Chad Hurley Net Worth: Inside the $700 Million Fortune of the YouTube Co-Founder

Chad Hurley, the American entrepreneur best known for his leadership of YouTube, has a versatile investment portfolio and a success story you can learn a lot from. As of 2024, Chad Hurley’s net worth is estimated at $700 million.

Hurley started his first tech business in his 20s, turning it into a major internet company in a few short years. While co-founding YouTube is indeed impressive, it’s not his only entrepreneurial success story.

In this article, we’ll recount the career and fortune-building of the man who created the world’s most popular video-sharing platform.

Chad Hurley Net Worth Breakdown: 

Chad Hurley’s estimated net worth comes from a variety of sources. In addition to his Google stock, which he received after the sale of YouTube to the company, he has a diverse portfolio of assets, including his other internet business, AVOS, which is currently worth millions.

While a lot of the details on his investments remain undisclosed to the public, we’ve gathered sufficient information to make an estimate of his fortune as well as break down the main assets that contribute to it.

Chad Hurley Net Worth: Early Life and Family

Chad Meredith Hurley was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, on January 24, 1977. He was raised with two siblings, his older sister Heather, and his younger brother Brent, near Birdsboro, Pennsylvania.

Young Chad Hurley was very interested in the arts, computers, and electronic media throughout his childhood, especially in high school. Led by his passion, he joined the Technology Student Association in his high school.

In addition to this, Hurley was a standout runner for the Twin Valley High School’s cross-country program, which won two PIAA State titles during his membership with them.

In 1995, Chad Hurley graduated from Twin Valley High School and enrolled in the Indiana University of Pennsylvania to study Fine Arts. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art in 1999.

As for his personal life, Hurley married Kathy Clark in 2000, the daughter of Jim Clark, the billionaire tech investor behind WebMD and Silicon Graphics. In 2012, the couple divorced and a few years later, Hurley married Elise Walden, his current wife.

Chad Hurley Net Worth: From Logo Design to Co-Founding YouTube

Chad Hurley was a promising tech student in school, which allowed him to land a great job working at PayPal right after graduation. From this point forward, he would impress the tech industry, climbing up the ranks and becoming one of the most recognized names by co-founding YouTube. Here’s how the story goes.

Working at PayPal

Out of college, Chad Hurley landed a job at PayPal, at a time when the company was just starting out. He was one of the people who designed the iconic PayPal logo. Hurley joined PayPal as the business’ first user interface designer and the 15th employee of the company. He reportedly designed the logo during his job interview, showing his mettle right off the bat.

When he started working at PayPal, Hurley didn’t have a place to live, having arrived in California without money for rent. He spent his first month sleeping on his friend’s floor until he got his first paycheck. Fast forward a few months, and he became one of the “PayPal Mafia“.

Hurley continued to work for PayPal after the eBay acquisition. He earned an unknown sum from the buyout, using the money to start a new business with his colleagues.

At PayPal, Hurley met his future business partners, Steve Chen and Jawad Karim. After the acquisition of PayPal by eBay in 2002, the three friends remained in the company for nearly three years, leaving it together by early 2005 to start their joint venture.

While working at PayPal, the three friends would meet at a local deli called Max’s Opera House and brainstorm ideas for a startup. Their best idea was to build a website where people could upload and share videos, ultimately landing on YouTube.com.

The Founding and Success of YouTube

In 2005, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim co-founded YouTube. A year later, in October 2006, Chad Hurley sold YouTube to Google Inc. for $1.65 billion. He was the CEO of YouTube at the time of the sale, a position he remained in for a few more years.

In the beginning, YouTube relied on only a few employees, most of whom had come over from PayPal. The employees met in Hurley’s garage to work on the new business. On April 23, 2005, Jawed Karim posted the first video on the platform, featuring his visit to the San Diego Zoo. The video content was titled Me at the Zoo.

“We never conducted a single interview,” Chad Hurley shared. “The entire team was already people who had worked together at PayPal for years and years in the past.”

Between November of that year and April 2006, the company raised $11.5 million in venture funding from Artis Capital Management and Sequoia Capital, at a point when millions of people were already using YouTube. It quickly became the best option for embedding videos into web pages and it took off from there. At the time of the sale, Sequoia Capital made a return of over 40 times its initial investment in the company, holding 941,027 Google shares as a result of the deal, more than the company’s founders.

In December 2005, YouTube reached international success thanks to Lazy Sunday, a Saturday Night Live sketch that people from all over the world went online to watch on the platform. For a time there, this caused a copyright issue between SNL and YouTube, which caused the founders to remove the video from the platform in February 2006. While the clip didn’t reappear for years until 2013 when SNL officially uploaded it on their YouTube account, this moment was the tipping point leading to YouTube’s sale.

