Michael Seibel | |
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Born | New York City, U.S. | October 7, 1982
Education | Yale University |
Michael Seibel (born October 7, 1982) is a managing director at Y Combinator and co-founder of two startups – Justin.tv/Twitch and Socialcam.[1][2] He first joined Y Combinator in 2013, advising hundreds of startups, and has been active in promoting diversity efforts among startup founders.[3][4]
Seibel was born in Brooklyn and calls New York City his favorite city.[5] He moved to East Brunswick, New Jersey as a pre-teen and is a 2000 graduate of East Brunswick High School.[6] At Yale, he majored in political science and became friends with Justin Kan. After his graduation in 2005, he worked as a finance director for Kweisi Mfume's unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 2006. He then moved to Silicon Valley to co-found Justin.tv, and became CEO at the company (from 2007 to 2011). He then became CEO of Socialcam,[7] a social video-sharing app that launched in March 2011 and sold to Autodesk for $60 million in 2012 (after existing for only 18 months). He became a part-time partner at Y Combinator in January 2013, and joined Y Combinator as its first African-American partner in October 2014.[8][9] In 2014 Justin.tv was renamed Twitch Interactive[10] and later that year sold to Amazon for $970 million.[11]
Some of his investments include Cruise (which sold to GM for $1 billion),[12] Luxe, Walker and Company, Locol, Bluesmart, Scentbird, Lugg, Jopwell, Triplebyte and Bellabeat.[citation needed]
In 2016, he mentioned the need for more startups serving parents with young kids. He mentioned Clever and Panorama Education - both Y Combinator graduates, as promising examples.[1] He became CEO of the Y Combinator Core unit in 2016, where he will help execute Y Combinator's plan to wind down fellowships and to start a MOOC that serves as an open-to-anyone, lightweight version of YC.[13]
Before joining YC, Michael Seibel was a key mentor to the co-founders of Airbnb and recommended them to Y Combinator.[14][15]
On June 10, 2020, it was announced that Seibel was named a Reddit board member, replacing Alexis Ohanian, who resigned on June 5, 2020, in response to the murder of George Floyd.[16] In his resignation announcement, Ohanian had urged Reddit's board of directors to fill his vacant board seat with a black candidate.[17][18] Reddit later named Seibel as the "first black board member in the company's history".[19]
On December 15, 2020, it was announced that Seibel was named to the Dropbox board of directors.[20]