If you haven’t yet been asked by friends or co-workers to Meerkat, chances are you will soon.
The livestreaming app was the “SXSW sweetheart” this year, despite having only launched on February 27. It’s been adding users rapidly ever since — even Jimmy Fallon is streaming his life using Meerkat.
As part of CNN’s Instant Startups series, CNNMoney correspondent Laurie Segall reached out to Meerkat’s Ben Rubin with some questions. And he agreed to answer them — on Meerkat, of course.
Rubin is actually the co-founder and chief executive of Life On Air Inc., a livestreaming company with many tentacles. But recently Rubin decided to dedicate his entire team to work on Meerkat after the app’s popularity exploded.
Still, Rubin said, he doesn’t consider the app an “instant startup” per se. It took years of work to reach this moment, he said.
The half-hour chat between Rubin and Segall was informative and entertaining. Several people said it broke their record for the longest Meerkat stream they had ever watched. We heard more about Meerkat and Rubin’s vision for the future; for example, he sees the app branching out to work with other platforms, like Facebook or Tumblr.
Rubin also revealed who he’d like most to join in the fun.
Startup wannabes also got some great advice from this successful entrepreneur. Launching a new business or product is difficult, and requires flexibility, Rubin said. Entrepreneurs need people they can trust — who won’t be afraid to call “b.s.” on a bad idea.
