I Messed Up and I'm Sorry | Storytime with Justin Kan

Last year, I had to face reality and deal with the fact that I messed up and let down people I cared about. This is the story of how my legal tech startup, Atrium, failed. Watch to hear the full story.
SUBSCRIBE TO MY ADVICE AND LIFE STORIES ► / justinkanvlog
SUBSCRIBE TO MY PODCAST ► / thequestwithjustinkan
I'm Justin Kan and I've been through the ups and downs in the startup world. I started Justin.tv, which morphed into Twitch and sold it to Amazon for almost $1 billion, became a partner at Y Combinator, and now I'm investing at my venture capital firm, Goat Capital, and working on my podcast, The Quest. Now, I want to share my stories, startup advice, throwback stories, life advice, behind-the-scenes content and what helped me achieve happiness here on KZbin.
If you liked this video, don't forget to bang that like button and SUBSCRIBE for new videos EVERY Thursday!
Questions? Reach out to [e-mail].
FOLLOW ME:
Twitter: / justinkan
TikTok: / justinkan
LinkedIn: / justinkan
LISTEN TO THE QUEST, MY PODCAST:
iTunes: pod.link/15330...
Spotify: open.spotify.c...
Everything Quest: justinkan.club/
GET EXTRA CONTENT AND MORE:
Sign up to my newsletter: thequestpod.su...
Edited by Allen Pascua and Jen Lee ( / backseatvc )
#JustinKan​ #Atrium #Failing
------------------------------
NCS Dream by Di Young • Di Young - Pixel Pig ​
Creative Commons Attribution license
Free Download / Stream: bit.ly/-ncs-dr...
Music promoted by Audio Library • NCS Dream - Di Young (...

[@JustinKanTV]

If this story resonated you, please subscribe! Help me get to 100K :)

[@izzyyoung5352]

Much respect to you man for sharing this. You've accomplished more than more people do in a lifetime, and we all have our own blind spots and make mistakes. To own up to a mistake, takes tremendous maturity. Keep at it man :)

[@hunterpruett5455]

Will be sharing with my friends, thanks man. You've got some really valuable content out there that I think lots of young guys/teens like myself could learn from.

[@DiabeticGameGuy]

I learn so much from you! Your vids are amazing, and you will hit the 100k very soon. -Diabetic Gameguy

[@KitsunePixel]

Thank you for sharing this Justin! Great video!

[@vibinvp8882]

Thanks for the pep talk

[@arnoudt]

90% of startups fail 99% of startup stories are about success @Justin Kan, thank you so much for this type of content!

[@jensentung]

This man is a living legend.

[@1991MHsffd]

💯💯💯

[@altfiwithleighlommen310]

Don't know about that, but I like his videos.

[@sleepywolf1533]

@@altfiwithleighlommen310 what do you consider a legend then? This guy built one of the world’s biggest platform. If he’s not a legend, who is?

[@jadelahmad]

Yep

[@JustinKanTV]

Appreciate you!

[@TheDamonChen]

Watching the failure story is worth more than watching 10 successful stories. Thanks for sharing your story Justin 👍

[@pridify]

Especially from someone who is very successful.

[@AndresTheDesigner]

"Marketing as a primary differentiator is not good enough, if the product isn't better..." only facts spoken here.

[@Kidpambi]

Man, this channel is pure GOLD

[@acastanaz]

💎

[@kelvinxg6754]

indeed

[@JustinKanTV]

Thanks for watching!

[@GuillaumeVerdonA]

I can't believe these videos are free. Thank you for taking the time to share your entrepreneurial wisdom 🙏

[@arthurbulan]

I skipped out on atrium as an engineer in 2018 because I didn't understand the tech, and value it was providing. Another big turn off which founders don't realizeay be a turn off, is hiring fast like "we plan on doubling engineering every 6 months" type of vibe. To me this just means it will be chaos.

[@SheenaAvena]

You created a new world through Justin TV and Twitch. You have nothing else to prove. Thank you for your honesty and vulnerability. Love your content!

[@anisankaran2365]

Mad respect for you for making this video...takes balls to put out a hardcore self analysis of a personal failure.

[@zes7215]

wrr

[@traderstan1438]

Thanks for sharing. Accepting a 75m loss had possibly felt like a hit in the gut, but man one needs the courage to do that

[@sekkes]

Humbling to listen to. I was part of a hyper growth startup in LA that shutdown over night. It was a rough spot to be in for everyone - but the CEO never even spoke to the team or apologized in the way you are now. Communication goes a long way after failure

[@carlosangelchen6021]

It is very brave from your part to share with us your failure. Its means more than succes, because from failure you can learn a lot of things. Thank you for your experience

[@justinh5076]

Failure is not an option until it is and that's painful on many levels. Thanks for being so authentic 👍

[@zes7215]

wrgg, no such thing as painx or etc

[@ghostbuster8377]

Please also talk about finding co founders and partnerships. Its often difficult to find partners and i always avoid doing business with friends because i might lose the friendship when things go sour. Thanks for this great vid

[@systemsecure4648]

Finding a co-founder and other partnerships is difficult when your friends either do not have an interest in your pursuits or have no relevant skills that would be beneficial to building a startup. Justin definitely got luckily knowing Emmit since grade school as with any partnership trust is critical to back you up during the really rough times.

