Justin Kan, the founder of Justin.tv — the online video portal that eventually became video game streaming giant Twitch — is restarting the service on Snapchat 18 months after it was shut down.
Twitch was bought by Amazon for just shy of $1 billion, but it started out as Justin.tv — a project that began as a live-stream of Kan, who strapped a camera to his head and walked around doing his thing. The service later pivoted into Twitch when the team realized that Justin.tv’s audience spiked around video gaming streaming sessions and the rest, as they say, is history.
Kan recently penned a great overview of why he believes Snapchat is an upcoming and important communications medium, and he plans to double down on the service by hiring a person to help him run his channel.
(If you have Snapchat and are into tech and startups, you really should be following him already — ID: justinkan.)
Beyond the Snapchatting, the person hired will be in and around Y-Combinator — the famed accelerator program where Kan is a partner.
“This should be an opportunity for someone who wants to learn more about startups and tech to learn a ton and get exposure to the industry from the inside. In addition to putting the startups I’ve invested in on our channel, you’ll spend time with some of them working on their media strategies,” Kan wrote on his blog.
For those who wonder whether this is actually serious, Kan (who himself sent a joking tweet about his plan) told TechCrunch — over Snapchat, no less — that he most certainly is:
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Snapchat is the platform I should have built at Justin.tv, so I’m jumping on the bandwagon and going hard on Snapchat. I want to inspire the youth to become entrepreneurs :) When I hire this “Snap God,” you should see more snaps, more wisdom, and more extreme travel adventures… or maybe just more of me on my exercise bike screaming at my stuffed gator.
Kan said that, as of Wednesday evening U.S. time, he’d received more than 20 applications. So if you fancy a different kind of experience, go check out Kan’s post and get in touch with him before it’s too late.
