Twitch's CEO has been living his own version of the van life
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- Twitch CEO Dan Clancy is traveling the US in a van to meet top streamers and hear their concerns.
- Clancy, a former NASA researcher, took over the CEO role in March from Twitch cofounder Emmett Shear.
- Clancy gained viral attention earlier this year for his impromptu livestream singing performance.
Twitch CEO Dan Clancy is taking an unusual approach to strengthen the relationship between the company's leadership and its community of creators.
He's been driving around the country in his van, personally meeting with the Amazon-owned streaming platform's top streamers, listening to their input and concerns, and sometimes even giving them his personal cell phone number, Bloomberg reported.
Clancy, who was previously president of Twitch, took on the CEO role in March from the company's cofounder Emmett Shear, who stepped down to focus on raising his newborn son. He's received some criticism in the past over certain monetization changes on Twitch that went into effect when he was president, but his new strategy has him leaning into making interpersonal connections with those who bring in the most viewers to the platform.
While traveling in his van, Clancy has met with streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, one of the most-viewed professional gamers on the platform, and his wife, Bloomberg reported, along with rapper T-Pain and conservationist streamer Maya Higa. Higa previously raised over $500,000 in a single online auction to fund her animal sanctuary with help from other big streamers.
"He asked a lot of questions about how it works, and how we use Twitch," Higa told Bloomberg. "It feels like he wants to know everybody as a person, not just what their content is."
Clancy has also given out his personal cell phone number to several big names on the platform so they can give him input or air their grievances with him directly, Bloomberg reported.
Twitch did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Clancy went viral earlier this year after giving an impromptu singing performance in a Twitch livestream. Going by DJClancy on the platform, he played the piano and sang John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" after a user requested it in the stream's chat to about 70 viewers.
As DJClancy, he was recently accepted into Twitch's partner program after he was previously denied for not having enough viewers — he posted about both his initial rejection and later acceptance on X, formerly Twitter. And he said that he wrote a song for the occasion.