[@GabrielSestrem]

That's why I like product led growth and bootstrapping

[@Peaceseeker917]

I just recently discovered your channel and I'm grateful to you for your business tips, stories, transparency and your the epitome of a true entrepreneur.

[@sahil9146]

This was awesome. Thanks for sharing. I just shutdown my first startup about 12 months ago. You've inspired me to want to share my story and lessons learnt as well. I spent a long time trying to find good first hand content from startup founders that closed down their business to help me get through the difficult period but there isn't a lot of authentic content like this around. We need to have more founders share their experiences on failure and how they got through it as its such an important part of the process.

[@hishamurai]

Clickbait title should be: "How I wasted 75 Million Dollars". This was amazing to hear you be so candid about it, keep it up man!

[@isoaxe]

50 million. He returned 25 million to investors.

[@OshMax]

dude, you're the man, it's so hard to find people that are real. You are trying and giving people the real experience on the high end of life. Thank you SO MUCH!

[@wava4822]

Literally the best free wisdom out rn Justin is a legend.

[@shanemason89]

Thank you for this sincere and emotionally intelligent telling of a high-stakes failure. I'm an entrepreneur and I often struggle with how to get through the day to day emotional rollercoaster. Thank you for your advice of focusing on being present and thinking "ill get through this". That really helps.

[@MA-zg2pz]

❤

[@willchee4366]

Thank you for sharing your story. I too laid off employees back in 2019 and the way you explained what you felt was exactly the same way I felt when my business had to come to an abrupt halt. It was a very humbling experience. But the lessons I learnt will be applied to my future endeavors so that the mistakes I made will not be repeated again. Really nice to have genuine and open hearted guys like you on KZbin.

[@excessorizeme]

A real OG.

[@grantschultz1115]

Wow, it’s impressive to make it through something you see as a big failure and grow, and it’s even more impressive to share the story publicly while taking full responsibility so others can learn. Thank you, I learned a lot!

[@AnthonyBecker9]

Thanks Justin. Guess this is the trap for the founder who has succeeded once-important to follow the fundamentals (make something people want) even if you’ve succeeded once before.

[@tomerre8543]

Definitely best piece of open and heart given advice by Justin. There's so much to learn in failure, most importantly what is your ultimate purpose as a human being.

[@kerim4973]

Justin, as an executive director in my 20's, you are my greatest inspiration. Thank you so much for opening up about this topic. Your content helps me a ton, really I feel like I'm in dept to you. Thank you. :)

[@lesryglrhfohser]

tf is an executive director lol

[@layomayo1883]

@@lesryglrhfohser In countries outside the us if u call urself a ceo n have less then 250-1000 employees ur known as a joke so i.e. director is a perfect title

[@buranalim]

This really resonate with me, I was a founder and couple of times as a founding member. The hustle and the learning curve was amazing, but I was not happy. Until covid happened and we need to shut down our company, this helped me rethink what I want in life and what truly makes me happy.

[@Horacel34]

Great introspection and honesty in this video Justin!

[@eliseerickson5994]

all apology/failure videos are always filmed on the floor or bed, never the normal filming spot haha

[@wojciechjankowski117]

Bed background +3 apology Justin already has 99 so it's just for the memes ;D

[@sheet3335]

atleast theres no tears or *sigh* at the intro

[@JH-jz1sd]

Make the apology more real, less scripted right?

[@DJVARAO]

For drama

[@taniachara77]

😂😂😂

[@rdrocketandduck3573]

Entrepreneurship/ceo isn’t mentally for everyone, even for accomplished one like Justin.

[@mikemoss6110]

Atrium helped my YC company through some tough times. Even though your company died, as a previous customer, I appreciated you for creating the business.

[@systemsecure4648]

This video was incredibly insightful. The way this sit down has a 'close friend telling you their missteps in life' type of vibe.

[@imani828]

"Marketing as a primary differentiator is not good enough if the product is not better in some way" - Gems by Justin Kan

[@jillianlee950]

Thanks for sharing the un-happy ending story. The fact that you can share what you went through is a testament to the impact it made on your life and that is something really encouraging to others. We can and will survive through our failures, and they aren’t the end of the story. Startups are hard and most will fail, but that doesn’t have to be the end of the story either. So glad you’re making content! 🙏

[@bdinh14]

Found out of you through Art of Startup via Jumpcut and followed your journey ever since. Appreciate you man and props to you for being vulnerable and transparent.

