Paul Buchheit


Paul T. Buchheit is an American computer engineer and entrepreneur who created Gmail. He developed the original prototype of Google AdSense as part of his work on Gmail. He also suggested Google's former company motto "Don't be evil" in a 2000 meeting on company values. That motto was initially coined in 1999 by engineer Amit Patel.

Early life and education

Buchheit grew up in New York. He attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio where he rowed crew.

Career

Buchheit worked at Intel and later became the 23rd employee at Google. At Google he began developing Gmail in 2001, with its innovations in search and storage. He also prompted what would become AdSense. Leaving Google in 2006, Buchheit started FriendFeed, which was launched in 2007 with partner Bret Taylor. FriendFeed was acquired by Facebook in 2009 in a private transaction that resulted in Buchheit being a Facebook employee.
In 2010, Buchheit left Facebook to become a partner at the investment firm Y Combinator. From 2006 until 2008, Buchheit invested about $1.21 million in 32 different companies. and he left Facebook to become a full-time angel investor.
He continues to oversee angel investments of his own in "about 40" startups and is active with Y Combinator.

Honors and Certificates

He won the 2011 The Economist Innovation Awards for the Computing and telecommunications field.

Philanthropy

In 2009, Buchheit set up Google Moderator to crowdsource ideas for the causes should benefit from his financial support. To quote him:
Buchheit has donated to various health organizations since the death of his 33-year-old brother from pancreatic cancer.
Buchheit has stated that he believes society has the technology and resources to provide adequate food, housing, education, and healthcare for everyone, using only a fraction of available labor and resources. In his view, this implies it is possible to put an end to wage slavery. Buchheit further stated: