Steve Chen and Jawed Karim

YouTube

Like cat videos? Sure, who doesn’t? A word of advice: You owe Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, cofounders of YouTube and University of Illinois-trained computer scientists, a hearty thank you for bringing that little morsel of joy to your computer screen.

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STEVE CHEN AND JAWED KARIM

STEVE CHEN AND JAWED KARIM

STEVE CHEN AND JAWED KARIM

STEVE CHEN AND JAWED KARIM

We all remember the Star Wars kid, right? The portly kid who, with no regard for the camera, waged an epic battle by himself against the malevolent forces of the dark side. For that and the billions of other videos streamed, we all owe University of Illinois graduates Steve Chen and Jawed Karim thanks.

After working together at PayPal, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim launched YouTube in February 2005. A short 22 months later, they sold YouTube for $1.65 billion.

YouTube has democratized video, enabling all of us to make utter fools of ourselves by sharing videos far and wide.