[@kaushiksjourney]

Everybody talks about success. Thank you for addressing failure too!

[@Friday4]

Thank you for sharing your difficult story , there’s something we all can learn from your experience.

[@LovvTier]

Someone just starting my journey. I appreciate all the knowledge and experiences you drop. Thank you very much. Wish you all much success

[@MrPinyworld]

Well done Justin, it takes a lot to accept your mistake and say sorry in public! Your story is inspiring and refreshing!

[@MK-nj5bm]

This takes guts I'm actually thinking of making a channel on my experience and failure helping people cope with the reality of failure and startup grind.

[@boombajajo]

That last bit was so profound. It's true. You see so many founders you think that's what you're supposed to do. But maybe it's not, and that's okay. I needed to hear that. Thank you

[@bamboograssburned]

Confused. You said you didn't have a culture and as a result there was too much friction. You also said you were not empathetic as a manager. Then around 12:50 you talk about how you'd built a culture around conscious leadership. Were the other cofounders casualties of the (un)conscious leadership?

[@jameszhan3305]

Great video Justin. I actually finished 2 interviews with Atrium as a Senior Product Manager - when I heard back from the recruiter about some restructuring within the organization and the role was no longer available. It was one thing to read about what happened to the company but another to hear from you. Haha honestly one of the main reason why I even interviewed was because I looked up to you and wanted a chance to speak to you.

[@DanielBrasilia]

Fantastic testimonial! Total TED material as far as storytelling and as a cautionary tale. Some years ago I was in a similar experience, though the values involved were astronamically inferior and just before a critical moment, the startup folded by everyone's choice. Afterwards I dedicated myself to studying for government exams and discovered myself an excellent public service employee.

[@icakali3158]

wow, this is very vulnerable moment, a part of being a good leader, it's hard to realize that we're lacking on empathy and what more admitting it

[@adz333]

Such a good story and lesson. Thanks for your honesty

[@earlyspark]

dude, thanks for sharing your failure stories -- most of us know you as the SUCCESS story but it's so encouraging in our own lives to hear real stories of even successful ppl can fail, so we can learn from those experiences.

[@orkhanhelp]

absolutely amazing, the honesty is over the roof

[@KirillZubovsky]

Shutting down a company is a painful and long-lasting experience. You can get past it, but not over it. It sucks. But at least you gave it your best. Going through life on a cruise control would have been so much worse. p.s. You made a great YC partner. Wish we had more office hours with you!

[@winstonwilkins]

I identify with you so much. Thanks for sharing this.

[@rishishiva7875]

I was an Atrium customer, loved the service. Sad the service didn't make it. But it is still needed in this space.

[@CixLiv]

Thank you Justin for your radical transparency. It's great for all the founders!

[@rafidhoda]

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences Justin! It's so refreshing to hear someone like you talk about a recent failure in such an open way. A lot of interviews or podcast episodes that feature "successful" people have them share their failures. However, those failure stories always lead to the successful end, making those failures "worth it". But failures are hard and everyone goes through small and big failures throughout their lives, except most of us never experience a huge success.

[@kozmik4848]

He founded twitch. So he has had a huge success.

[@mirjanabosnjak8064]

This is not failure. Life is messy, life will always be messy with good and bad things happening

[@footballbizzcom]

I have followed you since day 1 Justin - of all your videos. This is by far the best and helpful for me now, since I am at same stage

[@Pompnumber]

Hey man, I clicked on this video at the right time. As a leader, its tricky and it feels like you on your own at times, I want to thank you for making this video, truly saved my day. Much love from South Africa. :-)

[@AmirTavassoly]

Thank you so much for doing these videos Justin! It means so much man

[@topdnbass]

This hit pretty hard, just had my own failure so I took a lot from your insights

[@mixxxer]

Every single founder should watch this.

[@gundarvarr1024]

TqJustin, u make me on fire again making my startup after 3 years not moving at all.

[@obscureorca]

Thank you very much Justin. This is incredibly valuable stuff.

[@hammadakbar6494]

Great video. I had a similar experience. On a much small scaler in terms of funds but wiped out all my funding (bootstrapped) and years of extreme hard work. I knew within 6 months, I needed to shut down and restart/pivot. However that 'I am 90% there' mentality coupled with the common wisdom 'Don't give up', I kept pushing... End result was: -Years of extreme hard work and misery. -Ruined personal relationships. -Lots of funds wasted. In the end, I only shut it down when my entire development team resigned all in one go. They had equally been miserable... It can get damn murky in the startup world...

[@joshie902100]

Very humbling to discuss this experience. Thank you for sharing great lessons across this video.

