[MUSIC PLAYING]
JON DAHL: I think if you look at the world today,
there's actually a fundamental shortage of software
developers.
There's a lot more demand for software in the world
than there are developers to build it.
And so it's really important to find ways for developers
to focus on building what's most important to them.
NIRAV SHETH: Hello, everybody.
Super excited to join you here today
from Mux Headquarters, where we're
going to have a conversation around video.
All right, Jon, tell us how ubiquitous video
has become in our lives.
JON DAHL: Yeah, amazingly, video is actually
the number three thing that people do with their time.
Humans sleep first, work second, watch video third,
and then everything else is like category four.
NIRAV SHETH: Number three--
are you counting teenagers?
Because I think with teenagers, it's probably
like number one or number two.
I don't know.
JON DAHL: Yeah, that's probably true.
NIRAV SHETH: Yeah.
JON DAHL: When most of us think about video-- or certainly,
when I think about video--
I think about the end user, the consumer.
And certainly, from a Google perspective,
we've got a great brand.
SPEAKER: (SINGING) Alleluia!
NIRAV SHETH: But what we are really finding
is how video is becoming pervasive
across all fabrics of business, including the developer
experience.
Can you tell us a little bit around what you're seeing
and the kinds of things that you're
doing to serve that audience?
JON DAHL: Yeah, yeah.
When you think about video and what video is,
it's really just a really high-bandwidth way
of communicating something.
You can communicate more in like 10 seconds of video
than you can with images, or text, or a lot of things.
So we think video is actually just
really a primitive of the future of the internet.
The challenge is, it's really hard for developers
to build with video.
One way to think about it is, if you
want to put an image online, you just put an image online.
It's not a big deal.
If you want to put video online, you actually
have to build really complicated software.
You have to have great video delivery, maybe a CDN
or multiple CDNs in the mix.
You have to have a lot of compute power,
a lot of processing of video, video encoding,
things like that.
And we think that actually holds back people from doing
exciting things with video.
That's why we exist.
We think most companies should not
have to hire video experts if you want to stream video.
You should just be able to be a general developer
and build a great video experience.
We turn all those hard problems into one API call
for developers, and we do it building on top
of the Google Cloud platform.
The power that you have with YouTube,
we want to bring that power to any business that
wants to work with video.
NIRAV SHETH: That's awesome.
Thank you for your trust and confidence, Jon,
and it's so exciting to be a part of the journey with you.
And give me some thoughts on why you chose Google Cloud.
JON DAHL: Yeah.
We had some prior experience with, actually,
most of the major clouds.
And one of the things we liked about Google Cloud
was just some of the more advanced technology.
I think you can really see some of the Google heritage coming
through in the way networking is done,
the way servers are provisioned and deployed and run.
And so we're beneficiaries of some of that.
NIRAV SHETH: Jon, as we've been talking about,
Mux and Google have a shared vision about the developer
experience.
From a Google point of view, we've been on a journey--
and specifically from a Google Cloud point of view,
we've been on a journey--
to really transform and simplify the developer experience
with the toolsets, the capabilities,
the innovation platform we're bringing to market for them.
And when I complement that with some of the things
that you're bringing out, I'm so excited about the things
that we can do together.
So Jon, can you give us some perspectives on, perhaps,
how you were able to serve customers
as the pandemic arose, and how you're continuing
to serve them and help them accelerate as we come out
on the other side?
JON DAHL: There is a lot that happened during the pandemic
that's going to stick around.
People like being able to go to an event in person,
as well as be able to go to the events maybe online.
And so I think there's a lot of innovation that
happened that's exciting there.
We've seen a number of our customers--
like Oak National was a platform that was built--
I think they actually, amazingly,
stood up the platform in six days when the pandemic hit.
I think it was a group of teachers
who came together and said, how are we going to educate kids
right now?
They had a really acute and important job
to do during the pandemic.
But now they're transitioning to say,
how can we continue to help with primary or supplementary
education?
Lots of others, too.
We have a joint customer called Maestro who does live events.
Early on in the pandemic, we had some really big, major concerts
live-streamed when no one was able to go to shows in person.
But they've really done super interesting things
around creators, being able to talk to audiences
and to create videos.
So it's a super interesting platform.
NIRAV SHETH: So Jon, congratulations
on your success, and ultimately Mux's, success.
And I think to that end, are there insights
and perspectives you could provide to other CEOs, CTOs,
and other entrepreneurs that might be a little bit earlier
in their journey?
JON DAHL: Yeah.
I'll say two things.
The first just sounds obvious, but it's really
the most important thing if you're
going to start something.
And that's just, spend a lot of time talking to customers.
Go to them with a growth mindset.
When they say no, that's actually some of the best
learnings you can have.
So spend a ton of time with the customers.
And the other is, grow yourself as a leader.
If you're a startup founder, it's
easy to spend all your time just trying to get
the business to the next level.
But you have to grow, as well.
So I'll say for us, we're about 150 people today.
And I've had a couple times I've had to change
my approach to being a CEO.
And I've had to learn a lot as we've gone.
And it's not always easy, but it's really important
to grow as a leader.
NIRAV SHETH: Jon, those have been some great insights.
So for those of you that are looking
to transform the engagement with your customers,
elevate the power of video, check out
Mux on Google Cloud's Marketplace.
And thank you so much for watching today.