WEBVTT - Anele Andeshmand - On Running the Twitch Partner Program, What Makes a Good Streamer, and the Importance of Community 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.560 Welcome to Behind the Influence, a production of I Heart 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:06.800 Radio and t DC Media. For me, that was everything 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:09.920 I told myself, I'm like one or another. I'm gonna 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:13.200 find a way to get a job here. You know, 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:15.440 we're we're thinking about the future and we're not leaving 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.720 in Tempson. We're here. Stay. If I'm a traveling toon event, 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:21.040 I want to be able to see my fellow streamers, 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:23.919 my colleagues, my friends, funny stories with my mom, and 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:25.360 I give me an option. They're like, Okay, we can 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:27.880 either build your brand of computer or we'll get you 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:29.840 a car. But I was like, no funk that. I 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:31.840 want a computer. I want it right now. Well, guys, 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.600 today's a happy day and Neil Angishman is in the house. 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:37.720 How'd I do with your last name? We practiced a 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:41.360 few times, pretty much killed it every time, murdered it. 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.600 You're superstar. How are you doing today? Doing great? Thanks 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:47.920 for stopping by. A Neil is the head of strategic 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:51.680 partnerships at Twitch, a small, tidy, little company you may 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:55.360 have heard of. You've been there, what five years, going 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:57.680 on my sixth right now. Yeah. We were just talking 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:00.360 actually before we started recording, about how people who work 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:03.920 at Twitch just are celebrities in their own right. It's 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.479 a small culture, you know, like it's grown a lot 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:09.039 quite over the last three years. And uh yeah, there's 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:10.880 like a prestige with like working with Twitch, right, and 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:13.520 I think even attached to that. A lot of employees 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.160 at work at Twitch in some capacity were made into 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:20.840 like a meme, a Twitch emote you have not for 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.000 the right reasons, but you know, I'm I'm there as well. 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.080 And so for people who don't know what an emote is, 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:28.800 break it down. Imagine a emoji that you can put 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.720 into any chat room within Twitch. All it requires is 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.840 just a simple text code. So for you, taught, if 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.800 we wanted to have you as an emote, and maybe 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:39.520 it's a picture of you smiling, or you've thrown the 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:41.800 peace sign, whatever, maybe we can put in a code 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:44.360 and we can put that code to be t T 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.120 Carrier whatever. Maybe. And if you're the type it either 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:50.360 with all capitals or all lowercase boom, your face would 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:52.080 show up. And that shows up in every single chat 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.400 room and people make memes out of it, just like 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.040 anything else in Internet. People just me So you're kind 0:01:57.080 --> 0:01:58.800 of a celebrity in the streaming world. I mean your 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:02.360 faces for sure. When I first got high, They're like, yeah, 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:04.200 you know, as an employee benefit, you can upload your 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:06.760 own emoticon or your own emoji, your own emo to 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:08.200 the like the back end, and you can make it 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:10.560 into like an actual email that can be used throughout 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:12.880 the website. I'm like, fuck, yeah, dope. They're like, okay, 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:14.200 but we need a picture of you looking straight at 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:15.560 the camera. And I'm one of those guys that like 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:17.720 never takes like a proper photo. I'm always like goofing 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.560 off and everything. So I had one picture I'm wearing 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.200 a white beanie and I put that up and ironically enough, 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.720 because the picture was scaled down so tiny within chat, 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:29.960 it kind of looks like I'm wearing a turban. So 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.240 people haven't been able to like miss miscontact that for 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.480 for other things, and I won't go into people really 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:40.200 use your amount. It gets highly used. I remember the 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:41.840 first time I saw it in a chat, I was like, 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:45.320 what is that? Is that a Neal? And Colin was like, yes, 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.720 that's a Neil. Yeah. My little cousins when they found 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:50.320 out that I was working at Twitter, like, you're the 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.440 fucking anil, My cousin and Neil is the Anneal and 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:58.680 my guess yes, I'm so start treating me like it exactly. 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:03.079 So you're your role at Twitch is actually very very important. 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.799 One of the reasons that Twitch is a household name 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.080 is because of the streamers that we watch so avidly 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:12.560 on the platform. These streamers are going hours and hours 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.560 a day. For the majority of the partners, it's their 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:18.919 full time job, and you are the person. You're basically 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:22.639 the thread between them and the platform. So you are 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:25.960 the middleman. You're the one dealing with both Twitch and 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:30.240 the ninjas of the world. How does one get this role? 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.000 I mean it kind of seems like the dream job. 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.920 It is a dream job, and to be perfectly honest 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.200 with you, like I'm I'm humbled to be in that 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:40.560 every day doing what I'm doing. I love people, and 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:42.640 I think the number one thing that I would look 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:44.640 at when I'm looking at hiring for this role, even 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.960 for myself, has always been attitude. I think that you 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:49.960 have to have a highfinity and high drive to want 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.600 to help people out because this is a very selfless role. 