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Back to Startup Lessons from Serial Entrepreneur Justin Kan, with Justin Kan.

How Did Justin Kan Rise to Fame

Justin has been an Internet entrepreneur since 2005.

He first founded a company called Kiko, which was a version of Google Calendar but unfortunately came out a month before Google Calendar and got completely crushed.

After that he started a live TV show on the internet, called Justin.Tv. It was 2007, before the iPhone, so Justin had to carry a computer in the backpack, with multiple cellphone connections, live-streaming a hacky video feed to people at home. He admits to not had been very popular at the time, with only hundreds of viewers at first. Eventually however, other people caught wind and wanted to create their own shows, just like Justin's. Justin.tv raised a bunch of money, just in time to survive the "nuclear winter" when most video startups died.

While still working on Justin.tv, Justin and Co create an app called "Social Cam", which they were able to promptly sell to Autodesk for many millions.

Finally, after years of hard work in the video space, Justin's co-founder Emmet though up the idea for Twitch, which exploded and sold to almost $1 Billion dollars!

After the acquisition Justin played around with other startups, namely Exec, a home cleaning on-demand, and Whale, a social app for Q&A.

Finally, two years ago he decided to put all his eggs in one basket and stated Atrium, a technology enabled law company for entrepreneurs.

Transcript

Startup Lessons from Serial Entrepreneur Justin Kan ·

a16z

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  3. Should I Start a Consumer Startup or a Business-to-business StartupConsumer startups are a lottery ticket. Take Twitch.tv vs Atrium for example.
  4. Should You Raise a Lot of Money or Bootstrap to ProfitabilityWhen you have a ton of money, you spend a ton of money, so that's not always the right choice for your company.
  5. How Do You Deal With Stress as a Startup FounderYoung Justin though of stress was something that you couldn't change, but a manure Justin learned that you can manage and improve stress, much like you learn…
  6. What Influences Justin Kan's Social Media StreamJustin believes that if you want something to be part of your identity, you should talk about it, and if you want to learn something, you should teach it.
  7. Why Is Justin Kan Removing Attachments Form His LifeFounders tend to intertwine their identity and the success of their company.
  8. What Is the Best Way to Find a Mentor for My StartupBest part about Silicon Valley is all the people who have done it before and are willing to help you.
  9. What Is the Meaning of Culture Eat StrategyVery often companies in Silicon Valley tend to focus on the next milestone, and sometimes it's the only way because otherwise your company would go out of…
  10. What Is the Central Ethos to How Justin Kan Builds Companies(1) Iterate quickly. Justin has been doing this since Y Combinator and never stopped. Speed of iteration is very important.
  11. How Do You Manage Expectations Once You've Succeeded as EntrepreneurEvery entrepreneur has high expectations and it's always a battle against yourself. You win that battle by realizing that whatever happens you will be fine.
  12. What Is Justin Kan Reading Right NowThe Untethered Soul - Very important book that helped Justin recognize why detaching happiness from the company success was so important.
  13. What Would Justin Kan Tell a Founder Who Is Just Starting?On the a16z podcast, Justin Kan is asked what he would tell himself at 22 or 23. The joke is that he should have joined Facebook. The real list is personal.

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