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Charlie Cheever

Charlie Cheever (born August 2, 1981) is an software engineer and entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of the online question-and-answer platform and the open-source tool , as well as for his early engineering role at . Cheever earned a B.A. in from in 2003, after which he briefly worked as a software engineer at Amazon.com. In 2006, he joined as one of its early engineers, where he contributed to key features including the News Feed, Notifications, , and the , and developed internal tools like the Python-based "Lolbunny" system. He left in 2009 to co-found with former colleague , serving as its CEO until stepping down from day-to-day operations in 2012; the company raised $11 million in initial funding from Benchmark Capital and has grown to serve over 400 million monthly unique visitors as of 2025. In 2016, Cheever co-founded with James Ide as part of , creating a platform that enables developers to build cross-platform and apps using without needing native code setups. He currently serves as Expo's CEO and has also founded Castle (castle.xyz), a mobile platform for creating and playing interactive art and games directly on smartphones. Based in , Cheever is also an active in over 50 startups and maintains contributions to open-source projects via .

Early Life and Education

Early Life

Charlie Cheever was born on August 2, 1981, in , . Raised in the city, Cheever's early exposure to came through family encouragement. Cheever developed his initial programming skills by creating games on a graphing calculator, a hands-on pursuit that began in his pre-teen years. This self-taught experimentation with basic coding and game development laid the foundation for his technical aptitude, as he explored algorithms and logic through on the device. By high school, he had honed these skills further, applying them to personal projects that deepened his engagement with software creation. Cheever attended Shady Side Academy, a preparatory school in Pittsburgh, where he graduated in 1999 and continued to build his technology interests amid a rigorous academic environment. The school's emphasis on intellectual exploration complemented his growing passion for computing, preparing him for advanced studies. This foundation in early programming and education in Pittsburgh ultimately guided his pursuit of computer science in college.

Education

Charlie Cheever graduated from , a preparatory high school in , . Cheever attended from 1999 to 2003, where he earned an A.B. in . During his time at Harvard, he developed a searchable database of the university's student directory, which violated administrative policies on data privacy and access. The project led to Cheever being brought before Harvard's Administrative Board in 2000, resulting in a formal admonishment, after which the program was shut down. This early endeavor has been cited as a precursor to similar student-facing applications, such as Mark Zuckerberg's FaceMash in 2003. In addition to his technical pursuits, Cheever contributed to , the university's student newspaper, during his undergraduate years. His academic focus centered on , providing foundational skills in programming and systems design that shaped his subsequent innovations in . These experiences at Harvard built on his childhood interests in programming, where he began experimenting with code as a young student.

Professional Career

Early Engineering Roles

Following his graduation from Harvard University in 2003 with an A.B. in , Charlie Cheever relocated from the East Coast to Seattle, Washington, to begin his professional career as a Software Development Engineer at Amazon.com. This transition represented an early career milestone, immersing him in the fast-paced environment of one of the leading companies. At , Cheever's responsibilities encompassed core and tasks, focusing on building and maintaining scalable systems integral to the company's online retail platform. His work contributed to the foundational technology infrastructure that supported 's growing operations during a period of rapid expansion. Cheever served in this role from August 2003 until December 2005, gaining practical experience in large-scale that prepared him for subsequent opportunities in the tech industry.

Facebook

Charlie Cheever joined in 2006 as one of its early engineers, recruited directly by founder following a brief acquaintance at and prior experience at Amazon.com, where he built foundational engineering skills in large-scale systems. His arrival came during a period of rapid expansion for the platform, which had launched two years earlier and was transitioning from a college-focused network to a broader social service. At Facebook, Cheever contributed significantly to several core features that defined the platform's growth, including leading the development of , which enabled seamless user authentication and integration across external websites, and the , encompassing social gaming functionalities that allowed third-party developers to build interactive applications. He also played a key role in the early implementation of the News Feed, a dynamic aggregation of user updates that became central to user engagement, and supported the rollout of Facebook Video, enhancing multimedia sharing capabilities. These efforts helped transform Facebook from a simple directory into an interconnected ecosystem. One of Cheever's standout internal contributions was the creation of BunnyLol (also known as bunny1), a Python-based bookmarking and command-line tool that streamlined , development workflows, and resource access for engineers; the open-sourced version remains in use across the company today. Cheever remained at until March 2009, during which time his work, alongside colleagues like , was instrumental in the to serve hundreds of millions of users while maintaining and preventing operational chaos. This period solidified 's position as a leading social networking technology, influencing how users interacted with and extended the service globally.

Quora

Charlie Cheever co-founded in June 2009 alongside , both of whom were former engineers. The platform was envisioned as an online knowledge market and question-and-answer site designed to aggregate high-quality, expert responses on diverse topics, capturing subjective and experiential knowledge that traditional sources like encyclopedias often overlooked. Drawing briefly from their time at , where Cheever had led the development of Facebook Connect, the founders incorporated social elements to facilitate user interactions and answer sharing. During Quora's early years, Cheever played a pivotal role in product development, overseeing the site's initial design and core features such as the mechanics for posing questions, providing answers, and collaboratively editing responses to ensure clarity and accuracy. He also contributed to community building by targeting an initial user base from Silicon Valley's ecosystem, including high-profile early adopters who helped generate buzz through insightful answers on topics like startups and . Under his involvement, Quora launched in private beta in late 2009 and opened to the public in June 2010, quickly attracting a dedicated audience. Cheever remained actively involved in Quora's management as co-founder until September 2012, when he stepped down from day-to-day operations to transition into an advisory role. His tenure saw significant growth milestones, including the securing of $11 million in seed funding from Benchmark Capital in 2010 and a $50 million Series B round in May 2012 led by , which valued the company at around $400 million. By 2012, had expanded to 40 employees, relocated to a larger office in , and launched its first native mobile app for , reflecting robust user adoption with hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors.

