# Float Left
> United States
- Profile type: Company
- Profile status: baseline
- Last updated: 2026-05-03T00:00:00.000Z
- Canonical URL: https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/float-left/
- Also known as: Float Left Interactive
## Summary
Float Left was an early connected-TV app developer co-founded by Kirby Grines in 2009, building some of the first apps for the Roku platform before connected TV had become a recognized category. The company was later acquired by iMediaBrands, the parent company of ShopHQ, integrating Float Left's CTV development capability into the parent's streaming and home-shopping operation.

## Company facts

- Founded: 2009
- Headquarters: United States


## Key facts

- Float Left was co-founded in 2009 by Kirby Grines as an early connected-TV app developer; the company built some of the first apps for the Roku platform. — The Desk: https://thedesk.net/2024/09/a-conversation-with-kirby-grines-ceo-43twenty/
- Float Left was later acquired by iMediaBrands, the parent company of ShopHQ; the acquisition integrated Float Left's CTV development capability into iMediaBrands' streaming and home-shopping operation. — The Desk: https://thedesk.net/2024/09/a-conversation-with-kirby-grines-ceo-43twenty/
- Float Left's CTV-app development work pre-dated the broader category recognition of connected TV — Roku had launched in 2008 but had not yet established itself as a dominant CTV-OS platform when Float Left began developing for it. — The Desk: https://thedesk.net/2024/09/a-conversation-with-kirby-grines-ceo-43twenty/
- Float Left's co-founder Kirby Grines went on to found 43Twenty in 2018 and to publish The Streaming Wars, building the operator-side CTV-OS expertise developed at Float Left into an analytical and consultancy practice. — 43Twenty: https://43twenty.tv/about-us/


## Related

- kirby grines (Co-founder (2009); now founder and CEO of 43Twenty) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/kirby-grines/
- roku (Early platform partner — Float Left built some of the first Roku apps) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/roku/


## External coverage

- 2024-09-01 — The Desk: A Conversation With Kirby Grines, CEO, 43Twenty (covers Float Left history) (https://thedesk.net/2024/09/a-conversation-with-kirby-grines-ceo-43twenty/)

## Profile
Float Left was the early connected-TV app developer that Kirby Grines co-founded in 2009, building some of the first apps for the Roku platform when Roku had only just launched its hardware and CTV had not yet become a recognized industry category. The company operated through the formative years of the Roku app ecosystem and was later acquired by iMediaBrands — the parent of the ShopHQ home-shopping network — integrating Float Left's CTV-app development capability into the parent's streaming and home-shopping operation.

Float Left no longer operates as a distinct entity in our coverage; its inclusion in the directory is as the historical employer that gives Grines's current 43Twenty consultancy and Streaming Wars publication the operator-side standing on CTV-OS questions that pure marketing-strategy advisors don't bring. The detail thread — that Float Left helped build the early Roku channel ecosystem before the broader industry was tracking the platform — is the historical anchor for that standing.

Public information on Float Left's revenue, headcount, exact acquisition date, and acquisition price was not disclosed at the time of the iMediaBrands deal and is not currently available in the public record.

## Tags

- ctv-app-developer
- acquired
- roku
- imediabrands
- early-ctv
- historical

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