Jawed Karim

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Lore & Background

Jawed Karim was born on October 28, 1979, in Merseburg, East Germany, to a Bangladeshi father and a German mother. His family crossed the inner German border in the early 1980s due to experiencing racism, growing up in Neuss, West Germany. Facing racism there as well, they moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1992. He graduated from Saint Paul Central High School in 1997 and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, leaving campus prior to graduating to become an early employee at PayPal. He continued his coursework, earning his bachelor's degree in computer science, and subsequently earned a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University. In addition to his native language German, he speaks English and Bengali. At PayPal in 2002, Karim met Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. Three years later, in 2005, they founded the video-sharing website YouTube. Karim created the first account on YouTube, "jawed", on April 23, 2005 PDT (April 24, 2005 UTC), and uploaded the website's first video, "Me at the zoo", the same day. After co-founding the company, Karim enrolled as a graduate student in computer science at Stanford University while acting as an adviser to YouTube. He agreed not to be an employee and simply be an informal adviser, focusing on his studies, and as a result took a much lower share in the company compared to Hurley and Chen. Despite his smaller role, when Google acquired YouTube in 2006, he received 137,443 shares of stock, worth about $64 million based on Google's closing stock price at the time. In March 2008, Karim launched a venture fund called Youniversity Ventures (now known as YVentures) with partners Keith Rabois and Kevin Hartz. He is one of Airbnb's first investors, investing in the company's initial seed round in April 2009. YVentures has also invested in Palantir, Reddit and Eventbrite. Occasionally, Karim has updated the video description of "Me at the zoo" to criticize decisions made by YouTube. In response to Google requiring YouTube members to use Google+ for its comment system, Karim wrote on his YouTube account, "why the fuck do i need a Google+ account to comment on a video?", and updated the video description to "I can't comment here anymore, since i don't want a Google+ account". In November 2021, he updated the description to include "When every YouTuber agrees that removing dislikes is a stupid idea, it probably is. Try again, YouTube🤦‍♂️." A few days later, he updated it again to a more detailed condemnation. In February 2025, he updated the description to refer to the danger of microplastics to the brain.

Reader's Guide

Jawed Karim's significance lies in his role as a co-founder of YouTube, a platform that fundamentally transformed how video content is created, shared, and consumed globally. As the first person to upload a video to the site, he established the very first piece of user-generated content on what would become a dominant force in media. His technical contributions at PayPal, particularly the real-time anti-fraud system, also highlight his engineering impact. Karim's legacy is further marked by his occasional public criticisms of YouTube's policy changes, such as the Google+ comment integration and the removal of dislikes, using the description of his original video to voice dissent. His early investment in Airbnb and other startups through YVentures underscores his continued influence in the tech investment landscape. Despite his smaller role in YouTube's daily operations, his foundational contribution and subsequent commentary keep him a notable figure in internet history.

Did You Know?

• Jawed Karim uploaded the first YouTube video, 'Me at the zoo', on April 23, 2005, and it has been viewed over 409 million times as of August 2026.
• He designed many of PayPal's core components, including its real-time anti-fraud system.
• Karim took a much lower share in YouTube compared to co-founders Hurley and Chen because he focused on his studies and acted only as an informal adviser.
• He was one of Airbnb's first investors, investing in its initial seed round in April 2009.
• Karim updated the description of 'Me at the zoo' in November 2021 to criticize YouTube's decision to remove dislikes, writing: 'When every YouTuber agrees that removing dislikes is a stupid idea, it probably is. Try again, YouTube🤦‍♂️.'