YouTube founder Chad Hurley is launching a “Domain First Strategy” startup fund

YouTube is the world’s most popular video-sharing platform and the second most visited site (after Google.com) in the world. 37% of all mobile internet traffic belongs to YouTube with at least 2 billion people visit YouTube every month. However, not many people know the story behind YouTube and its founders.

YouTube was founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley and his two friends, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. On October 16, 2006, Chen and Hurley sold YouTube to Google. for $1.65 billion.

According to The Wall Street Journal, citing Google SEC filing on February 7, 2007, Hurley walked away with $345.6 million. The amount was based on Google’s February 7, 2007 closing stock price of $470.01. Hurley also received 694,087 Google shares directly and another 41,232 shares in a trust.

Before founding YouTube, Hurley worked in eBay’s PayPal division with fellow PayPal colleagues Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. One of Hurley’s tasks at the time involved designing the original PayPal logo. Hurley was primarily responsible for the tagging and video sharing aspects of YouTube.

After selling YouTube, Hurley went on to launch another startup called MixBit which does video editing using smartphones. Mixbit now Zeen, was later acquired by BlueJeans in August 2018. Chad is also an angel investor with ownership stakes in the Golden State Warriors (NBA) and the Los Angeles Football Club (MLS).

Fast forward to today, Hurley is about to embark on a new venture: Domain Investing. Hurley thinks he can change the world with domains. In a series of tweets over the past three days, Hurley started with a tweet saying: “Want to change the world? Register a sweet domain.”

https://twitter.com/Chad_Hurley/status/1349827617248038916

Then two days later, Hurley said “domains are the original digital store of value.” He went on to advise his over 600,000 Twitter followers to “only invest in .com’s!” He added that other domain extensions are scams.

https://twitter.com/Chad_Hurley/status/1350328640311967744

https://twitter.com/Chad_Hurley/status/1350335084918833152

In his latest tweet this morning, Hurley said that startups don’t need capital or experience, they just need sweet domains. We don’t necessarily agree with Hurley on this. Having a good domain is not sufficient to create a successful startup. Putting customers first, having a great team and good execution is critical for success. That said, we do respect Hurley’s views.

Also in the same tweet, Hurley also announced that he’s setting up a fund that focuses on a domain first strategy.

“Startups don’t need capital or experience, they just need sweet domains. I’m setting up a fund that focuses on a domain first strategy. And don’t tell me they don’t matter because of apps… don’t believe the hype!”

https://twitter.com/Chad_Hurley/status/1350322375867334656