiko, an online calendar company. When Google released Google Calendar for free, Kan and his co-founders sold Kiko on eBay for $258,000 - an unconventional exit that caught the attention of future investors.

Key lesson: Unconventional approaches can help you stand out as an entrepreneur
Quote: "There was this other company called Jux2 which basically put search results from Microsoft and Yahoo next to each other trying to compete with Google. But it turns out two search results from two shitty indexes is not better than Google. So anyways, they end up selling this thing for $100,000 on eBay. And that gave me the idea."

The Justin.tv Era (12:53)

After Kiko, Kan and his co-founders pitched Y Combinator on Justin.tv - a 24/7 livestream of Kan's life. While the content wasn't compelling long-term, it laid the groundwork for what would become Twitch.

Initial traction: Justin.tv attracted significant media attention and traffic at launch
Key challenge: Unedited 24/7 content proved boring for viewers
Pivot: The team quickly moved to make Justin.tv a livestreaming platform for anyone

"People logged on because they were just curious, right. They were like, what are these guys doing? They never heard about this before. And then there was all this media attention on. It got on Good Morning America and MTV and a bunch of other, you know, legacy media, things I forgot about. But we were, like, on all these different shows, and so people were like, wow, what's going on?"

The Birth of Twitch (20:54)

After several years, Justin.tv's growth stagnated. The founding team decided to incubate two new ideas internally - a mobile video app (which became Social Cam) and a gaming-focused streaming platform that became Twitch.

Key to Twitch's success: Focusing on streamers as the core customer and addressing their needs
Breakthrough moments: "Twitch Plays Pokemon" and the $970 million acquisition by Amazon

"Twitch was the one that actually really kind of worked, although we ended up rolling social cam off into this new startup, and then it's kind of flipping it to autodesk pretty quickly."

Lessons from Atrium (26:26)

After selling Twitch, Kan started Atrium, a legal tech startup. While it grew to $15 million in revenue, Kan ultimately decided to shut it down and return capital to investors.

Key mistakes:
- Not clearly defining the core customer
- Lack of product differentiation
- Chasing extrinsic goals rather than intrinsic motivation

"I learned that chasing the extrinsic goals is probably not a good use of time and also not going to really be satisfactory to me. So for me, I think the most important thing was to identify, like, hey, what do I love doing? What am I good at? And then how do I let go of my extrinsic motivators and primarily operate from a place of, like, fulfilling my intrinsic motivations?"

Developing Communication and Leadership Skills (33:07)

Kan discusses how he developed his communication and leadership abilities over time, despite being naturally shy as a child. He studied storytelling techniques and charisma to become a more effective founder and leader.

Key skills developed:
- Storytelling and pitching
- Building rapport
- Getting people excited about ideas
Resource mentioned: YouTube channel "Charisma on Command"

"The interesting thing is now when people talk to me, a lot of times they're like, wow, you're really good with people. You're a great communicator. You're very confident. These must be natural qualities, but they were actually very learned. I was very shy as a kid. I wasn't a good communicator. I was not confident."

Advice for Entrepreneurs (37:02)

Reflecting on his experiences, Kan offers advice to aspiring entrepreneurs:

Stick with what's working: It takes time to compound growth, so don't abandon successful ventures too quickly
Do what you love: Focus on your strengths and passions rather than trying to fit into prescribed roles
Think from first principles: Question societal expectations about careers and design your work around your unique skills

"Growing a billion dollar company 50% is the same difficulties growing a $1 million company 50%, at least in a high growth industry where that's where the total addressable market is large. And I don't think I really internalize that."

Current Focus: Incubating Companies (39:38)

Kan now focuses on incubating new companies where he can leverage his strengths in ideation, storytelling, fundraising, and strategy. He partners with others who excel at product development and management.

Current ventures:
- Ry: An e-commerce platform
- Fractal: Gaming infrastructure company

"I'm incubating companies. I decided, okay, well, I'm just going to start all these companies where I'm not the CEO and because I'm not that good at product or. And I'm not that good at management, and I'll just focus on things I like, which is like the storytelling, the fundraising, the ideas business strategy."

Conclusion

Justin Kan's entrepreneurial journey illustrates the power of embracing unconventional approaches, focusing on your strengths, and being willing to pivot when necessary. His experiences with Justin.tv, Twitch, and subsequent ventures offer valuable lessons for aspiring founders:

Develop strong communication and storytelling skills
Focus on solving real customer needs
Be willing to experiment and pivot
Prioritize intrinsic motivation over chasing external metrics of success
Design your work around your unique talents and interests

Kan's current focus on incubating companies allows him to leverage his strengths while partnering with others who complement his skills. This approach demonstrates how entrepreneurs can continue to create value and innovate even after achieving significant success.