Paul Bragiel | |
|---|---|
heisenbergmedia(dot)com.jpg) Paul Bragiel at BDL Accelerate, Beirut, Lebanon, 21 November 2014. Image ©Dan Taylor/Heisenberg Media -http://www.heisenbergmedia.com/ | |
| Born | (1977-09-15)15 September 1977 (age 47) |
| Citizenship | American,Polish,Colombian |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer Engineer andBusiness |
Paul Bragiel (born 15 September 1977 inChicago, Illinois) is an internet entrepreneur and currently a managing partner ofBragiel Brothers.[1]
Bragiel, the oldest child of Mary and Walter Bragiel, was raised inMt. Prospect andSouth Barrington, Illinois. In the late 1990s, he was involved in thedemoscene.[2]
Bragiel graduated fromUniversity of Illinois in 1999.[3] Shortly after graduating he founded his first company,Paragon 5, with offices inChicago andPoland. In 2004, he founded the first location-based social network,Meetro. In 2008, he founded Lefora, which was sold to Crowdgather in the summer of 2010.[4]
In 2010, he launched i/o Ventures, a seed fund and accelerator based in San Francisco.[5]
In 2012, he launched three more technology-focused seed funds. Savannah Fund (Sub-Saharan Africa) andGolden Gate Ventures (Southeast Asia) were created to foster entrepreneurship in those regions.[6] Gamefounders (Eastern Europe) invests in companies building gaming-related products.[citation needed]
In 2014, Paul launchedSisu Game Ventures, a $50m global early-stage venture fund investing in games.[7]
In 2015, he launched Presence Capital, a $10m venture fund investing in early-stagevirtual reality (VR) andaugmented reality (AR) companies.[8]
In 2019, he launched SMOK Ventures, a $50m venture fund investing in early-stage companies in Central & Eastern Europe.[9]
In 2021, Paul launchedNiu Ventures, a $10m venture fund investing in early-stage companies in Brazil.[10]
He travels around the world to give lectures on startups and is an advisor to governments on their technology and entrepreneurship policy includingPhilippines,Singapore,Brazil andTanzania.[11]
In 2013, Bragiel trained incross-country skiing inFinland with a view to competing in the 2014Sochi Olympics under theColombian flag. In order to participate, Bragiel obtained Colombian citizenship by presidential decree and was soon globally addressed as the man who was hacking his way into the Olympics.[12]
For the2016 Summer Olympics, Bragiel joined theTonga delegation as teamattaché.[13]
During the2018 Winter Olympics, Bragiel served as a coach for both theColombia andTonga cross-country ski teams. He is noted as being the first person to participate in theOpening and Closing Ceremonies for two different countries in the same Olympics.[14]
In April 2024, Paul was announced as a bench coach for thePoland national baseball team, joining managerDennis Cook and coachJohn McLaren.[15]
"Premature Baldness", uploaded on April 29, 2005 by user "Paul", is the fourth oldest video onYouTube and holds several significant distinctions in the platform's history.
Notably, it marks the first edited video on YouTube. Other milestones include the first video featuring copyrighted music and the first video to surpass one minute in duration.[16]