# Adam D'Angelo Adam D'Angelo (born August 14, 1984) is an American internet entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Quora, and former CTO of Facebook. He is also known for his role on OpenAI's board. Adam D'Angelo (born August 14, 1984) is an American internet entrepreneur known for co-founding and leading the question-and-answer platform Quora and for serving as the first chief technology officer of Facebook. He has been a prominent figure in the technology industry, with early involvement in social media and later investments in artificial intelligence startups. D'Angelo was born in Redding, Connecticut. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, where he developed the Synapse Media Player with classmates including [Mark Zuckerberg](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/mark-zuckerberg). He then studied computer science at the California Institute of Technology, graduating in 2006. ## Early life and education D'Angelo was born on August 14, 1984, in Redding, Connecticut. At Phillips Exeter Academy, he collaborated with Zuckerberg and others on Synapse, a music recommendation program that used machine learning to suggest songs based on listening habits. This early project foreshadowed his later interest in [artificial intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence). From 2002 to 2006, D'Angelo attended the California Institute of Technology, earning a Bachelor of Science in computer science. During his time there, he competed in programming contests, including the International Olympiad in Informatics, where he won a silver medal in 2002. ## Career at Facebook and Quora In 2004, while still in college, D'Angelo created BuddyZoo, a website that let users upload their AIM buddy lists to compare them with others and generate network graphs. That same year, he joined Facebook shortly after its launch. He served as vice president of engineering and then as chief technology officer from 2006 to 2008, helping scale the platform during its early growth. In June 2009, D'Angelo co-founded Quora with Charlie Cheever, a former Facebook engineer. Quora became a popular platform for user-generated questions and answers, with D'Angelo serving as CEO. In May 2012, he invested $20 million in Quora as part of a $50 million Series B funding round. D'Angelo was an early advisor to Instagram before its acquisition by Facebook in 2012. He also made early investments in Asana and Lunchclub, a networking platform that uses AI. ## Poe and AI ventures In December 2022, Quora launched Poe, a platform that allows users to interact with multiple [large language models](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/large-language-model) and [chatbots](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/chatbot) from different providers. Poe aggregated various AI models, including those from [OpenAI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/openai), [Anthropic](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/anthropic), and others, into a single interface. D'Angelo positioned Poe as a way to explore and compare different AI systems. His interest in AI extends to governance. In 2018, D'Angelo joined the board of directors of OpenAI, the research organization behind models like [GPT-4](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/gpt-4). In November 2023, he was one of four board members who voted to remove Sam Altman as CEO. After Altman's reinstatement, three of the other board members resigned, but D'Angelo remained on the board, becoming the only original member to stay. ## Honors and achievements D'Angelo has received recognition for his technical skills and entrepreneurial success. In 2001, he placed eighth in the USA Computing Olympiad. He won a silver medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics in 2002. As part of Caltech's team, he was a World Finalist in the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest in 2003 and 2004, winning silver medals in 2004 and serving as co-coach in 2005. In 2010, Fortune magazine named him a runner-up in its "Smartest people in tech: Engineers" list. In 2016, Forbes ranked him 24th on its list of America's Richest Entrepreneurs Under 40, with a net worth of $600 million. ## Personal life and impact D'Angelo is known for his low-profile, technical approach to leadership. His work at Quora and Poe has influenced how people access and share knowledge online, while his role at OpenAI has placed him at the center of debates about AI safety and governance. As of the early 2020s, he continues to lead Quora and remains active in the AI community. --- Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/adam-dangelo License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Last updated: 2026-09-05T13:30:33.715206+00:00