The Quest Pod with Justin Kan

I started The Quest to share the stories and lessons that I wish I had heard 15 years ago. Building and selling Twitch was an inflection point for me in the past decade. I worked my ass off, made money, took vacations and felt like I was on top of the world. I blew past the goals I had set for myself in the beginning. But what was fascinating was that while I felt more accomplished, I wasn’t any happier. I was just holding on to more things. The desire to go bigger and make more nagged constantly at me. After a year and a half at Y Combinator, I left and set out to build another company in the most mercenary way I can think of, then lost millions when it fell apart. On this episode, I reflect on the trap of the hedonic treadmill. It led me down a dangerous path chasing material possessions and peer approval - things I thought would fulfil me, but only made me feel perpetually dissatisfied. 🎥 Watch The Quest with video: https://www.youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest​🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest​

If social media is a game, Josh Richards would have won it before learning how to drive. He isn't just doing the numbers: on top of 24 million followers on TikTok, Josh co-founded an energy drink company, built a creator house and made his name in venture capital as one of the most watched Gen Z VCs. But there's much more to his story. Having streamed 4 hours daily for 2 years on a platform that eventually died, Josh grew up knowing the career he chose could end any minute. Though only 19, he has learned his share of life lessons that with a great platform comes great responsibility - despite not having even made it to prom. In this conversation we talk about moving to LA, breaking into venture, proving his worth as a board member, and helping shape the creators universe. You can find Josh Richards on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest​🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest​

Born and raised in Germany, Laura Behrens Wu came to Silicon Valley at 22 to intern at a Y Combinator-backed startup. In just 4 years, she decided to 'figure out shipping' and built Shippo, an E-commerce software startup which raised more than $57 million in funding and now serves one-third of businesses exporting from the U.S. I met Laura in 2017 and witnessed her incredible growth from a YC intern to a WTO speaker alongside Jack Ma. As the CEO of a 170-person company, she’s had big expectations to live up to. Her struggles as an entrepreneur remind me of the early days of Justin.tv, and her story breaking into the Valley as an outsider is a testament to all young founders worldwide hoping to make it big. 🙏 Shoutout to Asian Hustle Network! We live-streamed this interview with our first community partner Asian Hustle Network, a 70K-strong community empowering Asian entrepreneurial voices. You can check out their podcast here. 🎥 Watch this episode with video: https://youtu.be/Ew9bmI5aWLc🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest​🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest​

Mark Cuban needs no introduction. With a net worth of $4.3 billion, he walks around and things just sort themselves out. I have always looked up to Mark as a pioneer in Internet streaming: he was one of the first investors we cold-emailed when building Justin.tv. He did not invest - we were too small for shark food! A lot of things changed since then, yet Mark managed to always stay ahead of the curve. His empire grew beyond sports and media into pharmacy, networks and blockchains. He became a father of 3 and considered running for president. I've always wondered how he does it all and I'm very excited to share our conversation with you all. 🎥 Watch this episode with video: https://youtu.be/4twNOeiZ3XM🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Check out our website: https://justinkan.club​

Carole Robin changed my life. She is my leadership coach and taught the most popular elective at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Interpersonal Dynamics (nicknamed Touchy Feely) for 17 years. Her T-group has helped many of my founder friends, including Jason Tan and Dan Kan (my brother), grow into great leaders at multi-million dollar companies. I most admire Carole for her vulnerability-first leadership. Going through her program, Leaders In Tech, helped me learn to label my emotions, and gave me the vocabulary to connect and relate to others without a mask. This is my core mission at The Quest, and I am super excited about her new book 'Connect', where she shares her teachings with the world.Connect with Carole on LinkedIn and purchase her book here (releasing today)!Feedback? DM or @ us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedInStrapped for time? Sign up to The Quest Digest to get a takeaways summary!

