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He co-founded and led Twitch through a near billion-dollar acquisition to become the most popular streaming service for video gaming, but walked away from it all to become a full-time Dad.
Emmett Shear has made a name for himself as an avid tech entrepreneur, investor, and overall good human. After launching Justin.tv in 2007, which later became the wildly popular live video platform Twitch, Shear led the company to be acquired by Amazon for nearly $1 billion in 2014.
The Twitch video game community spearheaded a new outlet for philanthropists worldwide – helping raise millions of dollars for various organizations, including the ACLU, Children's Miracle Network, Doctors Without Borders, and the Wikimedia Foundation.
I feel really fortunate to be in a position where I can give back. I think it's important to use your resources to help others, and to work to make the world a better place in whatever way you can.
Despite his remarkable success, Shear is known for his down-to-earth personality and commitment to his community. You’ll often find him interacting with users on Twitch and he has been praised for his approachability and openness to feedback.
Earlier this year, Shear stepped down as Twitch CEO after 16 years to take on a promising new role: Dad. “I want to be fully there for my son as he enters this world and I feel ready for this change to tackle new challenges.”
Shear is currently participating as a Visiting Partner at Y Combinator, a technology startup accelerator that helped launch more than 4,000 companies, including Airbnb, DoorDash, Dropbox, Reddit, and Stripe.
