Michael Seibel (born October 7, 1982) is a partner at

Y Combinator Y Combinator, LLC (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator and venture capital firm launched in March 2005 which has been used to launch more than 5,000 companies. The accelerator program started in Boston and Mountain View, Californi ...

and co-founder of two startups –

Justin.tv Justin.tv was a website created by Justin Kan, Emmett Shear, Michael Seibel, and Kyle Vogt in 2007 to allow anyone to broadcast video online. Justin.tv user accounts were called "channels", like those on YouTube, and users were encouraged t ...

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

and Socialcam. He first joined Y Combinator in 2013, advising hundreds of startups, and has been active in promoting diversity efforts among startup founders.

Education & Startups

Seibel was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and calls

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

his favorite city. He moved to

East Brunswick, New Jersey East Brunswick is a Township (New Jersey), township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The suburban bedroom community is part of the New York metropolitan area and is located on the southern sho ...

as a pre-teen and is a 2000 graduate of East Brunswick High School. At

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, he majored in political science and became friends with

Justin Kan Justin Kan (born July 16, 1983) is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder of live video platforms Justin.tv and Twitch, as well as the mobile social video application Socialcam. He was also the co-founder and fo ...

. After his graduation in 2005, he worked as a finance director for

Kweisi Mfume Kweisi Mfume ( ; born Frizzell Gerard Tate; October 24, 1948) is an American politician who is the U.S. representative for Maryland's 7th congressional district, first serving from 1987 to 1996 and again since 2020. A member of the Democratic ...

's unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate in 2006. He then moved to Silicon Valley to co-found

, and became CEO at the company (from 2007 to 2011). He then became CEO of Socialcam, 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). In 2014 Justin.tv was renamed Twitch Interactive and later that year sold to Amazon for $970 million.

Startup Mentoring, Y Combinator, Investments, Board Seats

In 2008, Michael Seibel was a key mentor to the co-founders of

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( , an abbreviation of its original name, "Air Bed and Breakfast") is an American company operating an online marketplace for short-and-long-term homestays, experiences and services in various countries and regions. It acts as a ...

and recommended them to Y Combinator. In 2013 he became a part-time partner at

and joined Y Combinator as its first African-American partner in October 2014. He became CEO of the Y Combinator Startup Accelerator in 2016. On March 15, 2024, Seibel announced in
post on X
that he was stepping down from his leadership role at Y Combinator after 8 years and returning to his original role of partner. Some of Seibel's personal startup investments include Cruise, Brex, Figma, Rippling, Reddit, Clipboard Health, and Promise. On June 10, 2020, it was announced that Seibel was named a

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

board member, replacing

Alexis Ohanian Alexis Kerry Ohanian (; born April 24, 1983) is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is best known as the co-founder and former executive chairman of the social media site Reddit along with Steve Huffman and Aaron Swartz. He also ...

, who resigned on June 5, 2020, in response to the

murder of George Floyd On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old White police officer. Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported that he made a purchase using a c ...

. In his resignation announcement, Ohanian had urged Reddit's board of directors to fill his vacant board seat with a black candidate. Reddit later named Seibel as the "first black board member in the company's history". On December 15, 2020, it was announced that Seibel was named to the

Dropbox Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropbox w ...

board of directors.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seibel, Michael 1982 births Living people 21st-century American businesspeople Y Combinator people Reddit people 21st-century African-American businesspeople Businesspeople from Brooklyn East Brunswick High School alumni People from East Brunswick, New Jersey 20th-century African-American people

Education & Startups

Startup Mentoring, Y Combinator, Investments, Board Seats

See also

References