Where Are The YouTube Founders Now?

Author

Aditya Kumar Saroj
October 21, 2024

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Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim

YouTube is the world’s most popular video sharing site by far. It is also the second largest search engine in the world, only behind Google, its current owner. Originally made by 3 ex-PayPal employees as a dating site, YouTube was acquired by Google in 2006 for $1.65 Billion.

The founders of YouTube - Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley, and Steve Chen - clearly made a lot of money. But what did they do after selling YouTube?

Jawed Karim

  • Jawed was born in East Germany and moved to the U.S. when he was young. After co-founding YouTube, he earned a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford.

  • He then co-founded Youniversity Ventures (Y Ventures), where he mentored and invested in startups like Airbnb and Reddit.

  • Despite his reduced role in YouTube, Karim still received around $64 million in Google shares when the company was acquired.

  • The first YouTube video ever features Jawed at the San Diego Zoo.

Steve Chen

  • Steve Chen, originally from Taiwan, was YouTube’s CTO.

  • After leaving YouTube in 2009, he joined Google Ventures, where he focused on investing in startups.

  • He also launched Nom.com, a platform for food-related content, though it had a brief run.

  • From the YouTube sale, Chen’s share was around $325 million.

Chad Hurley

  • Chad Hurley was YouTube's first CEO.

  • After the acquisition, he stayed on as CEO until 2010, then went on to co-found AVOS Systems and MixBit, a mobile video-sharing platform.

  • He also got involved in the sports world, investing in teams like LA Football Club and Leeds United Football Club.

  • Hurley received a substantial $345 million from the YouTube sale.

These three brilliant minds created one of the greatest websites on the internet and still continue to do cool stuff while making loads of money.

The lesson? Keep working hard and you WILL make it big. I’m rooting for you!

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