June 21, 2021

#297: Jon Dahl, Co-Founder and CEO of Mux, a Video Platform for Developers, on The Changing Landscape of the Video Industry and Unexpectedly Becoming a Hyper Growth Startup

46 minutes

Jon Dahl is the Co-Founder and CEO at Mux, where he builds software to help online video get better. Before that, he was Co-Founder of Zencoder, and then VP of Technology at Brightcove, two pioneering companies in the world of online video. Mux is building the future of online video infrastructure. They started off by building Mux Data, a best-in-class performance analytics tool that’s trusted by developers at companies like Vimeo, Robinhood, CBS Interactive, Discovery, PBS, and TED. Billions of monitored streams later, they launched Mux Video, a simple API for video hosting, encoding, and streaming. Take any video file or live stream and make it play beautifully at scale on any device, powered by magical-feeling features like automatic thumbnails, animated GIFs, and data-driven encoding decisions.

Some of the Topics Covered by Jon Dahl in this Episode

What Mux is
How Jon got interested in video
Jon's experience building his previous startup, Zencoder
How Zencoder got acquired and how they made the decision to sell
Leaving Brightcove and why Jon started Mux
The video industry landscape and building Mux
Early consumer research and customer feedback
Why they started with data analytics and then added the video streaming layer
How they approached early customer acquisition and growth
Growing and strengthening their reputation and expanding sales
How the COVID-19 pandemic led to unexpected accelerated growth
Video as a part of the creator economy
How they scaled up the team during COVID and accidentally becoming a hyper growth startup
Recruiting as a function of growth and in-house versus external recruiters
Mux's hiring process
Fundraising for Mux and why they ended up raising more than they originally planned
How the video industry has changed, where it's going, and the role Mux hopes to play
What's next for Mux and opportunities in the landscape of the video industry
What fuels Jon today
What keeps Jon sane as a founder
The importance of finding meaning outside of your startup and work
Jon's advice for early stage founders
The importance of scaling yourself and having a growth mindset

Sign up for The Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/

Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/

Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

...more

View all episodes

By Justin Gordon

4.9

165165 ratings