Chad Hurley, best known as the co-founder and former CEO of YouTube, alongside partners Chen and Karim, launched the video-sharing platform in 2005. The site gained rapid popularity, boasting over 20 million monthly visitors by the end of its first year. In 2006, Google acquired YouTube for a staggering $1.65 billion.
Now, after eighteen years since co-founding YouTube, Chad Hurley is making a comeback with a new AI startup called EyeTell to revolutionize short video creation using AI. The startup, just five months old, uses artificial intelligence to generate short-form video scripts and content, The Information reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
According to the report, EyeTell has just raised a seed round led by Kevin Hartz’s A-Star Capital with an investment from Ron Conway’s SV Angel, one of the sources told The Information. The total amount of the funding was not disclosed.
The investment size and valuation remain undisclosed, but this development highlights a trend among founders with extensive experience in major tech companies venturing into generative AI—technology that automatically produces code, text, or video based on customer preferences.
Before his latest venture, Hurley had been engaged in various ventures. He co-founded MixBit, a video-sharing app, and holds a minority ownership stake in the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and the MLS’s Los Angeles Football Club. Additionally, Hurley serves as a board member for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
We covered Hurly back in 2021 when he launched a “Domain First Strategy” startup fund. At the time, Hurley thought he could change the world with domains. In a series of tweets, Hurley said: “Want to change the world? Register a sweet domain.” In another tweet, 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!”
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).
Meanwhile, ss the generative AI landscape gets more crowded, only time will reveal the trajectory of Hurley’s latest venture. Yet, armed with a substantial social media following and the expertise gained from running YouTube, there’s a promising possibility that EyeTell could emerge as a noteworthy player, becoming YouTube for AI short-form videos.
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- Source: https://techstartups.com/2023/11/14/eyetell-a-stealth-ai-startup-founded-by-youtube-co-founder-hurley-raises-funding-from-a-star-capital-and-ron-conway/
