Paul Graham

Paul Graham (born November 13, 1964) is a British-born computer scientist, entrepreneur, and essayist. He is best known as the co-founder of Y Combinator, a startup accelerator launched in March 2005, which has funded companies like Dropbox, Airbnb, and Reddit. Graham earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard University in 1988 and later developed the influential programming language, Arc. In 1996, he co-founded the web-based application company Viaweb, which was later acquired by Yahoo in 1998, becoming Yahoo Store. Graham is also recognized for his thought-provoking essays on technology and startups, collected in his book "Hackers & Painters" (2004). His work has significantly shaped the landscape of modern startups and programming languages.