Michael Seibel

Michael Seibel (born October 7, 1982) is a Managing Director at Y Combinator and co-founder of two startups – Justin.tv/Twitch and Socialcam.[2][3] He first joined Y Combinator in 2013, advising hundreds of startups, and has been active in promoting diversity efforts among startup founders.[4]

Michael Seibel
Seibel at Moscone Center in San Francisco during TechCrunch Disrupt in 2019
Born (1982-10-07) October 7, 1982
Brooklyn, New York City[1]

Biography

Seibel was born in Brooklyn and calls New York City his favorite city.[5] At Yale, he majored in political science and became friends with Justin Kan. He graduated in 2005. After graduation, he worked as finance director for Kweisi Mfume's unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 2006. He then moved to Silicon Valley to co-found Justin.tv, and became CEO at the company (from 2007 to 2011). He then became CEO of Socialcam,[6] a social video-sharing app that launched in March 2011 and sold to Autodesk for $60 million in 2012 (after existing for only 18 months). He became a part-time partner at Y Combinator on January 2013, and joined Y Combinator as its first African-American partner in October 2014.[7][8] In 2014 Justin.tv was renamed Twitch Interactive[9] and later that year sold to Amazon for $970 million.[10]

Some of his investments include Cruise (which sold to GM for $1 billion),[11] Luxe, Walker and Company, Locol, Bluesmart, Scentbird, Lugg, Jopwell, Triplebyte and Bellabeat.[12] He blogs on the Y Combinator blog and maintains a list of his blog entries on his personal website.[13]

In 2016, he mentioned the need for more startups serving parents with young kids. He mentioned Clever and Panorama Education - both Y Combinator graduates, as promising examples.[2] He became CEO of the Y Combinator Core unit in 2016, where he will help execute Y Combinator's plan to wind down fellowships and to start a MOOC that serves as an open-to-anyone, lightweight version of YC.[14]

Before joining YC, Michael Seibel was a key mentor to the co-founders of Airbnb and recommended them to Y Combinator.[15][16]

On June 10, 2020, it was announced that Seibel was named a Reddit board member, replacing Alexis Ohanian, who resigned on June 5, 2020, in response to the death of George Floyd.[17] In his resignation announcement, Alexis Ohanian had urged Reddit's board of directors to fill his vacant board seat with a black candidate.[18][19] Reddit later named Seibel as the "first black board member in the company's history".[20]

See also

References
  1. https://www.blackentrepreneurprofile.com/people/person/michael-seibel. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. Emily Price (2016-03-09). "Y Combinator's Michael Seibel Says This Area Is Ripe for Disruption". Fortune.com. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  3. Kolodny, Lora. "With a new CEO, Y Combinator will wind down fellowships and start a MOOC". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  4. "Michael Seibel LIVE Chat on Product Hunt". Product Hunt. March 8, 2016. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  5. "15 questions with Michael Seibel". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2019-03-27.
  6. Jessica E. Vascellaro (2012-05-08). "New Race: Building the Instagram of Video". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  7. Jessica Guynn (2014-12-03). "Y Combinator hires first black partner to recruit more minorities". Usatoday.com. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  8. "Michael Seibel". LinkedIn. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  9. Kumparak, Greg. "Justin.tv Shuts Down To Let The Company Focus On Twitch". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  10. Wilhelm, Alex. "Amazon Will Buy Twitch For Over $1 Billion". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  11. "GM Buying Self-Driving Tech Startup for More Than $1 Billion". Fortune. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  12. "Michael Seibel - Partner @ Y Combinator". Crunchbase. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  13. "Michael Seibel". Michaelseibel.com. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  14. Lora Kolodny (2016-09-13). "With a new CEO, Y Combinator will wind down fellowships and start a MOOC". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  15. "Airbnb's Surprising Path to Y Combinator". Backchannel. 2017-02-21. Retrieved 2017-03-14.
  16. 26, Brad Stone | January; Businessweek, 2017 From Bloomberg. "The $99 Billion Idea: How Uber and Airbnb Won". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-03-14.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. Ivan Mehta (2020-06-10). "Reddit names its first black board member, Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel". TNW. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  18. Kaya Yurieff (2020-06-10). "Alexis Ohanian asked to be replaced by a black candidate on Reddit's board. Reddit listened". CNN. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  19. Alexis Ohanian (2020-06-05). "Alexis Ohanian Sr. on Instagram". Instagram. Retrieved June 10, 2020. I have resigned as a member of the reddit board, I have urged them to fill my seat with a black candidate.
  20. Business, Kaya Yurieff and Sara Ashley O'Brien, CNN. "Alexis Ohanian asked to be replaced by a black candidate on Reddit's board. Reddit listened". CNN. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
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