Tom FerrariVP - GTM & Technology Search, UltraTalent · Placing elite sellers & builders at startups

Meeting YouTube's Founder in Nepal: An Unexpected Serendipity

24 Sept 2025 · 1 min

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1:22

In this travel vignette, the speaker recounts trekking to Kathmandu's historic Monkey Temple when they notice a fellow traveler filming with a gimbal. The traveler introduces himself as Steve Chen, co‑founder of YouTube, and shares that he still uploads videos directly to the platform. The speaker engages in an impromptu conversation about the origins of YouTube, learning about Chen’s personal first video and reflecting on the unexpected nature of meeting such a tech pioneer in a remote Nepalese setting. The anecdote highlights themes of serendipity, the global reach of digital creators, and the personal side of a well‑known tech figure.

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But one sort of a funny moment I had, Pri, was also in Nepal. And we're trekking around, there's quite a famous old sort of a temple where a lot of tourists go, thousands of years old, called the Monkey Temple. And I see this guy and he's got this very cool sort of gimbal video camera. And I went up to him and I said, Wow, that's really cool. Is that a video camera? And he said, yeah, yeah, I just load my videos straight up to YouTube. And I said, oh, have you got a YouTube channel? He said, no, I founded YouTube. I went, oh, really? And so it turned out, you know, he was Steve Chen, the loveliest guy. And then just to stand there and talk to him about the history of founding YouTube and what he went through. And the first video was his personal video. And here I am in this remote place in Kathmandu, you know, chatting with this amazing guy, Steve. That pure serendipity, right?