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:56.119 There's a lot of times where you're advocating for things 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:58.960 that might go against the grain, both politically within the 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.480 company or even extra only to the community, and you 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.280 always have to kind of have a very headstrong mentality 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:06.960 with understanding that what you're doing is for the betterment 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.360 of the community, for the betterment of the platform, and 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:12.800 having that holistic view is probably like the most integral 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:16.479 part of like succeeding within partnerships for me personally. In 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.040 terms of like hiring, I look at attitude number one. 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.360 Number two, I would look at people who have a 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:23.840 background and like being able to develop other people, whether 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.120 it be within a management role, whether it be within 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.240 working within content and working within communities, volunteering, because I 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:33.039 feel like a lot of those traits translate well over 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:35.599 to whatever you want to do within partnerships as well. 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:38.200 We've gotten to the point where we're not wearing multiple 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:40.200 hats anymore like we used to be back in a day, 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:43.440 so the roles are very concentrating, really well defined. So 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:45.440 maybe someone who's really good at charity can stay within 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:48.440 the domain of charity, whereas someone who's got a high 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:50.520 affinity of like wanting to help people out, maybe a 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:51.760 little bit shy and want to work more on the 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:53.440 back end. They have opportunities to do that was like 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:55.800 a program manager. So there's a little bit of something 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:57.800 for everybody. And again, I think the core root of 0:04:57.839 --> 0:04:59.320 it is like as long as you got the right 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.760 attitude and you have that drive for it, I would 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.520 say like that's like the baseline for being a candidate 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:07.159 for partnerships because I mean, you guys have to have 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.200 so many people applying for roles at Twitch every single day. 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:16.080 Twitch is hands down one of the most successful companies 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:19.279 out there. When you think back to how you landed 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.680 the role, what were the steps that you took in 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:24.760 your own Because you got the job when you were 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:28.360 fairly young, So did you have a background in streaming 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.080 or were you just a gamer who found out about 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.040 this platform because you were using it and you were like, 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:35.560 I'm going to apply for a job there. How did 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:37.920 you land there? And I don't even know where to begin. 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.480 I'll give you the condensed versional, at least what I 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:42.240 would as seem to be the most condensed version. When 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.080 I was younger, actually competed in gaming. When I was 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.600 like fifteen sixteen, I played a game called Counterstrike. Never 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:52.279 heard of him. It's a just kidding. Colin plays at 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:55.560 all the time. Oh my god, it almost caused multiple divorces. 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:58.800 But this isn't about me. We could talk about that 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:01.359 off the record. But I played a ship ton of 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:04.159 counter strike when I was in high school. Actually, funny story. 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:05.800 So my mom and I'd give me an option. They're like, Okay, 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:08.320 we could either build your brand new computer or we'll 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.080 get you a car. And if I got a car, 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:11.599 I can go get a job and go make some 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.000 money and then buy a computer. But I was like, no, 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:16.280 funk that I want a computer. I want it right now. 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:19.719 So I got a computer ended up dropping like three 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:21.640 racks in two thousand and five, which was like a 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:24.520 ship ton of money for computer. Also, let's just a 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.960 lot of teenagers would have chosen a car. Yeah, I'm 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:30.040 an idiot, but looking back, but it worked out. It did. 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.520 It was the best decision I made. But your parents 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:34.640 were probably like thinking they scored because they're like, we 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.120 don't have to get this kid a car. Yeah, let's 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.760 go get a three thousand dollar computer. That's fine, he's 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.640 not going out anymore. So I got into programing, and 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:46.360 I was finking for about a year. It really sucked. 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:49.000 That wasn't good. Why why did you get into programing, 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:51.680 because back then I don't even think it was it was. 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:53.400 It was like a cool thing. It was like an 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.640 underground community, you know, like there's websites. I got fragged 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.960 they can go into that, like shared wars and tournaments 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:02.560 from like all around the world. And back then it 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:04.920 was like a little underground society, like you only heard 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:07.800 about these tournaments happening like Sweden, and you would hear 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:09.520 about like the World Cyber Games, and that was like 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.560 the pinnacle of like events. You know, nowadays we got 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:14.200 a ton of events going on on like on a 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.000 monthly basis. Back then you only had one or two worldwide. 