Steve Johnson

CEO, Choicestream

Prior to founding ChoiceStream, Steve Johnson was Vice President of America Online’s Software and Technology Development division. While at AOL, Mr. Johnson led the development of AOL 4.0, You’ve Got Pictures™, as well as all telephony and broadcast products. At AOL, he was also responsible for media technology research, development, and acquisition. In this role, he served as principal technology negotiator in AOL’s 1998 acquisition of Netscape and was the technology lead on the transition team of Netscape into AOL and the formation of the Sun-AOL iPlanet strategic alliance. In 1991, Steve was the founder and co-CEO of Johnson-Grace Company, a company specializing in image, sound and video compression technology, which was purchased by America Online, Inc. in 1996. He holds a US patent, issued in 1999, for the image compression technology currently used on the America Online service. Steve graduated from the University of Southern California in 1980 with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and received a Masters degree in Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1985, and continued in Harvard’s doctoral program in Economics and Philosophy until 1990.

Articles by Steve Johnson

Balancing self-care and startup pressure as a founder

The Founder’s Mental Health Playbook: What I Learned After Nearly Burning Out

A hard-won guide to staying mentally healthy while building a startup I founded Stitcher, the podcast platform, in 2007 and ran it for seven years until we sold in 2014....

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) for Early Stage Companies

In our latest session from the Mucker Growth Series featuring Ethan Smith from Graphite, we explored AEO, a significant new approach for optimizing visibility in AI-driven search, particularly relevant as...

Startup Guide to AI Visibility Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Startup Guide to AI Visibility: Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Introduction Today, users aren’t just searching on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems for advice. AI visibility is the new frontier of brand awareness....

Practical Uses of AI Automation for Startup Operations

Practical Uses of AI & Automation for Startup Operations

In a recent Mucker Growth Series session, we invited Rock Vitale, Founder & CEO of Easie, to share how he’s helped early-stage teams move from manual, fragmented workflows to streamlined,...

New York Tech Week Mucker Sessions Recap

2025 New York Tech Week Recap Of Mucker Sessions

Last week during New York Tech Week 2025, we joined more than 1,000 events hosted by founders, investors, and VCs. This post is a full Mucker recap of the three...

Build a Customer Support Function for Startups Using AI Alex Velinov

How to Build a Customer Support Function for Startups Using AI Tools with Alex Velinov

Delivering high-quality customer support can be one of the most resource-draining parts of a startup. The good news: we’re at a turning point where founders can use AI tools to...

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