# Jon Dahl

> Jon Dahl is the co-founder and CEO of Mux, a developer-first video infrastructure platform that powers video at scale for companies like Robinhood, PBS, and ViacomCBS. A serial founder who sold Zencoder to Brightcove for $30M in 2012 and co-created Video.js — the most widely deployed open-source video player on the web — Dahl has spent two decades turning the complexity of online video into simple, powerful APIs for developers. Mux has raised $173.9M in total funding, achieved unicorn status in 2021, and processes several billion monthly video streams.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Mux
- **Organizations:** Mux, Zencoder, Brightcove, Y Combinator
- **From:** Fargo, North Dakota, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Wheaton College, Master of Arts in Theology, Trinity International University
- **Known for:** Co-created Video.js, the most widely deployed open-source video player on the web (used by Instagram, Twitter, Microsoft, and hundreds of thousands of websites), Sold Zencoder to Brightcove for $30 million in 2012, Built Mux to unicorn status ($1B+ valuation) with $173.9M in total funding

## Career timeline

- **2000** — Graduated from Wheaton College with BA in Philosophy
- **2003** — Completed MA in Theology at Trinity International University; taught himself programming
- **2007** — First worked with video encoding at a Midwest software development shop; built early rvideo Ruby library wrapping FFmpeg
- **~2008** — Founded Tumblon, a secure online baby books startup - early venture that ran out of funding
- **2010** — Co-founded Zencoder (Y Combinator W10) with Steve Heffernan and Brandon Arbini - cloud-based video encoding via API
- **2011** — Zencoder raised $2M Series A; Jon moved from Minneapolis to San Francisco; team created Video.js open-source HTML5 video player
- **2012** — Brightcove acquired Zencoder for $30M; Jon became VP of Technology at Brightcove
- **2012** — Video.js launched publicly, going on to become the most widely deployed open-source video player on the web
- **2015** — Left Brightcove; co-founded Mux with Steve Heffernan, Matt McClure, and Adam Brown; entered Y Combinator W16 batch
- **2015** — Co-founded San Francisco Video Technology meetup and created the D.VE conference for video technologists
- **2016** — Mux launched Mux Data (video analytics) with $2.8M seed funding from YC, SV Angel, and others
- **2017** — Mux launched Mux Video - API-first video hosting, encoding, and streaming product
- **2019** — Mux raised $37M Series C
- **2021** — Mux raised $105M Series D led by Coatue, achieving unicorn status ($1B+ valuation); live video grew 3,700% in prior year
- **2026** — Mux continues as leading video infrastructure platform with 130+ employees, $46M+ ARR, and AI video workflows

## Achievements

- Co-created Video.js, the most widely deployed open-source video player on the web (used by Instagram, Twitter, Microsoft, and hundreds of thousands of websites)
- Sold Zencoder to Brightcove for $30 million in 2012
- Built Mux to unicorn status ($1B+ valuation) with $173.9M in total funding
- Y Combinator graduate twice over (Zencoder W10, Mux W16)
- Pioneered the transition from Flash to HTML5 video with Video.js
- Built Mux Data into a trusted analytics platform used by Discovery, CBS, Reddit, and YouTube
- Mux Video grew on-demand streaming 300% and live streaming 3,700% year-over-year leading into Series D
- Co-founded the D.VE conference, the premier gathering for video technologists
- Paid mid-to-high six figures for the mux.com domain name

## Latest updates

- **2026-05** — Mux continues operating as a leading video infrastructure platform with 130+ employees, AI video workflows, and multi-CDN performance capabilities
- **2023-10** — Mux Player 2.0 launched for web, with iOS and Android versions announced
- **2023-10** — Mux added free speech-to-text capabilities powered by AI
- **2021-04** — Mux raised $105M Series D led by Coatue, achieving unicorn status with $1B+ valuation

## Links

- Website: https://mux.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/zencoder
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/jondahl

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/jon-dahl
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-26