Box Acquiring Streem (YC S12) (opens in new tab)

(blog.box.com)

98 pointsgoronbjorn12y ago34 comments

34 comments

33 comments · 15 top-level

ritikm12y ago· 8 in thread

(Streem co-founder here) Small clerical error - we were actually YC S12, not W14 :).

MIT_Hacker12y ago

Ahhh!!! Congrats Ritik. Huge news and always nice to see good news from other Thiel Fellows :)

Really hope Streem continues to exist as an independent product or at least as a plugin on top of Box or something.

Good luck man!

natural21912y ago

Congrats man. I remember meeting you at the Meteor meetup and was thrilled with your vision (plus the balls to go with Meteor!). Good luck with your endeavors.

jsun12y ago

hey we've been looking for this EXACT solution for ages and had no idea you guys existed...

Is Streem going to continue to live on as a separate product?

avelis12y ago

As someone who signed up on the waiting list but haven't received an invite. Will I have a chance to experience your product at all?

nwenzel12y ago

Congrats Ritik! Box adding a streaming content provider opens up a new world for them. Great choice on their part.

nicklovescode12y ago

Wohoooo Congrats!

zan243412y ago

congrats Ritik! Proud of ya

cktsai12y ago

congrats guys!

tnorthcutt12y ago· 6 in thread

And to further optimize the experience and support low-bandwidth environments, Streem has developed enhanced video and media streaming technology to ensure content is accessible from the cloud as fast as it is locally.

How is this technically possible?

adamors12y ago

They've developed a new compression algorithm with a Weissman score of 5.2.

jayzalowitz12y ago

So the purchase price was above 10m? They turned that down when salesforce offered..

GarrettBeck12y ago

ritikm12y ago

We built an on-demand adaptive bitrate video transcoder that works with HLS. So it's able to fluctuate the quality and size of the video being streamed server-side before sending it down to the client. In a low-bandwidth environment, the quality decreases automatically so that the video streams without any lag. It's similar to how Netflix does their streaming.

silverbax8812y ago

How is this different than adaptive streaming?

manishsharan12y ago

If you are using FFMPEG for this, would you care to share your hack ?

1 more reply

windsurfer12y ago· 2 in thread

Another "our incredible journey":

> we want to thank our beta testers for their helpful feedback, our amazing investors for believing in us from the start, and our friends and family for supporting us through the ride.

ritikm12y ago

We really wanted to make the list :)

rdl12y ago

Do you have to include the literal phrase "our incredible journey" in the acquisition or shutdown announcement to be eligible?

livejamie12y ago· 1 in thread

Did anybody else read "Box Acquiring Steam" at first?

kevin81812y ago

Yes, but then I realized that wouldn't make much sense so I forced myself to read each letter :)

BorisMelnik12y ago· 1 in thread

Smart acquisition! I didn't know about Streem, wow what a great idea. The one thing always holding me back from day to day usage of Dropbox / Box etc is being able to mount these drives in Windows. I would definitely sign up / pay for an account now.

icebraining12y ago

You've been able to mount Box drives on Windows since at least 2006. They support Webdav, which Windows XP and above can mount natively.

rdl12y ago

Wow, congratulations. It's interesting that what seems to be a more video/etc. content focused company is going to Box -- is Box trying to beef up their consumer/content-professional market?

hatred12y ago

Can Ritik comment on some insights into how StreemFS looks like ? Does it follow a nfs client-server model where the server then makes a request to the Streem servers to get back the data and also managing look ahead buffers etc ?

tootie12y ago

That is some interesting stuff. I had to shut off Dropbox sync when it literally filled my hard drive. It sounds like Steem just caches virtual files that link to remote data. I'm curious to see it in action.

dtfiw12y ago

Congrats! I just hope the acquisition was all cash, and not for stock.

sid_xervmon12y ago

Congrats to founders and whole team. This is just awesome.

natural21912y ago

Now let's see something like this but with an open source protocol like Camlistore.

Still looking for a co-founder to tear this industry apart. Email's in profile.

sajithw12y ago

Congrats, ritik!

magic522712y ago

Great purchase, could add a lot of value to their consumer offering.

cstigler12y ago

Wooooooo Streem!

fuire812y ago

no wonder why they had to pull IPO.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

34 comments

33 comments · 15 top-level

ritikm12y ago· 8 in thread

(Streem co-founder here) Small clerical error - we were actually YC S12, not W14 :).

MIT_Hacker12y ago

Ahhh!!! Congrats Ritik. Huge news and always nice to see good news from other Thiel Fellows :)

Really hope Streem continues to exist as an independent product or at least as a plugin on top of Box or something.

Good luck man!

natural21912y ago

Congrats man. I remember meeting you at the Meteor meetup and was thrilled with your vision (plus the balls to go with Meteor!). Good luck with your endeavors.

jsun12y ago

hey we've been looking for this EXACT solution for ages and had no idea you guys existed...

Is Streem going to continue to live on as a separate product?

avelis12y ago

As someone who signed up on the waiting list but haven't received an invite. Will I have a chance to experience your product at all?

nwenzel12y ago

Congrats Ritik! Box adding a streaming content provider opens up a new world for them. Great choice on their part.

nicklovescode12y ago

Wohoooo Congrats!

zan243412y ago

congrats Ritik! Proud of ya

cktsai12y ago

congrats guys!

tnorthcutt12y ago· 6 in thread

How is this technically possible?

adamors12y ago

They've developed a new compression algorithm with a Weissman score of 5.2.

jayzalowitz12y ago

So the purchase price was above 10m? They turned that down when salesforce offered..

GarrettBeck12y ago

ritikm12y ago

silverbax8812y ago

How is this different than adaptive streaming?

manishsharan12y ago

If you are using FFMPEG for this, would you care to share your hack ?

1 more reply

windsurfer12y ago· 2 in thread

Another "our incredible journey":

> we want to thank our beta testers for their helpful feedback, our amazing investors for believing in us from the start, and our friends and family for supporting us through the ride.

ritikm12y ago

We really wanted to make the list :)

rdl12y ago

Do you have to include the literal phrase "our incredible journey" in the acquisition or shutdown announcement to be eligible?

livejamie12y ago· 1 in thread

Did anybody else read "Box Acquiring Steam" at first?

kevin81812y ago

Yes, but then I realized that wouldn't make much sense so I forced myself to read each letter :)

BorisMelnik12y ago· 1 in thread

icebraining12y ago

You've been able to mount Box drives on Windows since at least 2006. They support Webdav, which Windows XP and above can mount natively.

rdl12y ago

Wow, congratulations. It's interesting that what seems to be a more video/etc. content focused company is going to Box -- is Box trying to beef up their consumer/content-professional market?

hatred12y ago

tootie12y ago

dtfiw12y ago

Congrats! I just hope the acquisition was all cash, and not for stock.

sid_xervmon12y ago

Congrats to founders and whole team. This is just awesome.

natural21912y ago

Now let's see something like this but with an open source protocol like Camlistore.

Still looking for a co-founder to tear this industry apart. Email's in profile.

sajithw12y ago

Congrats, ritik!

magic522712y ago

Great purchase, could add a lot of value to their consumer offering.

cstigler12y ago

Wooooooo Streem!

fuire812y ago

no wonder why they had to pull IPO.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse