Michael Seibel

Michael Seibel is former Co-Founder & CEO of mobile video startup Socialcam and live streaming startup Justin.tv. Socialcam was acquired by Autodesk Inc. in August 2012 for $60 million. Currently, Michael is a Part-time Partner at Y-Combinator.

Michael Seibel was born in Brooklyn, NY, and lived there for his first nine years. His family then moved to East Brunswick, NJ, where he graduated from East Brunswick High School in 2000. After graduating Michael moved to New Haven, CT, where he received a bachelors degree in political science at Yale University in 2005. He has two younger siblings and parents are from Brooklyn, NY and State College, PA.

In the winter of 2006, Michael joined Justin Kan, Emmett Shear and Kyle Vogt to start Justin.tv. Justin.tv launched in March 2007 as an online reality tv show featuring Justin Kan broadcasting his life 24/7. In the summer of 2007, Justin.tv raised financing from Alsop Louie Partners and in the fall of 2007, Justin.tv was reborn as a platform where anyone could broadcast or watch live video from anywhere in the world. By the fall of 2010 - after raising additional capital from Alsop Louie Partners and Tim Draper - Justin.tv become profitable and the founders decided to work on two new projects from within the company: Socialcam and Twitch.tv.

Socialcam is the easiest way share video with friends and family from your smartphone. After launching in the spring of 2011 the founders of Justin.tv decided to spin off the app into a new company in early 2012. Socialcam was spun out with three founders, Guillaume Luccisano, Ammon Bartram and Michael Seibel. The company participated in the Y-Combinator winter 2012 class and added over 13 million iOS and Android downloads in 3 months during the spring and summer of 2013. Autodesk Inc. bought Socialcam for $60 million in July 2012.

After selling Socialcam, Michael became a Part-time Partner at Y-Combinator. Y-Combinator is a startup accelerator in Mountain View, CA. It helps early stage startups launch, grow, and raise seed capital.