The Business Leadership Podcast episode

TBLP012 | Chris Zacharias: Building the Graphics Card of the Internet

My guest on this episode is Chris Zacharias, the founder and CEO of Imgix. He founded imgix, a real-time image processing service that enables businesses of all sizes to deliver rich visual content with high performance and easy setup.

Prior to that, he was one of YouTube’s early web developers. He was responsible for creating YouTube’s HTML5 video player and Feather, an ultra-lightweight version of YouTube that loads quickly in parts of the world with slow Internet connections. These experiences drove Chris to recognize a need for tools that let developers build great visual experiences without adding bulk to their apps.

What You Will Learn From This Episode

How a spontaneous trip to Lake Tahoe changed the way we watch videos on youtube hint html5 video player
How to use 20% of your time on passion specific projects
Cultural understanding and paying attention to what’s going on
Borrow ideas from gaming industry and adapt to internet technologies
Fun fact, the IMG tag barely made it into the HTML specification
Biggest turning point in his career was Demo Day at Y-Combinator
Difference between engineering and business skills
Why he is the first person to jump on a job, and why he’s the worst person for the job
How listening helps an organization’s ideas bubble to the top
Pick big ideas. You’re going to do it anyway!