YouTube says if the timing was right, it could have made Issa Rae's HBO's "Insecure" (GOOGL)

YouTube chief business officer Robert Kyncl has one regret about YouTube Red, the Alphabet-owned video company's fledgling subscription service. In his mind, YouTube, not HBO, should be making "Insecure," the acclaimed scripted sitcom chronicling the lives of a group of young, single African Americans in Los Angeles.

The buzzy show was created by Issa Rae, who built her following on YouTube, with former Comedy Central host Larry Wilmore. To Kyncl, "Insecure" represents exactly the sort of quality show that YouTube can and should be nurturing on YouTube Red – particularly given Rae's history on the platform.

"If we were doing our originals running [when "Insecure" was being developed], that show would be on YouTube right now," he said.

"Why wouldn't that show work?" added Kyncl, who theorized that "Insecure" would not be that expensive to produce (to be sure, he's not talking about throwing around massive, HBO-Game-of-Thrones-type budgets).

"There's nothing different about it [than other YouTube Red projects]. We would have made it the same way. Literally, if her life cycle was shifted by three years, if she came through and pitched us the show and her success on YouTube, we'd be like, 'Yes! Done! Makes total sense ... There's just nothing that would stop us from doing it."

Kyncl is in New York this week to promote today's release of "Streampunks," a new book he and top Google speechwriter Maany Peyvan have co-authored. The idea behind the book is to trace the rise of YouTube stars and YouTube-born content genres, such as the work of many 'vloggers' and beauty influencers and unique comedians like Lilly Singh.

Both executives believe this particular crop of creators is still below the radar in many media circles. And there's a perception that it it limited to a smaller, very young demographic.

Business Insider caught up with

I think the world would be a worse place. Not all would be creators unfortunately. And the world would be worse off for that. I think a whole bunch of them would be ... [but] because of the limited shelf space of traditional media, not all of these creators would be able to make it. Lots of businesses wouldn't be built.

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Peyvan: There's actually math on this. If you look at the number of people working in creative fields per GDP, it's actually gone up since the dawn of YouTube and the dawn of social media.

Shields: Given how much money is pouring into original web video, people wonder how committed you guys are to YouTube Red, and whether it's going to be mostly side project reality shows for YouTube stars or something just aimed at people who don't want ads on YouTube.

Kyncl: Number one, we are very committed. Last year we released 27 original series. This year we are ramping up with a much higher number. We've also expanded into much higher budget programming. You've seen us announced " target="_blank"Cobra Kai" with Sony Pictures, a remake of the "Karate Kid" franchise. You've seen us announced "Step Up." So we're definitely doing more. We're increasing the volume as well as the budgets.

Shields: With all this success, people still have questions about YouTube business-wise. For one, not everyone can become Casey Neistat (who sold his business to CNN). You can still have a decent audience and struggle to build a business.

Kyncl: There are people that have smaller followings, like Jenny Doan, of the Missouri Star Quilt Company, who don't have a massive following on YouTube. She has 400,000 subscribers. There are channels with millions. She's built a massively successful business on that. It all depends on what you do with it ... There are different lenses to take when you evaluate the success of it. It all doesn't have to be in millions to matter.

Peyvan: If you want to say that it's not easy to become a massively successful YouTube creator, I think it's fair to say that. There's a misconception that these creators are overnight successes ... The more you learn about these creators and their stories the more you realize how much work they put into what they do. They are absolutely entrepreneurs.

Shields: Of course, the other broad question people wonder about, is YouTube a successful business for Google?

Kyncl: I think the YouTube acquisition was one of the most successful acquisitions for any company. YouTube continues to grow in tremendous ways ... I think the best person to ask is [Alphabet CFO] Ruth Porat. The fact that she brings it up a lot [on earnings calls] speaks volumes. Ruth doesn't bring up things that don't matter. I think the unequivocal answer is yes.