I can't tell you how thrilled I am that the guys from Omnisio, one of my portfolio companies, will be joining the team over at YouTube.
Ryan Junee, Julian Frumar, and Simon Ratner are some of the most legitimate entrepreneurs I have ever met. I marveled at their ability to hack up surprisingly robust technology while creating intuitive and simply easy user experiences. Too often, teams excel in one area but lack any talent in the other, either the software is technically superb, or the UI just flows so naturally. Rarely can a company pull off both. From day one, the Omnisio guys demonstrated true coding chops plus an admirable understanding of, and dedication to, creating a service that users understand, enjoy, and are eager to share with others.
In parallel, as has become the hallmark of YCombinator companies, these guys were the epitome of hungry entrepreneurs. Choosing to keep the company lean and agile, they coded from their apartment breaking only intermittently for the occasional game of kickball and jam sessions like at the MSFT summer party. (Does that make these guys literal rock stars?) In any event, most of their time was spent tirelessly incorporating user feedback into the product and developing features at a fascinating rate.
On that note, as an Omnisio user, and a huge fan of YouTube, I wish the Omnisio guys best of luck as Googlers, and I look forward to the innovation that I am sure will result.