EU-Startups Podcast | Episode 89: Steve Chen, Co-founder & former CTO of YouTube | EU-Startups

In this episode, we sit down with Steve Chen, Co-founder and former CTO of YouTube, to explore his journey in building one of the most influential platforms in the world. Steve reflects on the key lessons learned from scaling YouTube, the pivotal decision to sell the company to Google for $1.65 billion, and his personal transition from Silicon Valley to Asia.

He also takes us behind the scenes of YouTube’s transformation from a dating platform to a global video powerhouse, shedding light on the challenges of rapid growth. Steve offers valuable insights into the rise of user-generated content, the future of video formats, his advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, and much more.

You can catch up with Steve Chen at VDS, one of Southern Europe’s most prominent international tech events, happening on October 23-24 at the iconic City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia. Steve will be sharing the stage with renowned business leaders like Randi Zuckerberg, Founder & CEO of Zuckerberg Media and HUG, and Juan Antonio Samaranch Salisachs, Vice President of the International Olympic Committee, along with many other top figures from major companies and venture capital firms.

Video version of episode 89:

Audio version of episode 89:

Key takeaways:

• You won’t believe it—YouTube started as a dating site! It then pivoted into the world’s leading video platform. The first version of your product is never the final one.
• Finding the right product-market fit was key to YouTube’s explosive growth, and it should be every startup’s North Star.
• Behind YouTube’s rapid scaling were intense technical hurdles. Keep going—it’s never going to be easy. Don’t give up on something great just because it’s difficult.
• YouTube pioneered the user-generated content wave, forever changing how we consume content and media.
• As global entrepreneurship rises, new hotspots need to emerge. Silicon Valley cannot be the only place to watch.

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