How Did YouTube Start?

1 Founded in 2005 by ex-PayPal employees

YouTube was created by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in 2005. All of them were Paypal employees and that's how they met, through PayPal.

2 Inspired by Hotornot

Youtube started as a dating site that was inspired by Hotornot, the site that allowed people to rate the attractiveness of others before dating them. The idea was mainly a site that allowed people to upload videos of themselves for dating purposes.

3 Two events are believed to have inspired the idea of the YouTube we know today

It's believed that Karim, one of the founders, was unable to find an important video of Janet Jackson online. Hurley and Chen, the other founders, were also unable to share a video of a dinner party they attended without Karim through email.

4 The founders changed directions

The founders decided that Youtube is going to be a video uploading site where any person can share his videos. The idea of a dating site based on videos was canceled.

5 Youtube got funds very early

According to Wikipedia, YouTube was started as an angel-funded enterprise from a makeshift office in a garage. In November 2005, venture firm Sequoia Capital invested an initial $3.5 million.

6 More funding in April 2006

In April 2006, Youtube received an additional $8 million in funding from Sequoia Capital and Artis Capital Management.

7 By August 2006 the company had spent more than $11.5 million

The company was spending heavily on hosting and employee compensation. By August 2006 more than $11.5 million was spent since the company's inception.