Emmett Shear is my co-founder and the CEO of Twitch, the world's biggest live-streaming platform. Growing up, Emmett and I never lived more than a mile and a half away from each other. We've always wanted to build things: from dreaming of our own Scientology-like religion to launching an experiment with NASA into space (which we actually did as high school students). Many of these experiments failed, one turned out different - and we sold it to Amazon for a billion dollars. On this episode, we reminisce on how the past 10 years went. We talk about writing web applications, building Kiko and Justin.tv, what we learned as investors, and whether capitalism works. Being a CEO is challenging - it's especially great to hear Emmett share some of his learnings, many of which I resonate with deeply. 🎥 Watch this episode with video: https://youtu.be/XCzPh-nq4bM🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest​🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest​

Bryce Hall is the star that Justin.tv (and later Twitch) had hoped to create. At 21 years old, he is a social media phenom with 25M+ followers across platforms such as TikTok and YouTube. Bryce's rise to superstardom started with a yearning for connection: he started live-streaming after being bullied in high school, and in 6 years took over all the headlines and now lives 24/7 in his haters' head, rent-free. I knew Bryce from appearing on his podcast, Capital University. I loved his determination and hustle, and invited him to come on The Quest. We talked about making viral content, building a fanbase through the demise of Vine and YouNow, founding Sway House and Ani Energy, and finding TikTok hacks. Bryce is our youngest guest on The Quest, and this was a great crash course on Gen Z for me. 🎥 Watch this episode with video: https://youtu.be/OViNnS2r-20🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Check out our website: https://justinkan.club

Hi guys! The Quest team here. We are supposed to be dropping an episode today on politics, philanthropy and psychedelics. However, that episode is too good that we want to spend a bit more time polishing it up (it's recorded outside, so the audio is not as smooth).We want to instead launch the first of a mini-series we are doing: Justin's Quest University. Since many of us are attending university via Zoom nowadays, why can't we do it over podcast? We've booked you a 1:1 slot with Justin talking about a Questie-favourite topic: forming habits. In 10 short minutes, listen to Justin's summary of Atomic Habits, a New York Times Best-Seller by James Clear, and his tips on implementing James' tips in your own lives (from home gyms to keto). We hope you enjoy this short tutorial, and will see you again when the semester starts! 🎥 Watch The Quest with video: https://www.youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

Jaeson Ma is the most interesting person in the world. He is celebrated as one of the most prominent Asian media moguls of our time, as the founder of East West Ventures, co-founder of 88rising and Stampede Ventures, as well as the Principal of Triller.But Jaeson is much more: he defies every definition of what the road to success should look like. After selling drugs as a kid, he found Christ, then worked for MC Hammer and later became a missionary and occasional exorcist. He's also recorded an EP with Bruno Mars and led prayers for Jeremy Lin on his first big night before #Linsanity broke out.Our editor had a hard time choosing what stories to leave out, so we've decided to give you the full Jaeson Ma experience. This is the wildest conversation I've had at The Quest, and I hope you get to enjoy it as much as I did.🎥 Watch this episode with video: https://youtu.be/VcfrVZSy29s🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Check out our website: https://justinkan.club

LA has always been a tale of two cities. Prophet grew up in the less fortunate one, and spent his formative years in a prision cell. At 16, he served 6 years behind bars, with 9 months in solitary confinement for refusing to stab an inmate. Luckily, he never lost his soul. Instead, Prophet became an engineer at 22, ran for office at 26 and founded Treehouse, LA's first co-living startup project, at 32. He made it out of the hood - then came back, to build communities, using concrete. For this, he was invited to join First Lady at the State of the Union address in 2015. I want to kick off 2021 with this story because it is such an incredible journey, and it shows what's possible with hard work, dedication and patience: you get to grow roses, from concrete. P.S. I did an AMA this week! We've just launched the Quest Fellows application too: you can apply at justin.quest. Link to AMA: here. Quest Fellows application: here.

