My entire entrepreneurship story in 10 minutes

http://justinkan.com/my-interview-with-interloper-films

by mjdipietro • 14 years ago

216 32 14 years ago

I loved this video. It seems like you guys have a really kick ass culture.

justin4• 14 years ago

Thanks, we try! Generally my philosophy is that it is important to make a place that people love to work, and in exchange people who work there take responsibility for getting things done in their domain. Pretty simple.

Also you should check out Airbnb and ZeroCater for companies that have great cultures. When you walk in those places you can tell that people love being there.

makko12• 14 years ago

Dude, how did you build up your programming skills enough to launch an app at 20-22 yrs old? It says on wikipedia you graduated with a degree in Physics and Philosophy. I'm guessing hacking was a hobby built up from your early teens?

dkroy• 14 years ago

I didn't know they sold Kiko on Ebay. That is crazy, I didn't realize people were in the market for that type of item on there.

fatbat• 14 years ago

Here is the Tucows winner. http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&...

I guess eBay was the few option available back then (fees must hurt!).

Pwnguinz2• 14 years ago

I believe pg mentioned somewhere that they didn't actually make anything out of the whole ordeal after paying back their investors; fees were probably the least of their concerns ;). Still, an interesting use case of eBay.

iag• 14 years ago

I have a lot of respect for this guy. Just talk to him for a bit and you sorta get this feeling that he'll succeed no matter what he chooses to do in the future. Keep it up buddy!

tjculbertson• 14 years ago

I agree. Also loved the fact that he is very humble for all of his incredible success.

147• 14 years ago

What qualities does he have that make you think this? Could you please give some examples?

hellopat• 14 years ago

Confidence being the one I've noticed throughout following his career.

bryogenic• 14 years ago

More camera angles!

cabbeer• 14 years ago

Does anyone know of anymore services like Exec and taskrabbit?

zinssmeister• 14 years ago

I feel like http://postmates.com/ is sorta in the same category.

jusben1369• 14 years ago

Fancy Hands

kobs• 14 years ago

Good luck with EXEC, Justin! It was a pleasure working with the entire justin.tv team in 2008.

abbasmehdi• 14 years ago

Though I've only talked to Justin a few times, he is one of my favorite people to get advice from. Between his five startups and entire adult life spent building them, he has not only seen most problems founders face, he has actually experienced them multiple times. This means not only do you get excellent advice, but also that he has a lot of compassion and empathy for founders because he knows exactly what it feels like to go through them.

Here is a follow up email I sent to Justin after discussing a problem we were struggling with at the time (his advice was great as always, even better was how optimistic we felt after speaking with him - that IMO comes from him being in the same place as you in the past and being able to relate to what you might be going through).

Justin I know you're a busy guy and have no time for fluff emails, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and tell you how awesome your advice was and how great we feel after office hours with you today. As you know, startups run on morale and I wanted to thank you for topping off our tank.

shanev• 14 years ago

I was working on an Ajax (remember that word?) calendar app called Caladabra around the same time Justin was building Kiko. I also gave up after Google Calendar was released. Wish I had the foresight to put it on eBay! Anyway, congrats to Justin on all his ventures. Seems like a very down to earth guy.

jaequery• 14 years ago

i always wondered why justin.tv was called justin.tv. i love seeing founders explain their ordeal in this manner, i'd like to see more of these.

wia• 14 years ago

Being cool was Justin's answer for starting up. While it may be honest, he could have added other thoughtful answers. More details on his first YC interview would also be interesting, instead of saying that he didn't say much at the interview.

justin4• 14 years ago

If I was going to answer more thoroughly, here are my answers on why to start something:

1) you can work on what you like, and in a way that you like 2) it's higher beta, meaning the top outcomes are higher than working for others. 3) it is a chance to immediately start working on a high impact idea that could change society. There are other ways to work on high impact ideas, but often times you need to put in a lot of time paying dues to get to the point you can work on them. 4) if you are successful, it can be a source of mainstream fame (think Richard Branson) -- if you care about this at all.

Here's a summary I wrote of my YC interview that I did with Emmett back in 2005: http://areallybadidea.com/34320844

makko12• 14 years ago

Let's be honest: many of us go into startups to be cool. The common answer of being 'passionate' (about startups/entrepreneurship/tech) often comes after gaining some expertise and leveraging it to create social impact.

mladenkovacevic• 14 years ago

What's most inspiring about this dude and his team is the seemingly endless drive to just create more stuff.

My entire entrepreneurship story in 10 minutes

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