# Lubomir Bourdev

> Lubomir Bourdev is a computer-vision scientist turned serial founder. He was the first person hired at Facebook for computer vision and a founding member of Facebook AI Research, where he built the object-recognition engine that runs on every photo and video across Facebook and Instagram. He co-founded WaveOne, a deep-learning video-compression company acquired by Apple in 2023, and earlier shipped the face detector inside Adobe Photoshop Elements. Today he is co-founder and CEO of Primepoint, a San Mateo startup building AI that reads and understands construction drawings, which closed a $10M seed round in April 2026. He holds a PhD from UC Berkeley, more than 175 patents, and over 100,000 research citations.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Primepoint
- **Organizations:** Primepoint, WaveOne, Facebook AI Research, Adobe Research, UC Berkeley, Brown University
- **From:** Bulgaria
- **Nationality:** Bulgarian-American
- **Education:** Ph.D., Computer Science (advisor: Jitendra Malik), UC Berkeley, M.A., Computer Science, Brown University, B.S., Computer Science, Brown University
- **Known for:** Founding member of Facebook AI Research and Facebook's first computer-vision hire, Built the object-recognition engine that runs on every photo and video on Facebook and Instagram (over 500 billion runs), Co-founded WaveOne, acquired by Apple in 2023

## Career timeline

- **1998** — Joins Adobe; over the next decade ships graphics and vision features across Creative Suite
- **2005** — Ships a face detector using a 'Soft Cascade' architecture in Photoshop Elements - reportedly the first consumer face-detection product
- **2009** — Publishes Poselets, part-based models that separate human pose from appearance
- **2011** — Completes PhD at UC Berkeley under Jitendra Malik
- **2012** — Joins Facebook as a founding member of Facebook AI Research; first computer-vision hire
- **2013** — Builds the object-recognition engine deployed on every photo and video across Facebook and Instagram
- **2015** — Co-founds WaveOne to reinvent video compression with deep learning
- **2023** — WaveOne is acquired by Apple
- **2024** — Co-founds Primepoint with Hamid Palo to build construction-drawing intelligence
- **2026** — Primepoint closes a $10M seed round backed by Penny Jar, NextView, Navitas and angel Yann LeCun

## Achievements

- Founding member of Facebook AI Research and Facebook's first computer-vision hire
- Built the object-recognition engine that runs on every photo and video on Facebook and Instagram (over 500 billion runs)
- Co-founded WaveOne, acquired by Apple in 2023
- Created Poselets, an influential part-based model for person detection
- Shipped the face detector in Adobe Photoshop Elements, reportedly the first consumer face-detection product
- Co-created the Generic Image Library (GIL), now part of the Boost C++ libraries
- Authored 175+ issued US patents and 90+ peer-reviewed publications with over 100,000 citations
- Featured in Cade Metz's book 'Genius Makers' for his role in founding Facebook AI Research

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Primepoint closed a $10M seed round (two tranches) co-led by Penny Jar Capital and NextView Ventures, with Navitas Capital leading the second tranche; angel investors include Yann LeCun.
- **2026-04** — Primepoint's platform, featuring an AI assistant named 'Marvin,' integrates with Procore and Autodesk Construction Cloud and was deployed by early partner Sundt Construction.

## Links

- Website: https://lubomir.org/
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lubomir-bourdev-51a8652
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/LBourdev
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lubomir.bourdev/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/lubomir-bourdev
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-27