YouTube ft. Steve Chen - 18 Months That Changed the Internet

YouTube ft. Steve Chen - 18 Months That Changed the Internet

From Crucible Moments by Sequoia Capital

December 5, 2024 · 49 min · Season 2 · Episode 7

About this episode

The episode explores the early days of YouTube and the challenges faced by its founders.

This episode takes us back to the earliest days of YouTube, as the founders explain why it was a longshot that succeeded against all odds. When cofounders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim left PayPal to start YouTube, it wasn’t even clear that the nascent broadband infrastructure could support playing video in a browser. In a brief period until its acquisition by Google—from its first incarnation as a video dating site to confronting daunting technical and legal challenges—the early story of YouTube is an underdog tale of scrappy upstarts who ended up changing the world. Host: Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital Featuring: Steve Chen, Jawed Karim, Zahavah Levine, Colin Corbett, Yu Pan

People in this episode

Host: Roelof Botha

Guests: Steve Chen, Jawed Karim

Topics covered

  • YouTube history
  • founders story
  • internet evolution
  • broadband infrastructure
  • video technology
  • underdog success

Keywords

  • YouTube
  • Steve Chen
  • founders
  • internet
  • video
  • broadband
  • Google
  • PayPal
  • success story

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: YouTube, PayPal, Google

More episodes of Crucible Moments

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Crucible Moments podcast page.