Paul Graham
About Paul Graham
Paul Graham is a programmer, essayist and investor. He wrote the Lisp books On Lisp (1993) and ANSI Common Lisp (1995), and Hackers & Painters (2004). He built Viaweb, one of the first browser-based applications. Yahoo acquired it in 1998 and rebranded it Yahoo Store.
In 2005 he co-founded Y Combinator with Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris and Trevor Blackwell. YC went on to fund Dropbox, Airbnb, Stripe and Reddit, among others. He also created Hacker News, the discussion forum for the YC community, and publishes essays on startups and programming at paulgraham.com.
Crunchbase describes him as the Founder of Y Combinator and lists Mountain View, California as his location. Do not confuse him with other people named Paul Graham.
Crunchbase and Lounge's earlier snapshot count 35 personal investments, 0 lead investments, 0 companies founded and 0 exits. The current public Crunchbase page shows a higher count of 47 investments and 45 portfolio companies. The counts differ by snapshot, so treat them as approximate. That page also lists Triplebyte and Clever as exits.
NFX Signal, a third-party investor directory, lists him as an angel with 33 investments on record. Its entries include Replit (Series C, July 2025), Recall.ai (Series B, September 2025), Kernel (Series A, October 2025) and several seed rounds. Those seed rounds are Tesseral (May 2025), Human Behavior (September 2025), Perseus Defense (September 2025), Nozomio (October 2025) and QFX (October 2025). Crunchbase's activity feed also shows him in ZeroPath, Boom Supersonic and Sauna by Wordware.
Crunchbase lists no lead investments, so he appears as a participant in rounds led by others, for example General Catalyst in Luel.
Crunchbase counts 18 AI investments since 2023. The AI portfolio it lists includes Luel, Veria Labs, Luminal, Tenderd, Reworkd, Vesence, Daely, Autosana, Orange Slice, AgentMail, Kernel and Bindwell.
Recent dated rounds on Crunchbase's activity feed are Bindwell (November 2025), Kernel (October 2025), Reworkd (February 2026, with AI Grant among the investors), Veria Labs (February 2026), Autosana (February 2026) and Luel (May 2026). Luminal and AgentMail also appear in the 2026 feed. PitchBook places AgentMail, ZeroPath and QFEX in software and financial software categories.
Many of these companies are early-stage. Founders should check each company's own announcements for what he contributed, since the public data shows only that he took part in the round.
The public record points mainly to seed rounds, with some participation in later rounds such as Replit's Series C and Recall.ai's Series B. The sectors visible in his recent activity include AI software and agents, developer-facing products, financial software and a few hardware and defense companies. He is based in Mountain View, and NFX lists him among San Francisco Bay Area angels.
NFX Signal, a third-party directory and not a statement from him, lists an investment range of $5K to $50K with a sweet spot of $25K. Treat that as an estimate. We found no public statement from him giving a check size or a formal investment thesis for angel deals, so none is given here. His essays at paulgraham.com are the best primary source for how he thinks about startups.
His Crunchbase profile links to his X account, @paulg, and his personal site.
- Replit: Series C of $250M in July 2025, per NFX Signal.
- Recall.ai: Series B of $38M in September 2025, per NFX Signal.
- Kernel: Series A of $16M in October 2025, per NFX Signal. Crunchbase lists it as an AI investment.
- Reworkd: round in February 2026 with AI Grant among the investors, per Crunchbase.
- Veria Labs: seed round in February 2026, per Crunchbase.
- Autosana: seed round in February 2026, per Crunchbase.
- Luel: round in May 2026 with General Catalyst among the investors, per Crunchbase.
- Bindwell: round in November 2025, per Crunchbase.
- Luminal, AgentMail, Tenderd, Vesence, Daely, Orange Slice: listed by Crunchbase as AI investments.
- QFX: seed round of $3M in October 2025, per NFX Signal.
- ZeroPath: round that includes him, per Crunchbase's activity feed.
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Paul Graham has made 35 investments according to Crunchbase. 18 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including Luel, Veria Labs, Luminal, Tenderd and Reworkd.
Paul Graham appears in 5 AI deals tracked by the Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $31M. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $6M and the largest at $31M. The most recent are Minicor (Seed, $3.8M, Oct 2026), AgentMail (Seed, $6M, Sep 2026) and Luel (Seed, $31.2M, May 2026).
Paul Graham most often invests alongside Y Combinator, General Catalyst, Paul Copplestone and Karim Atiyeh, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Paul Graham
Who is Paul Graham the angel investor?
He is the co-founder of Y Combinator and Hacker News, the creator of Viaweb and an essayist at paulgraham.com. He also invests personally as an angel, and Crunchbase lists him in Mountain View.
Does Paul Graham invest in AI startups?
Yes. Crunchbase counts 18 AI investments since 2023, including Kernel, Reworkd, Luminal, AgentMail, Autosana, Veria Labs and Luel.
What is Paul Graham's angel check size?
He has not publicly stated one that we found. NFX Signal, a third-party directory, lists a range of $5K to $50K with a $25K sweet spot, which is an estimate.
What stage does Paul Graham invest in?
His public record is mostly seed rounds. He has also appeared in later rounds such as Replit's Series C and Recall.ai's Series B, per NFX Signal.
Does Paul Graham lead rounds?
Crunchbase shows 0 lead investments. He typically appears alongside other investors, for example General Catalyst in Luel.
How can founders learn what Paul Graham looks for?
The main primary source is his essays at paulgraham.com, and Hacker News is the community he created. Founders should treat any claim about a specific angel thesis as unconfirmed unless he has said it himself.
Is Paul Graham an angel investor?
Yes. Paul Graham invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 35 investments.
What AI companies has Paul Graham invested in?
Paul Graham's AI investments include Luel, Veria Labs, Luminal, Tenderd, Reworkd, Vesence, Daely and Autosana. The 5 rounds on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Where is Paul Graham based?
Paul Graham is based in Mountain View, United States.
What stage does Paul Graham invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Paul Graham has invested at Seed, with a median round of $6M.