Paul Buchheit : Ask Biography

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Paul Buchheit is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. He was the creator and lead developer of Gmail. He developed the original prototype of Google AdSense as part of his work on Gmail. He also suggested the company's now-famous motto "Don't be evil" in a 2000 meeting on company values.

Buchheit grew up in Webster, New York and went to college at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He worked at Intel and later became the 23rd employee at Google.

Buchheit was a founder of the startup FriendFeed, which was launched in 2007 and was acquired by Facebook in 2009, in a private transaction.

In 2010, Buchheit left Facebook to become a partner at the venture capital firm Y Combinator. From 2006 (when he started investing) until 2008, Paul invested about $1.21 million in 32 different companies. He also continues to oversee angel investments of his own, in (by his own estimate) "about 40" startups.