Expo

In the summer of 2015, Charlie Cheever co-founded and became CEO of , initially known as Exposition, with the goal of democratizing . quickly evolved into an open-source platform that enables developers to build universal native applications for , , and the web using and , allowing a single codebase to target multiple platforms without deep native expertise. The platform's core features include streamlined development workflows, such as Expo Go for instant app previews on devices, and over-the-air (OTA) updates via the expo-updates library, which permit remote code deployments without full resubmissions. These capabilities have supported production apps for major companies, including Walmart's employee tools and Amazon's A to Z platform, facilitating faster iteration and broader accessibility for projects. By 2025, had advanced with integrations for on-device models through ExecuTorch, enabling privacy-focused features in apps without cloud dependency. Additional updates included support via launch.expo.dev, a tool for simplified submissions from repositories, and new automations to optimize workflows, such as enhanced config plugins and build pipelines. Cheever continues to serve as CEO, delivering keynotes like his 2025 App.js Conf presentation on these automations and the role of in streamlining development paths.

Castle and Other Ventures

In the late 2010s, Charlie Cheever founded Castle (castle.xyz), a mobile platform dedicated to enabling users to create and share interactive art, games, and scenes directly on their smartphones. The core product, the Castle app—branded as Castle: Make and Play—provides a simple, touch-based editor that allows individuals without advanced programming skills to build custom content, fostering a focus on user-generated experiences and mobile-first interactivity. Key features of Castle include tools for designing scenes with drag-and-drop elements, scripting basic behaviors, and incorporating , all optimized for hardware to support real-time creation and playback. Users can explore millions of community-submitted games across genres such as puzzles, adventures, and simulations, with built-in social functions for posting, remixing others' work, commenting, and building followings—emphasizing collaborative creativity over traditional development pipelines. This approach democratizes game-making, allowing quick iterations and sharing within a vibrant ecosystem. Cheever's work on developed in parallel with his leadership at during the , drawing on his background in open-source mobile frameworks to integrate seamless cross-platform capabilities into the app's architecture. Beyond , Cheever has pursued limited experimental initiatives tied to mobile tech, though details on additional post-2015 projects remain sparse in public records.

Investments and Influence

Angel Investing

Charlie Cheever has established himself as a angel investor, actively participating in and early-stage funding rounds for tech startups since the early . Drawing from his extensive operational experience at companies like , , and , he has made over 40 investments, focusing primarily on innovative ventures in software, mobile , and . His portfolio reflects a strategic emphasis on pre-seed and stages, where he provides not only but also hands-on guidance to help founders navigate product and scaling challenges. Among his notable investments are , an AI-powered educational platform that raised $100 million in a Series B round in July 2025, with Cheever participating as an angel backer; Etched, a startup developing specialized AI hardware; and Rork, a that secured $2.8 million in seed funding in May 2025. Other examples include Logseq, an open-source tool that received $4.1 million in a seed extension round in 2022. These investments span sectors like and AI tools, underscoring Cheever's interest in technologies that enhance productivity and learning. Cheever's investing approach is informed by his background as a founder and , allowing him to identify promising teams and provide targeted on technical and strategic issues. Through his funding and advisory involvement, he has contributed to the growth of the , with 13 portfolio exits demonstrating the tangible impact of his support on emerging companies. In addition to financial backing, he occasionally takes on advisory roles, leveraging his expertise to guide startups in areas like and platform scaling.

Industry Impact

Charlie Cheever has leveraged his founding experiences at companies like and to serve in advisory roles within the tech industry, including as an advisor to following his departure from day-to-day operations in 2012. Cheever is an active public speaker, delivering keynotes that highlight advancements in mobile development and entrepreneurial insights. At App.js Conf 2025, he presented alongside Jon Samp on new automations streamlining 's development workflow and the integration of to enhance efficiency. In February 2025, during the Harvard in Tech Spotlight event, Cheever discussed lessons from his career, emphasizing strategies for starting online communities—such as leveraging power users and maintaining quality through moderation and cultural norms—and building companies by solving real user problems. His contributions to open-source ecosystems are prominent through , the platform he co-founded in 2015, which provides tools for developers to build, deploy, and iterate on cross-platform native applications using . Expo's open-source framework has empowered thousands of developers by simplifying mobile app creation and fostering collaborative improvements in the ecosystem. Cheever's broader legacy lies in advancing key areas of technology: online knowledge sharing via , where he co-founded a platform to aggregate high-quality answers across diverse topics; mobile development through Expo's accessible ; and interactive media with , a tool for creating smartphone-based art and games. Through interviews, such as those with on Quora's disruptive model and on community-driven app building, Cheever has shared practical advice on fostering startups and online communities, influencing aspiring entrepreneurs to prioritize user-centric innovation.

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