Chad Hurley changed the digital world forever

Chad Hurley was born in 1977 in Pennsylvania; he was a boy whose sole dream was devoted to the arts. As he was getting older he began to be interested in computers and electronic media. He decided to go and study at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Chad Hurley changed the digital world forever

Rumor has it that in 2005, Chad and some friends were invited to a party held somewhere in California, where several of his buddies were PayPal workers. There was a person who was filming the party, but complained about how difficult it was to share videos with the audience, since those were really heavy to send by e-mail. There it was a million dollar idea that will change Chad’s life.

In the garage Chad and two of his friends met and called Jawed Karim (PayPal designer and computer expert), they talked to Karim about the idea and shaped it into a project that is now known as YouTube.

YouTube’s impact was so large that chad was unable to walk among those attending The Next Web in Amsterdam without anyone noticing him and talked to him about how to develop some projects and asking him for advice. There are rock stars and there is Hurley, who is a living legend in the 2.0 world, whose invention changed the digital world forever. YouTube has revolutionized the audiovisual landscape, affecting both film and television.

His partner Steve Chen and he sold the company in October 2006 by over 1,200 million euros to Google, but Chad continues as counselor for YouTube, that is now part of Google. An interesting fact is that Chad does not like to talk about the past but he is very enthusiastic while talking about the future and what is yet to come. He now focuses on Avos, his new company.