Chad Meredith Hurley (born January 24, 1977, Reading, PA) is an American entrepreneur and tech visionary best known as the co-founder and first CEO of YouTube, which he built alongside Steve Chen and Jawed Karim in 2005 and sold to Google in October 2006 for $1.65 billion - just 18 months after launch. Armed with a Fine Arts degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania rather than a computer science background, Hurley's design instincts shaped YouTube's iconic UI and pioneered the embeddable video player that fueled viral growth; he had previously designed the original PayPal logo during his job interview. After stepping down from YouTube in 2010, he co-founded AVOS Systems and MixBit, launched the sports gaming platform GreenPark Sports (which raised $53M+), and in 2023 founded EyeTell, an AI-powered video script generation startup. He holds minority ownership stakes in the Golden State Warriors (NBA), LA Football Club (MLS), and Leeds United (EPL), and received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 2019. Estimated at $700-800 million in net worth, Hurley remains a prolific investor and quiet force in Silicon Valley, famously reclusive despite his outsized impact on how the world creates and consumes video.
Steve Chen is a Taiwanese-American Internet entrepreneur and software engineer best known as co-founder and former CTO of YouTube, which he and his PayPal colleagues built in 2005 and sold to Google for $1.65 billion just 18 months later. Born in Taipei and immigrating to the U.S. at age seven, Chen dropped out of the University of Illinois computer science program to join PayPal as one of its first 10 employees. After revolutionizing online video sharing with YouTube, he co-founded AVOS Systems, launched the video app MixBit, joined Google Ventures as an entrepreneur-in-residence, and eventually returned to Taiwan to nurture the island's startup ecosystem and connect Taiwanese entrepreneurs with Silicon Valley.