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:18.800 I did it for about a year and I realized, look, 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:20.960 my grades are failing. I'm not doing well. I need 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.240 to grow up. I need to focus on what teenagers 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:25.600 care about, which is like going to school and getting 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:27.640 a job and meeting a girl and all this other 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:30.560 teenage ship. I end up going into school for premed 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:33.040 I did that for like three years, and my mom 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:34.880 and dad had to sit down with me with my 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:36.160 brothers and we were like, what do you really want 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:37.440 to do? And I'm like, I want to go become 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:39.400 a doctor and They're like, no, you don't. We know 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:40.600 you don't want to be a doctor, we know you 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:42.280 hate it. What do you really want to do? And 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:44.160 that was like my breakthrough moment of like being very 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.320 honest with myself. What good parents? I feel like the 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:51.120 majority would be doing the polar opposite, especially in a 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.000 space that your parents probably were not familiar with and 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:56.400 did not understand. They did it and they totally had 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.520 to read on me, like they knew me inside and out. 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:00.520 So I think it was just like their own intuition. 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:02.000 They knew that I wasn't happy doing what I was 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:04.000 doing or trying to pursue what I what I thought 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:06.200 I wanted to do. Anyways, that caused me to like 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.800 dial back, and coincidentally, at the same time, StarCraft two, 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:14.400 which the franchise was like everything to me, was getting announced, 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:15.520 and so I was like, you know what, I'm gonna 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:17.080 get back into playing some video games when we play 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:19.240 StarCraft two. And I really wanted to get good at 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:20.840 the game. So I went on YouTube and I started 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:23.680 watching like sutorials and I found Justin TV, which was 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:26.280 like the sister company of Twitch back in the day, 0:08:26.880 --> 0:08:28.760 and t like when I tell you like I was 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.080 an avid fucking viewer, Like I was on that ship 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.240 all day. I was up until like five six am 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.360 watching like the Korean like Star Half League, which was 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:39.079 like going on from like one am all way to 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.200 like five am every fucking night, and then I would 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:43.720 roll into class like half awake. But I did that 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:45.760 and I loved it. I fucking loved every bit of it. Now, 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.400 what was it? What was it about that? Was it 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:52.160 a learning experience? Was it you were just the voyeuristic 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:54.280 element of it, which I think a lot of people 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:57.040 are drawn to that. Imagine picking up a new hobby 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:01.080 that doesn't really have much of a culture, much of 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:03.840 a community around it, and you find one little outlet, 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.120 one little outlet, and there's like one place where we 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:08.319 kind of feel like a sense of belonging and something 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:09.560 that you can I should take away on a day 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:11.520 to day, something you can learn from. And for me 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:14.760 that was justin TV and watching like these Korean leagues 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.240 at the time. Plus you're interacting with other people in chat, 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:19.400 so it's like this other like kind of shared experience 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.080 that you kind of experienced with other people along the way, 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.600 And for me, that was everything I told myself I'm 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:27.320 like one or or another, I'm gonna find a way 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:30.360 to get a job here. And that was this is 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:32.800 pre twitch Twitch. I didn't know how I was going 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:34.560 to do that, but there was a bunch of like 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:36.720 small little community events are happening throughout the Bay Area, 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:38.560 and the Bay Area is not a very big hut 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:40.679 for gaming like l A is, but the Bay wasn't 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:43.640 any opportunity that there was an event like I volunteered, 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:45.680 I spent some time throwing my own money into it, 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:47.440 and then I got a job at Zinga, and that 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.000 was like my big break because I was like my 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:53.040 first step into the gaming industry. And that is not 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.680 necessarily the Pinnacle, like they're not like a true like 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:58.040 hardcore game company, but it was in the gaming industry, 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.520 and I met a lot of talented people there, made 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.160 made a lot of friends, and I used actually my 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:07.080 salary at Zinga to bootstrap my own StarCraft team. So 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:08.680 that was like how I actually really really got into 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:10.720 like e sports and everything, and I learned a lot 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:14.520 about getting sponsors and paying out teams and travel and 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.880 hurting sheep because these guys were like, you know, their children, 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:20.199 they're they're making a couple hundred bucks, a couple of 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.920 thousand bucks, competing in in a in a small time 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:26.200 game that hasn't really blown up yet, and you you 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:27.760 just learned along the way and it was great. I 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:30.839 loved every minute of it. And anyways, over time, about 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.240 a year of doing that while working at Singa, the 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:37.480 right opportunity locked to my door Twitch and that interview 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:39.880 process took like three months. It was at this point 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.199 was it already Twitch? It was already Twitch. It was 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:44.000 about a year into it, which was already kind of 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:46.800 like a formed company. When you heard about Twitch for 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:49.400 the first time, what were your initial thoughts. I was like, 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.319 holy shit, I thought I can break in as a streamer. 