Paul Graham
Co-founder of Y Combinator and influential essayist on start-ups
- Age
- 61 yrs
- Birthday in 7 days
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- Book
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Paul Graham is an English-American programmer, investor and essayist who co-founded Viaweb, sold to Yahoo! in 1998, and in 2005 co-founded Y Combinator with Jessica Livingston and others. YC’s seed programme funded Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe and Reddit. His essays are widely read by founders.
Biography
Background
Graham was born in England and grew up in Pittsburgh. He studied philosophy at Cornell, earned a PhD in computer science at Harvard and studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Viaweb
In 1995 he and Robert Morris built Viaweb, one of the first web applications, letting merchants create online stores. Written in Lisp, it was sold to Yahoo! in 1998 for $49 million and became Yahoo! Store.
Y Combinator
In 2005 he, Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell started Y Combinator, funding batches of start-ups with small amounts of money and advice. It became the world’s best-known accelerator. He stepped back in 2014.
Essays
His essays on start-ups, programming and life, collected in Hackers & Painters (2004), are famous among founders. He created Hacker News and the Arc dialect of Lisp.
Timeline
-
1964
Born in Weymouth, England
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1995
Co-founds Viaweb
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1998
Yahoo! buys Viaweb
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2004
Hackers & Painters
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2005
Co-founds Y Combinator
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2007
Launches Hacker News
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2014
Steps back from YC
Notable works
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2004
Hackers & Painters Book
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1993
On Lisp Book
Did you know?
-
1
He is married to fellow YC founder Jessica Livingston.
-
2
He moved to England in 2016.
-
3
His essay “Do Things That Don’t Scale” is a start-up classic.
Connections
Frequently asked
Who is Paul Graham?
Paul Graham is an English-American programmer, investor and essayist who co-founded Viaweb, sold to Yahoo! in 1998, and in 2005 co-founded Y Combinator with Jessica Livingston and others. YC’s seed programme funded Airbnb, Dropbox, Stripe and Reddit. His essays are widely read by founders.
How old is Paul Graham?
Paul Graham is 61 years old, born on 13 November 1964 in Weymouth, England.
Where is Paul Graham from?
Paul Graham was born in Weymouth, England.
What is Paul Graham known for?
Paul Graham is best known for Viaweb; co-founding Y Combinator (2005); essays such as “How to Start a Startup”; Arc language.
References
- Paul Graham (programmer) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Paul Graham (programmer) — Goodreads author page. Goodreads. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Official website. paulgraham.com. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Paul Graham (programmer) (Q92650) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Paul Graham (programmer)”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 4 November 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Paul Graham.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/paul-graham
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