[@linebyline901]

Thank you Justin for your vulnerable and sincere sharing. You and your channel are GOLD.

[@swyxTV]

thank you for being so vulnerable and sharing. amazing hair-video fit here 😂 but seriously thank you and im glad you’re on youtube now.

[@runningforglory]

Justin you're an amazing and awesome person, i learned a lot from you. Thank you so much for your videos. keep up the good word.

[@Fomocigars]

Damn Justin. Thank you for the vulnerability. I appreciate the storytelling on a wide platform like this. Will keep pressing

[@JT-wy3xl]

Thank you for sharing, Justin. It’s not easy to publicly admit mistakes

[@midokratie]

This is one of the best videos on KZbin. It resonated but more importantly, I love how honest this is. Most people will only share their success stories and then make some kind of training out of it. Here, we have the confidence of someone that knows how talking about failure will not harm the reputation because of the past success stories under your belt. Still - this was a truly unique approach. Loved it. Thanks for uploading this.

[@KismetBP]

I love how super honest and straight forward you are in these videos Justin. Love them & appreciate you putting them out. ❤️🤘

[@budrobertson7698]

Justin, you are such an inspiration! Hearing about both good and bad experiences are all great things to learn from so I appreciate your honesty and for sharing stories like this. It means a lot!

[@rocknroll7967]

Its hard man, giving your everything and still failing

[@JoonBeh]

Thanks Justin for sharing. You are still well respected in the industry!

[@stoicdoodler2998]

Brutally honest as ever.

[@pv2803]

Thanks for sharing Justin. Enjoying your content.

[@GolfRalle]

Thank you for sharing, I can really understand why it'd be hard! As a founder in the starting phase, it feels good to know I'll survive, even if it fails :) really appreciate the video

[@j1mmyMBE]

Justin - remember that 'shift happens'... it was unfortunate that you had a large equity position which created a greater impact; affecting so many... we all have our own personal responsibility, whether investor; leader; employee; etc... well done for making the attempt at rationalising, don't beat yourself up anymore, breathe in, stand up and go forward with greater knowledge and understanding... continue to 'make a difference'... (my personal 'Rotary' mantra...)

[@rajshetgar2924]

Very humbling to hear about this part of your journey even after being so successful with sale of Twitch. Failures are part of high growth mindset & definitely needed not just for figuring out product-market fit but also people, people who will stay connected during difficult times. Very inspiring and I hope this is useful to many other entrepreneurs like it has been useful for me.

[@arieltabuzojr2434]

Man, whenever I got burn out studying programming I always go to Justin channel to motivate myself not to give up.

[@investorgreats]

This video taught me to focus on the one biz where I have majority of interest and passion. Which is investing.

[@daredariuz]

I think you learn more from mistakes and from failing than from succeeding, so cool story!

[@markrussellfilaroski5035]

Just awesome! thanks for sharing man! I crashed one, and it still pains me so it's great to see how you made it therapeutic

[@BrendaLeguisamo]

Thank you for sharing! In my opinion, many people are founders or have the potential to be founders, especially when being true to themselves and taking the steps to make a positive difference in the world while achieving continued happiness during a lifetime. 🙏🏼

[@robbstat]

Full of emotional consciousness. Thank you for sharing. Wish you all the best and all for the teams.

[@IronFudge]

Appreciate the transparency! Takes alot to be honest with yourself and accept yourself for you who are.

[@leonjmroe]

Mate this is absolute golden content 10/10. Deep respect on sharing your founder story !

[@leonine5681]

Appreciate the hard cold truth Thanks Justin🙏

[@sionsmith]

Best video so far and I bet it was the hardest to film! Love learning from you 🙌🏻

[@indighosh]

Thank you for the most honest and unfiltered failure experience! The content resonates,

[@jadedarmawangsa]

this is GOLD

[@JustinKanTV]

Ahh too kind

[@darinhato2759]

This channel should have millions of subs..!! One of the coolest channels!

[@Pete_YT]

Learning: if you don’t have clear goals, the team won’t have clear roles (structure drives strategy).

[@user-or7ji5hv8y]

Appreciate it. Thanks. It really is good to hear all sides of life in startups.

[@refreshreload]

Huge amount of value just in these few minutes, so much thanks for these million dollar lessons .. damn.

[@jdavidson124]

Sup Justin - we met when you did the Array Podcast with Shruti a couple years ago. Appreciate you showing true vulnerability here - takes guts. Really love your channel man

[@robertnagy]

Love these insights to your mind through ups and downs. Keep it up! 💪🏼💪🏼

[@techporn6261]

I can fall asleep listening to this voice every night .

[@YoannBuzenet]

Thanks Justin, really great to hear. Please continue. You rock

[@FahmiEshaq]

I think you made a good move shutting it down knowing your were hitting a wall; you had to make a decision either drown further or save what's left.