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.520 It's actually stream For like two years, I wasn't good 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.319 at it. It really wasn't. But you know, I love 0:10:57.400 --> 0:10:59.719 I love every bit of it. Uh And for for me, 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:03.360 I say, Twitch had a really cool like gothic, like nerdy, 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.200 like steampunk. Looked at it back then, and then like 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:07.880 six months in or I think it was about a 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.400 year after, they like reframed it into the whole Purple Company, 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:13.680 which I absolutely loved because purposes the pem color. You know, 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:17.800 it's purple hoodie. You just know it's iconic. It was 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.200 all Donald or not downhill, but it's all history from there. 0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.800 It was all downhill from their interview overhop. You know 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:26.520 what I mean. No, I know exactly what you meant. 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.959 So you got a job at Twitch where you initially were. 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:32.840 Was there a partner's program in place when you first started? 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:34.880 There was a partnership program. To get a partnership with 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:40.480 Twitch back then, you required I think anywhere from five viewers. 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.400 Basically it was really hard. Yeah, you have to be 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:45.319 like a big shot. I got hired to come in 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.040 and review the applications for these people applying for partnership, 0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:50.199 which was like, by far, like the dopest rule ever did. 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:52.559 I felt like I was Santa Claus because I'm looking 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.240 at thousands of applications on a weekly basis, and I 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:57.600 felt like the dean of admissions out of college. And 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:00.320 you're looking at people like showing out their entire life story, 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:02.600 talking about why they deserve to be a partner, talking 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:04.920 about how they came to Twitch, and like their story. 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:07.040 Then you had other people that are like I just 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:10.120 bought a capture card. I'm gonna be fucking awesome partner. Me, 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:12.199 so you hear like you hear both spectrums or you 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:14.800 hear the whole full spectrum of like white people deserve that. 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:16.680 Why do you think they deserve to be a partner? 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:18.160 And for me that was like one of the best 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:20.360 experiences because I learned about a lot about content and 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.200 I learned all about our community and who these people 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.080 are and what's like the pulsing community. What is a 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:27.400 hot game? What games are they're playing? So I did that. 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:29.280 I did that rule for about a year. I will 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:31.600 look at who are people that are qualified to become 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.720 a partner. Over time I start to realize, Okay, these 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.520 guys aren't hitt five viewers are hit three, hitting four, 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.320 but they're really fucking good at what they do. They're 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:42.880 really really good, They're really really talented. I made a 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.000 few exceptions here and there, even though I wasn't supposed to, 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:47.600 but made a few exceptions, and that actually ended up 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:49.800 being like the best thing ever because we learned that 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:52.679 it's not just all about viewership, it's about engagement too. 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:55.160 Um And at the time, the reason why we looked 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:57.320 at it from such a from a high viewership was 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:00.400 because a tech costs and operating costs. But you know, 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:02.280 of course, over time, like you're able to kind of 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:05.559 society that so we're able to look at truly content 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.760 and look at what is meaningful content, what is engaging content, 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:11.199 and what is what we define now is like those 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:15.040 shared real time experiences for me like Twitch. You know, 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:17.320 you see these different people from different walks of life 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:19.760 all around the world, and they they run their channel 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.160 different ways. You know, there's no template, there's no cookie 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.040 cutter format. So over time we were able to lower 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.120 the viewership requirements so that more and more people can 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.760 come into the funnel and get that opportunity to become 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.960 a partner. So you you referred to yourself earlier when 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:34.680 you said, you know, I wanted to start streaming and 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:36.600 I wasn't good at it, and then there are these 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:38.720 people that don't have many views, but they're really good 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:43.520 at it. What constitutes a good streamer consistency Number one. 