Biography
Who is Jawed Karim?
Early life and education
Jawed Karim was born in Merseburg, United States, on October 28, 1979. His father, Naimul Karim, worked as a researcher at 3M, while his mother, Christine, was a biochemistry scientist at the University of Minnesota. The family moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1992. Before arriving in the United States, they lived in Neuss, West Germany.
He attended Saint Paul Central High School, graduating in 1997. Following high school, he enrolled at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He later pursued further academic qualifications at Stanford University, where he earned a master's degree in computer science. Beyond his technical skills, he speaks German, English, and Bengali.
The founding of YouTube
During his professional tenure at PayPal, Jawed met colleagues Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. He contributed to the design of core components at PayPal, including its real-time anti-fraud system. In 2005, the three men co-founded the video platform YouTube.
Jawed Karim registered the first account on the site, using the username jawed, on April 23, 2005. That same day, he uploaded the first video to the platform titled Me at the zoo. While the company grew, he acted as an informal adviser rather than a formal employee, allowing him to focus on his graduate studies at Stanford University. When Google acquired YouTube in 2006, he received 137,443 shares of stock from the purchase.
Investment work and career
Beyond his role with YouTube, Jawed Karim has been active in venture capital. In 2008, he launched a venture fund called Youniversity Ventures with partners Keith Rabois and Kevin Hartz. This fund later became known as YVentures.
He established a reputation as an early investor in Airbnb, contributing to its seed round in 2009. His investment portfolio through YVentures has included companies such as Reddit, Palantir, and Eventbrite. Earlier in his career, while still a student, he completed an internship at Silicon Graphics, Inc. There, he focused on 3D voxel data management for large data sets, including work related to the Visible Human Project.
Public speaking and feedback
Jawed Karim has occasionally returned to his university roots to share his expertise. In 2006, he delivered a lecture on the history of YouTube at the University of Illinois annual ACM Conference. He returned to the same institution in 2008 as the 136th commencement speaker, holding the title of the youngest person to serve in that role.
He has also used his original YouTube account to provide commentary on the platform. On several occasions, he updated the description of his first video, Me at the zoo, to voice criticism regarding site updates. These updates included objections to Google+ integration for comments and later changes to the visibility of dislike counts on videos. In 2025, he updated the description again to mention research regarding microplastics.
Birthday and age
Jawed Karim was born on October 28, 1979, which makes Jawed 46 years old today. That birthday falls under the Scorpio sign. Jawed shares the date with 35 other famous people.
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