In our recent chat with Jason Flick, former CEO and co-founder of You.i TV, he shares about the rise in the streaming wars and the change of how content is being consumed. Being a prominent figure in the streaming space, Jason knows the importance of improving technology within companies.
Check out this episode’s highlights below:
Can you tell me what You.i TV does?
There’s a couple of ways I can articulate it. One is, if you’ve ever played a video game, whether it’s Words with Friends or Candy Crush or Call of Duty, they’re awesome. So what we did is we built a video game engine, but just for apps. Ultimately, it’s an app framework and SDK (software development kit) so developers download it, build their app in it and create a really stunning experience, with the app working on all platforms.
Who is one Canadian entrepreneurial star that you like listening to and enjoy chatting with?
This one individual I’ve reached out to many times, and he saved my bacon at a couple of key points and that person would be Tobias “Tobi” Lütke. He’s a geek like myself, right? And look what he did to scale that and you know, obviously, he has to be an incredible human being to pull that all off. But then to pull it off at that scale is incredible. And just his audacity. I think, even me, like everyone says, oh, Jason, you’re so visionary and crazy and you think so big. However comparing myself to Toby, he’s just so far ahead of that. And so I would go and charge my batteries some time to talk to him and get his advice.
How do you go about finding the right people to bring aboard your “bus”?
The right person is important, but I think creating the right environment is as important. Also, the right person for someone else might be the wrong person for you, and vice versa. So a great environment and you have to make people want to work there. Because the best people know they’re the best people, that’s for sure and they want to work for the best companies.
Making yourself your company, a destination they want to work at is really key. When you’re meeting people, you’re constantly looking, you know, is this the next hire, and we doubled in size, I think four years in a row, we hired 100 people in one year like it had to be kind of baked into our DNA that we’re growing all the time. But I’ll tell you what I learned is the wrong person in the seat with the wrong incentives and the wrong culture fit for them is a disaster. It really comes down to people, especially in tech.
Check out the other amazing guests we’ve had on Afternoon “T” here.
Jason Flick is the former CEO/co-founder of You.i TV, a company that has built an interface engine to power the world’s most beautiful multi-screen video applications and is now acquired by Warner Media.
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