It's finally coming to an end... 2020 has been a crazy year. Going through lockdowns has been stressful, though I spent a lot more time with family and friends I hadn't connected with for a while. I'm glad that many of those moments have been documented on the podcast: my goal is to tell the Justin Kan of 10 years ago what I know to be important today. Doing this gives me peace, and makes me feel happy. Going into 2021, I want The Quest to evolve with you all. We are launching a Fellows program to co-build the podcast with this community. We want people walking their own paths to be involved in our production process, work with me, and be in the room for when the conversation happens live. Applications for The Quest Fellows goes live on Jan 5th, 12pm PST. I will be hosting a Reddit AMA at the same time at r/IAmA to answer any questions you might have. Looking forward to what the New Year brings. Happy holidays and stay safe. 🎥 The Quest YouTube experience: https://youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan💬 Reddit AMA: link🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

As we head into Season 2 of The Quest in 2021, I want to take you all back to the beginning. I started The Quest to share the stories of those who have found happiness and deeper meaning beyond success. This was inspired by a 15-year journey of my own, often grueling but one which I would not trade for the world. On this episode, I go back to my roots. I talk to Anne Miura-Ko, one of our first investors in Justin.tv (the company that eventually grew into Twitch) at my alma mater Yale University. We talk about my college days, the experience of being a part of YC's inaugural cohort and working with Emmett and Michael for the first time. We cover the setbacks, the times where I felt lost, and how those times put me on a path in search of fulfillment. Merry Christmas and I hope you guys enjoy this extra episode. P.S. watch out for a big annoucement next week for The Quest 2021! 🎥 The Quest YouTube experience: https://youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

Amitt Mahajan is the co-creator of Farmville, the single most popular Facebook game that brought in $1B+ in total player purchases. He is also a close friend who introduced me to daily gratitute journaling, a habiting I have kept for two years. On this epsiode we go through the lessons he learned and unlearned building Farmville, and the path he charted to become the source of his own approval. We talk about lead-climbing for each other, auditing energy and finding our flow machines. We also announce Kin for the first time in public: the wellness app that Amit and I have been working on for the past six months. 🎥 The Quest YouTube experience: https://youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

By popular request: I speak to my brother, Dan Kan about what it was like growing up in the Kan household. Dan is the co-founder of Cruise, a self-driving car company that sold to General Motors for more than $1B. We talk about the moments from our formative years that set us up as entrepreneurs, founding a company together, learning to talk about emotions, negotiating a billion dollar deal with GM, and much more. 🎥 The Quest YouTube experience: https://youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

Matt Gamache-Asselin is one of the scrappiest entrepreneurs I’ve ever met. Five years ago, he was a junior engineer at Facebook, dreaming about startups. Today, he’s the founder of Alto, a digital pharmacy startup that serves tens of thousands of patients and has raised $350M in investment funding. I’ve watched him struggle, survive, and thrive on his journey, and am lucky to consider him a close personal friend. In the podcast we discuss coming to Silicon Valley and founding Alto, the grind of the early days, conflict aversion, learning from mentors, meditation, and more. 🎥 The Quest YouTube experience: https://youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

Janusz Welin is a meditation teacher and the cofounder of Deep Mindfulness Collective. He’s also my meditation teacher, and helped me transform my own life through meditation. Janusz and I talk about his background as an artist, how art relates to meditation, what awakening actually is, how meditation intersects with technology, and much more. 🎥 Check out our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/TheQuestwithJustinKan🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

I sat down today with my friend Scott Phoenix, founder and CEO of AI startup Vicarious. Vicarious is dedicated to creating Artificial General Intelligence and ushering forth a new golden age of robotics, and Scott has raised over $150m to do it. Two things I love about Scott: his dedication and focus to a singular mission to create AI, and his adoption of Conscious Leadership, a management philosophy that fundamentally changes the way we relate to ourselves and others. Learning about Conscious Leadership was one of the most impactful things that has happened for me in the past few years. In our conversation we talk about both those things, as well as our relationship with death, the difficulties founding a startup, and much more. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🌎 Everything Quest: https://justinkan.club

