# Paul Allen

> Paul Allen is the founder and CEO of Soar.com, an AI studio, and co-founder and founding CEO of Ancestry.com. A BYU Russian graduate who founded Infobases in 1990, he later built family-oriented internet businesses and served as Gallup’s global strengths evangelist from 2012 to 2017. His current work focuses on personalized AI, searchable public information, and tools intended to help people use their abilities.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Soar.com
- **Organizations:** Soar.com, Ancestry.com, Infobases, MyFamily.com, FamilyLink, WorldVitalRecords, Gallup
- **Education:** BA in Russian, Brigham Young University, Began a master’s program in Library Science; left to build Infobases, Brigham Young University
- **Known for:** Ernst & Young Utah Entrepreneur of the Year, 2000., Utah Genealogical Association fellow, 2007., MarketingSherpa National Entrepreneur of the Year, 2008.

## Career timeline

- **1990** — Graduated from BYU in Russian and co-founded Infobases with Dan Taggart.
- **1996** — Conceived his Ancestry.com venture.
- **1997** — Launched Ancestry.com as founding CEO in July.
- **1998** — Launched MyFamily.com.
- **2002** — Left Ancestry after serving in multiple roles.
- **2011** — MyHeritage acquired FamilyLink and WorldVitalRecords; Allen did not join MyHeritage.
- **2012-2017** — Served as Gallup’s global strengths evangelist.
- **2017** — Founded Soar.com.
- **2026** — Described experiments with AI agent fleets and plans for Freedom Portal local news.

## Achievements

- Ernst & Young Utah Entrepreneur of the Year, 2000.
- Utah Genealogical Association fellow, 2007.
- MarketingSherpa National Entrepreneur of the Year, 2008.
- Cyber Pioneer recognition from the Utah State Bar Cyber Law Section, 2010.
- BYU Humanities College honored alumnus, 2016.
- Co-founded Ancestry.com and developed its content subscription business model.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — On October 7 and 8, wrote about Freedom Portal and its proposed local news model with AI agents and human editorial oversight.
- **2026-09** — Published a customer-listening essay recalling the 1999 MyFamily.com management meeting.
- **2026-08** — Reported building an experimental organization of AI agents in about a day and a half.
- **2026-07** — Announced Soar’s acquisition of Show of Hands and Tony Bacos joining the CitizenPortal board; this is Allen’s announcement.
- **2026-07** — Argued that workers should own their trained AI agent fleets.

## Links

- Website: https://paulallen.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulballen/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/paulballen
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paulallendc/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/paul-allen
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-09