Paul Buchheit

Early life and education Buchheit was born on November 7, 1977, in Webster, New York. He attended the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio where he studied computer engineering and was part of the college's rowing 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 developed the original prototype of 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 becoming a Facebook employee. In 2010, Buchheit left Facebook to become a partner at the investment firm Y Combinator. From 2006 (when he started investing) until 2008, Buchheit invested about $1.21 million in 32 companies. .

He continues to oversee angel investments of his own in "about 40" startups (by his own estimate) and is active with Y Combinator.

Buchheit won the 2011 The Economist innovation awards in the computing and telecommunications field.