EXCLUSIVE: Interview with @SocialcamApp CEO Michael Seibel about his $60 Million Sale to Autodesk

SocialCam Founder Michael Seibel

Michael Seibel of the Socialcam App for iPhone and Android has an impressive resume—Yale graduate, Justin.tv founder and now, the brains behind Socialcam and the engineer of its $60 million sale to Autodesk. With the service boasting an estimated 8 million unique users per day (similar to the numbers on Instagram) a lot of people are asking big questions today: why Autodesk? Was it the right choice to sell out now? Could they have been worth Instagram’s billion dollars if they held out? What’s lies in Socialcam’s future?

I ask the tough questions, and Michael doesn’t back down! Check out the full interview above.

Mobile Video App Socialcam Acquired by Autodesk for $60 Million

We heard the news last night, and this morning it’s everywhere: our favorite mobile video app Socialcam is worth quite a bit—$60 million in fact! While the mobile video scene has been heating up, and Socialcam is by no means the only player, the purchase should mean that the app will absolutely have the funding and support it needs to grow to the next level.

Socialcam’s CEO, Mike Seibel, previously a part of Justin.tv and a two-time vet of startup accelerator Y-Combinator, is a seasoned vet in this field. I’m not surprised in the slightest to hear the news of a successful sale so quickly after his team leveaged Facebook’s open graph to drive awesome growth. After all, Michael assembled a crack team (our friends Ammon, Guillaume, and, of course, the Roxie!), and the four of them built up more than 55 million users mostly over the last few months.

We’re huge fans of the service, after all—Mario has talked extensively about Socialcam these past few months, from what it means to have so many followers, to suggestions for launching a web video series on Socialcam. So while we don’t completely understand how this acquisition will affect our favorite platform, it does tell us a few huge things. For one, mobile video is worth big, big bucks and worth taking a risk on. And two, it definitely isn’t going anywhere.

And if you’re not already on Socialcam, making videos and sharing them from your iPhone or Android device, it isn’t too late—you can download the app today!