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Emmett Shear Killed a 30-Million-User Product to Chase a 400K Side Feature

By Emmett Shear · Startup Growth · 1 min read

Justin.TV had 20-30 million MAU. The gaming section had maybe 400,000. Shear picked the 400,000 — because it was the only content he actually liked.

Key Points

A VC told them: you aren't growing, and on the internet, not growing is dying
They cut from 24 employees to about 7 and pivoted to the gaming section with 400K MAU
Product-market fit hit within two months — 30 to 40% growth per month

Product-market fit is a little bit like falling in love. If you have to ask, you're not in it. It'll be clear. Don't worry. It's not subtle when it happens.

The VC Who Told Them the Truth

Shear: A VC came to our office — this guy Gideon. He talked to us for half an hour. He was basically like — you guys aren't growing. And on the internet, not growing is dying. So your business is toast. Good luck.

We kind of looked around and realized he was right. We had been in denial about the fact that our business was making some money, kind of okay, but not really growing. We were headed for a cliff.

You guys aren't growing. And on the internet, not growing is dying. Your business is toast.

Cutting 30 Million Users to Chase 400,000

Shear: Justin.TV was at probably 20 or 30 million MAU when we made the pivot. Twitch was maybe 1-2% of that — about 400,000 MAU. It wasn't called Twitch yet. It was just the Justin.TV gaming section.

We'd gotten up to 24 employees. We had a pretty big layoff — about half the staff, down to about 12. Then we spun off three of them. We had like 9 left.

Justin.TV had 20-30 million MAU. The gaming section had about 400,000. We picked the 400,000.

The Only Product He Actually Liked

Shear: It wasn't obvious that it was a good business. But it was obvious it was the only business I was actually interested in running. Because I was tired of working on a product where I didn't actually like my own product.

I didn't enjoy most of the Justin.TV content. I thought it was kind of boring. But I really liked the Starcraft 2 content. So I was finally an enthusiastic user of my own product.

It was the only business I was interested in running. I was tired of working on a product I didn't like.

Co-Founders Don't Have to Make the Whole Journey

Shear: We all made it about 5 years and then three of them left. Michael went with Socialcam. Kyle ran Justin.TV for about a year while I was getting Twitch going, then left and started Cruise. Justin left to start a company with his brother.

We were all much more successful as CEOs of our own things than we had been together.

We were all much more successful as CEOs of our own things.

Product-Market Fit in Two Months

Shear: We started October 2010. By January or February it was obvious we had something really big — we were growing at 30-40% a month.

Product-market fit is a little bit like falling in love. If you have to ask, you're not in it. It'll be clear. Don't worry. It's not subtle when it happens.

Product-market fit is like falling in love. If you have to ask, you're not in it. It's not subtle.