ETL Speaker Series: Justin Kan, Twitch

Key ideas

Kan contrasts Twitch and Atrium to argue that a differentiated product and work you care about decide outcomes, and that achievement alone does not bring lasting satisfaction.

From a machine transcript of the audio. Quotes link to the moment they are said.

1. 1

   Everything is downstream of product

   Kan calls this probably his most important lesson: growth stems from a new, useful product about ten times better than the alternatives, and he says ignoring that caused his failures. He describes the difference as rolling a boulder uphill, begging people to try you, versus running after it downhill once people come to you. At Atrium, he says, he raised $75 million and scaled the organization and fundraising, but none of that matters without a substantially differentiated product.

2. 2

   Be the customer, or find a few

   Kan says Justin.tv worked early partly because he wanted to stream his own life, while Atrium was a business idea whose product problem he didn't much care about, and he now warns against choosing ideas in a mercenary way. He also warns that believing hard in an idea is easy to confuse with being its customer. If nobody will try your prototype it is probably not a good idea, he says, though the group can be very small, as with the people who tried Justin.tv when investors thought it stupid.

3. 3

   Pivot by saying yes first

   Kan says two co-founders doubted gaming streaming, so the team agreed growth goals in advance, 15% a month for a year and then 10% for the next, and after six months the numbers gave them confidence to go all in. He credits a friend who had pivoted many times with the advice to keep the existing business running and set milestones for the new one, and says Justin.tv went on funding the effort for years. Asked when to give up, he says people in practice stop when they run out of ideas, which is how he describes Atrium, at about $15 million in annual revenue with terrible margins and immense churn.

4. 4

   Align values and protect your capacity

   Kan says co-founder conflict comes from misaligned values rather than from one side being right, citing an argument over whether being seen in the office mattered. He says meditation helped him sit with anxiety about his startup instead of escaping through heavy drinking or a night of Netflix, which made him more resilient. He treats exercise and self-care as what keeps long hours sustainable, and says this is not an argument against working hard.

5. 5

   The goalposts keep moving

   Kan recalls a million dollars once seeming like enough, then feeling purposeless after selling Twitch and setting out to build a $10 billion company instead. He says he let go of comparing himself only after deciding satisfaction comes from within, and took up a daily gratitude journal, exercise and meditation. He also says ego pulled him away from Twitch, and that staying to help Emmett raise money might have made him more successful.

In Justin’s words

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