Emmett Shear (born 1983) is an AmericanInternet entrepreneur andinvestor.[1][a] He co-founded the live video platformJustin.tv. Shear became thechief executive officer ofTwitch when it was spun off from Justin.tv, a position he held until March 2023. In 2011, he was appointed as a part-time partner at venture capital firmY Combinator.[2] In November 2023, he was briefly the interim CEO ofOpenAI.[3][4]
Shear and Justin Kan have been part ofY Combinator's first class in 2005.[2] As part of Y Combinator, the two built a calendar application called Kiko, which they eventually sold oneBay for around $250,000 afterGoogle Calendar was introduced.[7][10]
In March 2007, Shear and Justin Kan, along withMichael Seibel andKyle Vogt, launchedJustin.tv, a 24/7live video feed of Kan's life, broadcast via awebcam attached to his head.[11] It quickly obtained some media coverage. In October 2007, the site added the possibility for other users to host their own broadcast. Three years later, the platform had secured $7.2 million in venture capital funding and reported a monthly user base of approximately 31 million unique visitors.[10] Its gaming-oriented spin-off Twitch eventually became more popular,[10] and Justin.tv was closed on August 5, 2014.[12]
After Justin.tv launched in 2007, the site quickly began building subject-specific content categories like Social, Tech, Sports, Entertainment, News & Events, and Gaming. Gaming, in particular, grew very fast and became the most popular content on the site.[13]
In June 2011,[14][15] the company decided to spin off the gaming content under a separate brand and site. They named itTwitchTV, inspired by the termtwitch gameplay. On August 29, 2011, Shear became CEO of Justin.tv, and remained in that role as the company rebranded around Twitch in 2014, which had quickly become its core product.[16][17]
On August 25, 2014, Amazon officially acquired Twitch for a reported $970,000,000.[18]
Emmett Shear speaking at Manifest 2023
In March 2023, Shear announced that he was resigning as CEO, and thatDaniel J. Clancy would take over.[19]
On November 19, 2023, Shear was named as the interim CEO of OpenAI,[21] following the removal ofSam Altman by the board two days earlier. On November 21, an agreement was reached to reinstate Altman as CEO.[4] It was previously reported that Shear had threatened to resign as CEO if the board could not provide evidence to support Altman's removal.[4]
In March 2020, during theCOVID-19 pandemic, via Twitch, Shear donated the initial US$1 million to start aSF New Deal, a non-profit organization which ordered meals from San Francisco eateries and delivered them to people in need. The organization was started by his Yale college classmate Leonore Estrada, who owned the Three Babes Bakeshop in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood.[25][26][8]
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