About Us

    Overview | Founders Story | Investors

    Overview

    Ustream.TV is the live interactive video broadcast platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size. In less than two minutes, anyone can become a broadcaster by creating their own channel on Ustream or by broadcasting through their own site, empowering them to engage with their audience and further build their brand. Click here to start a broadcast now or learn more about broadcasting.

    Ustream's one-to-many live interactive video encourages broadcast-to-viewer and viewer-to-viewer interaction, empowering a much more engaging experience for everyone involved.

    With Ustream's interactive broadcast functionality, viewers can personally interact directly with whoever is broadcasting -- including personalities like their favorite musician or politician. Ustream viewers can watch specific broadcasts, explore our networks ranging from music, talk shows, sports and politics to discover a world of interesting new broadcasts, or review our past broadcasts.

    Ustream opens up a new world of possibilities and experiences to broadcasters and viewers alike, which the pre-recorded static video that's predominated the Internet to date just can't provide. Today, people are Ustreaming everything including:

    • Major political events such as debates, speeches, rallies
    • Talk shows
    • Entertainment events such as premieres and 'red carpet events'
    • Music showcases of their favorite music, of their own band's performances, and live jam sessions
    • Conference sessions
    • School and business events and training
    • Sporting events at college and high school level
    • Personal milestones such as holiday gatherings, weddings, grade school events, parties, even births
    • Interactive games for viewers to watch or join

    Founders Story (Back to top)

    Ustream was founded in the summer of 2006 by John Ham, Brad Hunstable, and Dr. Gyula Feher as way to help overseas soldiers connect more efficiently with their families.

    John and Brad met as cadets at West Point. Serving as US Army as officers during a wartime environment, John and Brad noticed an opportunity for revolutionizing communication. Soldiers were limited by the phone or instant messenger to connect with family and friends back home. They could only talk with one person at a time. John and Brad wanted to find a way to allow soldiers to connect with all of their loves ones, all at the same time. Hence, our goal of creating a way for them to stream with family members in cities all over the U.S. and the world. After a few months of late night brainstorm sessions, John, Brad, and Gyula decided to take a risk on behalf of a better vision. As they say, the rest is history.

    Today, Ustream.TV empowers everyone from sports fans and guitar heroes to Presidential candidates and rock stars, with a camera and an Internet connection, to quickly and easily broadcast to a global audience of unlimited size. In less than two minutes, anyone can become a broadcaster by creating their own channel on Ustream or by broadcasting through their own site, empowering them to engage with their audience. Click here to start a broadcast now or learn more about broadcasting. uStreamers in the news: Miley Cyrus, Barack Obama, 50 Cent, Tori Amos, Al Gore, Sen. John McCain...and more!

    Investors (Back to top)

    Ustream is a privately held company. Investors include prominent individuals and funds including:

    DCM
    DCM is an early stage venture capital firm supporting entrepreneurs building world-class technology companies. The firm's partners manage US$1.6 billion and have funded leading technology companies including 2Wire, 51job (Nasdaq:JOBS), @Motion (Openwave), About.com (The New York Times Co.), All About (Jasdaq:2454), Arroyo (Cisco), Bittorrent, Clearwire (Nasdaq:CLWR), Dang Dang, eDreams (TA), Foundry Networks (Nasdaq:FDRY), HireRight (Nasdaq:HIRE), Internap (Nasdaq:INAP), IPivot (Intel), JCI (Nasdaq Japan - Hercules:9424), Neopath Networks (Cisco), Neutral Tandem (Nasdaq:TNDM), nQuire (Siebel), PGP Corporation, Recourse Technologies (Symantec), Sigmatel (Nasdaq:SGTL), SMIC (NYSE:SMI), Sling Media (EchoStar), VanceInfo (NYSE:VIT) and Vimicro (Nasdaq:VIMC). DCM offers hands-on operational guidance and access to an extensive network of resources, including close relationships with many of the Pacific Rim's leading companies and investors.
    www.dcm.com.

    Western Technology Investors
    Founded in 1980, Western Technology Investment (WTI) is a leading provider of debt financing to start-up and emerging growth companies. WTI's recently closed 12th fund builds upon the success of the firm's 27-year history, which featured portfolio companies such as Juniper Networks, Brocade Communications Systems, Google, Cerent, Infoseek, IDEC Pharmaceuticals, Facebook, IronPort Systems, Volcano Corporation, and many others.
    http://www.westerntech.com

    Band of Angels Fund
    The Band of Angels is Silicon Valley's oldest seed funding organization that consists of over 120 executives and founders of many of the high tech companies that have made Silicon Valley famous. The group meets monthly to evaluate early stage deals selected from the more than 60 companies that seek this opportunity each month. The Band of Angels Fund invests alongside the individual Band members in select companies.
    http://www.bandangels.com

    Infinity Venture Partners Incubator Fund of Japan
    IVP Incubator Fund is a $5 million venture fund focusing on seed and early stage investments in the digital media sector. The Fund's manager organizes the Infinity Ventures Summit twice a year in Japan, which is best described as Web 2.0, DEMO, and Mobile 2.0 conferences rolled into one.