Steve Huffman is the founder and CEO of Reddit. I’ve watched his whole journey since we both started as entrepreneurs in 2005: from founding Reddit, getting acquired by Conde Nast, leaving the company and coming back again as CEO in 2015. In this episode Steve opened up in a broad ranging conversation that covered the Reddit origin story, his personal growth journey, quitting alcohol, his sometimes contentious relationship to the Reddit community, and more. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq✍️ Newsletter: https://thequestpod.substack.com🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest​🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest​

Arlan Hamilton, the founder of Backstage Capital, a VC firm focused on backing underrepresented minority founders, and one of the most determined people I’ve ever met. Five years ago, knowing nothing about the technology industry she set out to become a VC no matter what -- even spending time homeless and living out of the SF airport to make it happen. We talk about her new book, resilience and determination, what she’s learned from being an investor in over 150 companies, overcoming alcohol addiction, and more. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest/​​​​ 🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest/​​​

A tale of two industries. In this episode we talk to Ranidu Lankage, my cofounder of Whale (among other ventures) and Sri Lankan Pop Artist/DJ. In our conversation, Ranidu shared what it was like to grow up in a country during a civil war, his journey of becoming a Sri Lankan pop star, how he got into tech, and all the lessons learned along the way. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest/​​​​ 🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest/​​​

In this episode I get “Closer” with Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, known to the world as the DJ duo The Chainsmokers. I love the energy that Alex and Drew bring to everything they do, and this podcast was no exception. In a fun discussion, we talk about the early days of hacking Hype Machine to launch their careers, breaking out with Selfie, becoming Grammy winning musicians and DJs, the ups and downs of music and facing depression, and what they look for in founders they invest in. Join us in a first interview and open discussion the duo has had since announcing their social media hiatus this year. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest/​​​​ 🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest/​​​

I sit down with Glen Moriarty, psychologist and the founder of 7 Cups of Tea. 7 Cups is a platform that provides online support and has helped over 50 million people. Since I first heard about 7 Cups years ago I loved their mission to connect volunteer listeners with anyone battling loneliness, depression or anxiety, anywhere in the world. Glen and I talked about wellness startups, getting funded by Y Combinator, the ups and downs of Glen's journey and the power of habits. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest/​​​​ 🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest/​​​

Life as a champion isn't always as golden as it appears. In this episode I sat down with my friend Festus Ezeli, professional basketball player and 2015 NBA Champion with the Golden State Warriors. We discuss first learning to play basketball at the age of fifteen and how six years later he was in the NBA, the road to winning a championship, what it was like to get a serious injury and the path to acceptance, and the most important lesson learned from his mother. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest/​​​​ 🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest/​​​

Jason Tan is the founder and CEO of Sift, a digital trust and safety startup that has raised over $100m to make the internet a safer place. We have spent a lot of time together during quarantine, and what I love most about Jason is that he always keeps an open mind and is one of the most curious people I know. In the episode, Jason opened up about battling depression while building a startup. We talk about his origin story, founding Sift, T groups and learning to talk about emotions, and the transformational power ayahuasca had for both of us. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest/​​​​ 🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest/​​​

I sat down with my Justin.tv cofounder, Michael Seibel, to talk about how we turned our live reality show Justin.tv into the global platform that eventually became Twitch. Michael is currently the CEO of Y Combinator, the seed stage fund known as the first investor in Stripe, Dropbox, Instacart, Coinbase, Reddit, and thousands of other startups. Michael is one of my closest friends and an amazing mentor. In this episode we talk about his education at Yale, founding Justin.tv together, mentoring the Airbnb founders early on, how to get funded by Y Combinator, and so much more. 🍎 iTunes: https://apple.co/3lU3fZs🎵 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3srzJwq🎧 Transcripts (soon): https://justin.quest/​​​​ 🌎 Everything Quest: https://listen.justin.quest/​​​

Let's take this journey together. The Quest premieres on September 29, 2020.