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:45.720 You've got to be consistent. I wasn't consistent, and that 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.240 really is a magical sauce. If you come in on 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.320 a on a weekly basis or on a daily basis, 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:53.119 and you're coming at seven pm every day, you're communicating 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:55.440 and guarantee you can rely on you to be live 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.680 at that time, they'll come back during that period. It 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.440 also opens up opportunity for people that otherwise may not 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:02.800 be tuning into streams but maybe happened to be that 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:05.520 evening to come and find you. But consistency is like 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:10.400 the biggest key second part, which is arguable depending on 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:12.600 who you're talking to, but having fun. If you're not 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:14.559 having fun, like people don't want to watch you. They 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:16.320 look if it looks like you're having a miserable time, 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.680 like why would anyone want to tune into that? And 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:20.640 for me, it got to a point where like I 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.240 was streaming just a stream for for that period and 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:25.520 I wasn't having fun because I sucked at the game. 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:28.440 I sucked that StarCraft. So I started to pivot to 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.440 other stuff that I actually did enjoy. And when I 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.400 did that, I actually saw the change in my beership 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:35.200 where people want to tune in more. People wanted to 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.200 be around me because I was having a good time 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.280 and I was cheery and I was upbeat. Engagement's also 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:41.920 very big, and I think those are kind of correlated 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.120 with one another, Right, having fun and being engaged in 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.400 to community. If you're not talking to your community. More 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.160 likely people are watching you because you have a high 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:51.320 skill caliber, So maybe you might be really good at 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:53.360 a game, or maybe you're doing something that might be 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:55.040 funny or it might be a little cringe e, So 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.360 people want to tune in because of that. But the 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:02.360 magical sauce really is consistency and engagement, having the upea attitude, 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:04.560 having fun with with your content. When it comes to 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.560 when it comes to folks like Tyler Ninja, I'm really 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:10.880 proud of how far along he's come along, especially because 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:12.480 he's one of the guys that have been streaming since 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:14.560 just in TV days, so he's been at it for 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.040 like eight years now. This guy has been committed, and 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.560 you know, he hasn't always had this big break. So 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:21.880 for people like him, I think, you know, it's really 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.200 the right opportunity. And I think games like Fortnite, H 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:27.280 one Z one, pub g all have like eight to 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:30.440 those opportunities because the battle are All format is exciting 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:32.840 in itself in terms of content. But I think when 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:35.040 you look at a game like Fortnite, where it's encompassing 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:37.400 different types of cultures with the different dances and the 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:40.520 and the skins and y'all fits and everything. Like you 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:42.239 you kind of opened up a new world of opportunity 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:45.400 with culture and for for Ninja, it also opened up 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:47.200 an opportunity for like sick plays. You know, he was 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.840 doing some really dope shit building. His building skills were 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.160 like off the chart, and I think he was able 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:55.640 to kind of show off his skill set and his 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.000 engagement and the level that people weren't able to really 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:00.720 see in the past, and that got the attention with 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.200 the main stream media, and so artists like Drake start 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:05.440 to see then caught attention and follow him on Instagram 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:07.760 because he was posting his clips on there, and I 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.120 think all that type of stuff aided in his discovery, 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:12.800 which ultimately led to where he's at now. That was 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:14.920 gonna be my other questions. So I don't think it 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:19.520 just ends at Twitch. So people are not only are 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:22.640 they streaming on Twitch, they're clipping their videos, they're putting 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:24.960 it on YouTube, they're putting them on Instagram, they're putting 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:28.960 them on Twitter. It's a full time job. So do 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:33.400 you think had Ninja not been utilizing other social media 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:35.600 platforms that he would be where he is today, Because 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:40.000 maybe Drake wouldn't just be on Twitch randomly, but he 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:42.520 saw a clip on Instagram or somebody tagged him because 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:46.040 they know that Drake's a huge Fortnite fan, and somebody's like, oh, 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:47.720 this is a sick play let me tag Drake. Now, 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:50.040 all of a sudden, Drake knows about Ninja. Do you 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:54.320 when you are talking to and helping shape partners or 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.320 giving them advice, are you advising them to use these 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.280 other platforms as well? For sure? I think syndicase of 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.520 your content, especially after your streams are over, are super 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.119 important because it gives you the opportunity to be discovered 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:08.520 in other places. And I think ultimately you want to 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:10.440 build up your brand. When you look at my team 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:12.359 and look at what they're focusing on, they're focused on 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:14.439 building up creators from the ground up, not only on 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:17.800 the Twitch level, but holistically so well. We can't double 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:19.720 into every side of their business. We do try to 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:23.000 encourage them to to to to be effective and be 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:25.439 smart about how they're syndicating their content and do it 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:27.719 mindfully right. Don't just put it in every single platform 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:28.959 for the sake of putting it on there. Do it 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.360