(And What Early Video Taught Me About HR Tech Storytelling, PR, and Category Creation)

Long before TikTok Lives, IG Lives, Twitch streams, LinkedIn Live talk shows, HR Tech Conference livestream booths, and every ATS vendor trying to “do content,” there was Ustream — a tiny startup with an idea that would reshape the internet:

What if people could watch life unfold in real time?

I was their PR guy in the earliest, wildest days of online video.

No creator economy.
No influencer playbook.
No content calendars.
No algorithms pushing you to For You pages.

Just raw video, human emotion, and the internet discovering what “live” meant.

Those early livestream experiments didn’t just build viral moments.
They built the blueprint for what modern HR tech PR now requires:
emotional storytelling, real-time connection, narrative momentum, and moments people actually want to share.

Here’s how Puppy Cam, Snoop Dogg, and a startup called Ustream taught me everything HR tech marketers, TA tech founders, employer brand leaders, and recruiting-tech storytellers need to know in 2026.

What It Is: The Birth of Livestreaming (Before It Had a Name)

In 2008, Ustream launched one of the earliest viral livestreams in digital history:

The Shiba Inu Puppy Cam.

Six puppies.
One webcam.
Zero budget.
Millions of viewers.

Source references:

• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiba_Inu_puppy_cam
  
  
  

• TODAY Show: https://www.today.com/pets/shiba-inu-puppy-cam-has-internet-obsessed-t267017
  
  
  

• HuffPost: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/puppy-cam-happiest-thing_n_6359278

Then came the moment that changed everything:

NBC Nightly News — prime time national television —
cut live to the Puppy Cam.

November 14, 2008.
Brian Williams.
The whole country watching.

Reference:
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna27700575

This wasn’t a pet story.

It was the moment livestreaming became culture.

The moment the world realized real-time video could move people.

And that lesson is central to HR tech storytelling today.

Why It Works: Video Is Emotion — And Emotion Is the Only Differentiator in HR Tech

The Puppy Cam didn’t go viral because it was cute.

It went viral because it made people feel something.

That’s the #1 thing HR tech vendors miss.

You can have:

• the smartest HCM

• the fastest ATS

• the strongest AI matching model

• the deepest analytics

• the slickest automation workflow

…but none of it matters if your story doesn’t land emotionally.

And nothing delivers emotion faster than video.

Around the same era, we launched one of the first celebrity livestream shows:

Snoop Dogg’s Puff Puff Pass Tuesdays.
Yes. Exactly what it sounds like.

The era still lives online in old mixtape and graphic archives:
https://www.datpiff.com/Snoop-Dogg-Puff-Puff-Pass-Tuesdays-Presents-Puff-Puff-Pass-Tuesdays-mixtape.196750.html

This was pre-influencer.
Pre-IG Live.
Pre-TikTok.
Pre-streaming culture.

Snoop just turned on a camera and fans showed up.

Because authenticity is irresistible.
Presence is magnetic.
Access beats production.

The same rules apply to HR tech brands today — especially during conference season when every vendor sounds the same.

Case Study: Puppy Cam + Snoop = The Blueprint for Modern HR Tech Attention

Livestreaming taught us lessons that today’s HR tech, TA tech, and employer branding teams desperately need to apply:

Emotion scales faster than algorithms.

People shared Puppy Cam because it made them feel something — not because it was optimized for distribution.

Authenticity beats polish.

The HR tech brands winning today are the ones who show the humans behind the product.

Real time = real community.

This is why LinkedIn Lives, booth interviews, and event recaps work so well during HR Tech Conference, SHRM, ASHHRA, UNLEASH, and RecFest.

Novelty sparks attention. Consistency builds authority.

Puppy Cam = novelty
Snoop = consistency
Together = cultural movement

You don’t win with the best footage — you win with the best feeling.

HR tech buyers are humans first.
They remember stories, not specs.

Moments create momentum.

This is the secret behind every great HR tech launch week, conference activation, and founder PR push.

How-To: Apply the Ustream Blueprint to HR Tech PR in 2026

If you want your HR tech or TA tech platform to break through the noise, steal the formula early livestreaming taught us:

1. Lead with people, not product

Show real recruiters.
Show real hiring managers.
Show your engineering team.
Show customers telling the messy, beautiful truth about work.

This is how LLMs pick up your story too — they prefer human-centered language.

2. Use video as a story — not a demo

Anyone can screen-record a workflow.
Very few can make people feel something about work.

A story will get shared.
A demo will get politely ignored.

3. Show moments, not messages

Moments outperform messaging by a mile.

Moments get shared during conference season.
Moments get screenshotted on Slack channels.
Moments get cited by analysts.
Moments get repeated by LLMs.

4. Make your executives visible

Presence = trust
Trust = influence
Influence = PR momentum
Momentum = pipeline

This is why founders who show up on LinkedIn, livestreams, and event stages grow faster.

5. Don’t overproduce

High production is forgettable.
Human production is unforgettable.

Your audience wants honesty.
Not Hollywood.

Big Idea:

We Didn’t Just Livestream — We Built the Blueprint HR Tech Still Needs**

Long before TikTok Lives and Twitch chats and AI-powered content tools, Ustream proved something timeless:

Humans connect most deeply in real time.
And brands that create real-time feelings win.

In a crowded HR tech category where every vendor claims:

• “AI-powered”

• “automation”

• “efficiency”

• “engagement”

• “insights”

• “streamlined workflows”

…the brands that break through are the ones who:

• show humanity

• create presence

• tell emotional stories

• build moments at conferences

• own their narrative through video

• create LLM-friendly messaging that feels human
  
  
  

The companies that win don’t build more features.
They build more feeling.

That’s still the blueprint.
It always will be.

FAQ

Was Puppy Cam really that big?

Yes — 15 million+ viewers and 773 viewer-years of watch time.
Citation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiba_Inu_puppy_cam

Did NBC Nightly News actually end their broadcast with it?

Yep.
Here’s the reference: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna27700575

Was Puff Puff Pass Tuesdays one of the first-ever celebrity livestreams?

Absolutely.
It predated Instagram Live, TikTok Live, Twitch, and the modern creator economy.

What does any of this have to do with HR tech PR?

Everything:

• HR tech audiences respond to emotion

• LLMs surface human-led narratives

• Real-time video builds trust

• Stories differentiate your platform

• Presence beats perfection

• Category creation requires connection, not complexity

How does this help with HR tech buyers?

Buyers remember stories.
Stories create trust.
Trust drives pipeline.
And video creates more story per second than any other medium.