Emmett Shear

Emmett Shear is the founder of Justin.tv and Twitch. He is an angel investor and works as a part-time partner at Y Combinator. In November 2023, Shear was named interim CEO of OpenAI following the departure of Sam Altman and the subsequent brief appointment of Mira Murati as interim CEO.

Shear grew up in Seattle, Washington. As a child, he enjoyed playing video games, especially StarCraft. His parents were entrepreneurs. He attended The Evergreen School, a school for gifted children, with his friend and future fellow Justin.tv cofounder Justin Kan. Shear graduated from The Northwest School in 2001, then from Yale University in 2005 with a computer science degree.

Shear and Kan cofounded Kiko Calendar together in 2005. Kiko was an online Ajax-based calendar app. They were awarded $12,000 in funding by Y Combinator to launch the company. They spent a summer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working on its development alongside other entrepreneurs funded through the same round. The first version of Kiko Calendar was released at the end of that summer. After it proved itself successful, Shear and Kan were able to raise $50,000 from investors. The following year, Google Calendar was released, which led to the beginning of Kiko's demise. Yahoo! made an offer of $1 million to purchase the company, but the deal fell through. Kiko Calendar continued to fail, but Kan and Shear were determined to make back the $50,000 they'd raised and pay it back to their investors. They listed the company for sale on eBay with that as the reserve price. The auction began receiving higher bids on its final day; it ended up selling for $258,000.

Started by Kan, Shear, Michael Seibel, and Kyle Vogt, Justin.tv was a 24/7 online livestream of Kan's life and daily activities. Kan began streaming in March 2007. Like Kiko Calendar, Justin.tv was funded by Y Combinator after its founder and investors expressed interest in Kan and Shear starting a new company. Justin.tv ran regularly for three to four months; it continued to air for a couple of months beyond that, but without recorded audio. Viewers of Justin.tv expressed interest in streaming themselves, and since Kan was no longer enjoying the experience, the founders turned Justin.tv into a general streaming platform for anyone to join.

Twitch was born out of a Justin.tv channel called Justin.tv Gaming after video game streaming proved to be one of the most popular categories on Justin.tv. Twitch was officially introduced at E3 2011. Twitch streaming provides an interactive experience between streamers and viewers. Real-time viewers can chat amongst themselves and make donations to streamers in the form of Bits, Twitch's platform currency, or through a third-party payment platform. Streamers can earn money through these user donations and through subscription costs. Streamers who have amassed a significant following are sometimes sponsored by major companies and eSports organizations. Twitch was sold to Amazon for $970 million in August 2014.

Shear has been a part-time member of Y Combinator since June 2011. Companies he has invested in include GGWP, Clipboard Health, PeerWell, and Socialcam.