When Black Enterprise last caught up with tech entrepreneur Michael Seibel for our 2010 BE Next issue, the then 27-year-old was spearheading Justin.tv, an online platform that allows users to produce and watch live streaming video. While the Berkeley, California resident is no longer CEO of the company, he’s still transforming the way users consume video as chief executive of Socialcam, an iPhone and Android-compatible app that simplifies the sharing of videos and allows users to enhance them with various cool features.
Originating as a product under Justin.tv, the mobile video-sharing tool grew quickly; prompting Seibel and the three other Justin.tv founders–Justin Kan, Emmett Shear and Kyle Vogt–to spin the entity out on its own. Now, close to two years after Socialcam’s launch (and less than a year of incorporation status), the “Instagram of Video†has a seven-member team and over 20 million mobile users.
Last July’s $60 million Autodesk acquisition has placed the company in a new league, providing the Socialcam team with an invaluable amount of resources. “The Autodesk deal was amazing because it allowed us to focus on the product without the dagger kind of swinging over our heads, which was really great for us,†said Seibel. And, post deal, there are no jumps in this video story.
BlackEnterprise.com caught up with the young innovator to discuss how Socialcam is revolutionizing the mobile video-sharing industry, what’s next for the startup and why big-name brands are co-signing the app.
BlackEnterprise.com: What prompted you to found and launch Socialcam as a product separate from Justin.tv?
Seibel: Within Justin.tv, we [the founding team] decided to peruse two new products–Twitch.tv for video games and Socialcam for video. At the time, we basically assumed that maybe one of the products would do well; most likely both of them would fail. But we were going to use our Justin.tv products to basically fund these two new ideas in the video space, so that’s what we did. We launched both Socialcam and Twitch in 2011.
Twitch.tv was really a skin on Justin.tv, but certainly a lot of the back-end technology was using a Justin.tv video system and web system. It very much was a derivative of Justin.tv. whereas Socialcam, was really built bottom up as a new product. It would be much easier to essentially take that and make it into its own company.
How did you feel about taking charge of Socialcam full-time?
As much as I loved Socialcam within Justin.tv, once Socialcam became my full-time job, once I went from
being the CEO of Justin.tv, having all these employees and having this PML I have to manage and make sure we stay profitable, just being able to laser focus on this new product, it was awesome for me. It was tons of fun! To this day, it is the most fun thing I’ve ever worked on.Do you still work with your fellow Justin.tv founders?
A lot of people say don’t start companies with friends and I think it’s a double-edged sword. Some people can get away with it and some people can’t. The founding team of Justin.tv is friends. Two of my co-founders Justin Kan and Emmett Shear actually knew each other from elementary school. I was good friends with Justin during college, and we all went to college together. Me, Emmett and Justin all went to Yale together. Me, Justin, Emmett and Kyle all lived together for probably the first two and a half years of Justin.tv. Because we didn’t have experience working with each other, it helped develop just a kind of sense of mutual respect and bonding. It helped us through the tough times.
We’re not intimately knowledgeable about each other’s businesses anymore but give each other advice. You never leave the team even though you’re working on different projects.
How does Socialcam differ from some of its competitors like Viddy, Mobli and Klip?
Often times I feel as though the other startups are trying to turn video into something that’s a little bit more nuanced. You know, [a] social media tool like a Twitter-type thing. I think that works. Twitter works in a world that has blogging, but does Twitter work in a world that doesn’t? I don’t know. I think that right now video still has some room to grow before it can then incorporate itself into people’s mainstream lives. So what we try to do is make sure we give people no limitations. They can create whatever video they want, whether it’s just a simple video of your kids having a birthday party to the artistic video of the sunset, or anything in between.
You have big-name brands like the Brooklyn Nets, Avion Tequila, and the Oprah Winfrey Network on Socialcam. What’s the “secret sauce,†if you will, as to why Socialcam provides the best platform for these brands?
When they come to Socialcam, we say, “Look, this is about taking video with your phone.†You can use highly-produced videos if you want, and some brands do, but a lot of brands
really embrace the idea that this is about everyday tools. This isn’t about let’s invest $100,000 in a production team and multiple cameras. The brands that we’re embracing do an amazing job; they get so much more engagement.We’re building a product that’s more personal–and certainly more authentic. That’s kind of how you separate yourself from the pact.
What’s next for Socialcam?
There are a couple of big frontiers. Certainly Android, we would like our Android app to be a lot better than it is right now. Also, in terms of our app design, there’ll be a lot of changes on that front. We’ve made some technology changes to make it a lot easier for us to update the design over time. We’re kind of making a pretty significant transformation of the product from something that’s more Twitter like, chronological feed of videos, to something that’s a lot more Facebook like–a feed of videos created by your friends that should be timely, but it also should be interesting and relevant to you. I think going through that transition has been challenging but the early results have been really good. That’s definitely an area we’re excited about.
Lastly, making better videos.