Hurley as the CEO of YouTube

The acquisition brought big changes for the business and its co-founders. After selling YouTube, Chad Hurley remained in his position as CEO until October 2010. During his reign, YouTube continued to grow and became one of the most used platforms for video content worldwide.

In 2010, Hurley stepped down as YouTube’s CEO, sharing that he would remain the company’s advisor with Salar Kamangar taking over his position.

Chad Hurley’s Share in Google (Alphabet Inc.)

According to the Wall Street Journal, Hurley’s share in YouTube was worth $345.6 million at Google’s closing stock price in February 2007. As the co-founder of YouTube, he received 694,087 Google shares and 41,232 shares in a trust. In comparison, his partners received 625,366 shares and 137,443 shares.

Based on Google’s stock value in May 2024, which is $166.74 a piece, Chad Hurley’s stake in the business is worth $115.7 million, and the shares in the trust are worth another $6.8 million. This is, of course, if he hasn’t sold any shares in the meantime.

Awards and Honors

Chad Hurley has received many honors, including:

• One of Time’s Most Influential People (2007)
• Webby Person of the Year (2007)
• One of Business 2.0’s Most Influential People
• One of Fortune’s Most Powerful People in Business

Chad Hurley Net Worth: Other Investments and Assets

By 2010, Chad Hurley was already the former chief executive officer of a major business and an extremely wealthy man. At this point, he was ready to make new investments. He founded a new business, made investments in sports, and acquired millions of dollars worth of real estate.

Business Ventures and Investments

Over the years, Chad Hurley has made diverse investments. He has founded new companies, invested in sports teams like Los Angeles Football Club, and acquired at least one business.

Sports Investments

Chad Hurley was a major investor with the US Formula One Team, which competed in the most popular racing league in the world. That same year, on March 2, the personnel of the team were dismissed, and the team was shut down – unofficially. The sporting director Peter Windsor and the team principal Ken Anderson didn’t make a public statement on why this happened, and Hurley’s exact investment in the team remains undisclosed to this day.

In addition to this investment, Hurley also owns a minority stake in the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, as well as an undisclosed stake in the MLS’ Los Angeles Football Club. In January 2021, he also invested in the English Premier League football club Leeds United.

At one point, he reportedly made a big investment in the men’s clothing range Hlaska, as well.

AVOS Systems

As the former CEO of YouTube, Chad Hurley has been an active investor for many years. In 2011, Hurley launched an internet business incubator called AVOS Systems in partnership with Steve Chen.

“We were working on nine products at one time, which sounds astronomical, but it wasn’t based on the way Avos was structured,” said Chen, explaining the venture. “I’d say about 40 percent of all websites and iOS apps are built on the same shared technology, built and rebuilt and rebuilt again. With AVOS, all the servers and authentication and security were all written and handled, so it was much easier to test out new ideas.”

Later on, the partners used this brand to acquire Delicious, a bookmaking website. They later sold Delicious to Science Inc., because they wanted to focus their main business AVOS on a single product. After this venture, Hurley and Chen also founded an online magazine-making service called Zeen, though it was also shut down.

AVOS Systems Inc. is an active internet company to this day, headquartered in San Mateo, California, and has offices in New Zealand and China as well.

MixBit

A couple of years after Chad Hurley left his position as CEO of YouTube, he launched another company called MixBit. MixBit allows users to edit video content using smartphones. On the platform, you can use clips based on friendships or relationships, making it a unique and interesting service.

He didn’t build this business from scratch, though. According to Steve Chen, Hurley decided to turn AVOS into MixBit. He reportedly had this idea before he created YouTube with Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, but now was finally the time for him to pursue his idea.

Real Estate Assets

Back in 2013 when Chad Hurley was married to Kathy Clark, the couple spent an undisclosed amount on a property in Woodside, Silicon Valley, which they later sold for $14.25 million in 2019.

In 2013, the couple also spent $9 million on a mansion in Atherton, worth around $15 million today.

What Can We Learn from Chad Hurley’s Story?

Chad Hurley’s journey from a promising tech expert to the co-founder of YouTube, the online video-sharing platform, has many lessons to teach us.

Through co-founding YouTube and ventures like AVOS, Hurley has showcased his entrepreneurial acumen, turning innovative ideas into tangible success. His success story teaches us the importance of finding gaps and opportunities in a market and having the courage and dedication to see your idea through.

Chad Hurley has a rather diversified investment portfolio, spanning from sports investments to real estate assets, which underscores his strategic approach to the accumulation of wealth.

Hurley’s story serves as an inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs, highlighting the rewards of creativity and perseverance, as well as seizing opportunities in the evolving tech industry.