Executive Spotlight: Who Is Guillermo Rauch, Founder and CEO of Vercel? (2027)
Guillermo Rauch is the founder and CEO of Vercel, the San Francisco cloud platform behind the Next.js web framework and the v0 AI app builder. He started the company in 2015 as ZEIT, renamed it Vercel in April 2020, and has led it since. Before that he created the open-source library Socket.IO.
He matters because Next.js, which he co-authored, is one of the most widely used ways to build websites with React, and because Vercel is now pitching itself as infrastructure for AI-built software. In September 2025 the company announced a $300 million Series F at a $9.3 billion valuation.
This page uses public professional information only.
Current role and company
Rauch is the founder and CEO of Vercel. A HumanX conference speaker page for its April 2026 San Francisco event lists him as Founder and CEO, EY's 2025 World Entrepreneur Of The Year page for Argentina uses the same title, and Fortune used it in March 2025. A search for 2026 news turned up no report of a change in the role.
- HumanX speaker page (2026 event)Lists him as Founder & CEO of Vercel and says he leads its mission to help teams build AI products.
- EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025, ArgentinaNames him a finalist and describes him as Founder and CEO of Vercel.
- Vercel blog (September 30, 2025)Rauch wrote the Series F announcement for the company's 10th anniversary year.
Vercel sells a platform for building, deploying and running web applications. Its pitch has shifted toward AI: its tools include v0, which builds applications from plain-language prompts, and an AI SDK for developers.
Career path
- Argentina. EY says he began programming at age 10 in Lanus, Argentina, and became known in the JavaScript community as a teenager through open-source work.
- San Francisco. At 19 he moved to San Francisco, according to EY.
- LearnBoost and Cloudup. He co-founded the learning platform LearnBoost and then Cloudup, where he was chief technology officer until Automattic acquired it.
- Open source. HumanX credits him with creating Socket.IO and Mongoose.js and co-authoring Next.js.
- ZEIT, then Vercel. Wikipedia, which we use as a pointer only, says he founded the company in 2015 as ZEIT and that it became Vercel in April 2020.
- Operating team. In March 2025 Fortune reported that former Stripe executive Jeanne DeWitt Grosser joined Vercel as chief operating officer.
What he is known for
- Next.js. EY says he designed and co-authored the React framework in 2016. Vercel's own Series F post says Next.js had more than 500 million downloads in the prior 12 months, more than the total from 2016 to 2024.
- Socket.IO. A real-time communication library he created before Vercel.
- v0 and the AI SDK. v0 turns written prompts into working applications. Vercel's post says the AI SDK gives access to more than 60 models and that its weekly downloads rose from 446,012 to 3,209,817 in one year.
- Taking Vercel toward an IPO. Fortune quoted him in March 2025 saying, "We have been working towards public company readiness." We did not find an announced listing date.
Leadership style and philosophy
These are his own words from sources we fetched. In EY's profile he advises: "Embrace iteration. Whether it's for your product, your company or yourself: nurture an insatiable appetite for feedback." In the Series F post he describes the shift his company is betting on: "We used to build pages, and now we're going to build agents." Speaking to Fortune about the open web, he said, "You don't need permission from anybody."
Taken together, these point to a leader who stresses fast iteration, developer tools and open standards, but we are quoting him rather than characterizing his management approach beyond that.
Key numbers (Vercel, company-reported)
Funding figures come from Vercel's September 30, 2025 announcement unless noted. Vercel is private, so we found no audited revenue figures; secondary outlets give conflicting revenue numbers, so we do not repeat them.
- Series F (September 30, 2025)$300 million at a $9.3 billion valuation, co-led by Accel and GIC.
- Employee tender offer (September 2025)About $300 million for certain early investors, employees and former employees.
- Earlier valuation (May 2024, per Wikipedia)$3.25 billion after a $250 million round.
- Earlier round (June 2021, per Wikipedia)$102 million Series C.
- Employees (2025, per Wikipedia)About 550.
- Next.js downloads (12 months to September 2025)More than 500 million.
What to watch next
Worth tracking: whether Vercel files for a public listing, how v0 and the AI SDK grow, and how Rauch describes Vercel's role as AI agents write more of the web.
Questions people ask
Who is Guillermo Rauch?
He is the founder and CEO of Vercel and the creator of Socket.IO, and a co-author of the Next.js framework.
Is Guillermo Rauch still the CEO of Vercel?
Yes, based on the sources we fetched. A 2026 conference speaker page and EY's 2025 profile list him as Founder and CEO, and we found no report of a change.
What is Vercel?
A San Francisco cloud platform for building and deploying web applications. It maintains Next.js and offers AI tools including v0 and an AI SDK.
How much is Vercel valued at?
$9.3 billion, from its $300 million Series F announced on September 30, 2025.
What did Guillermo Rauch do before Vercel?
He co-founded LearnBoost and Cloudup, serving as Cloudup's CTO until Automattic acquired it, and created the open-source library Socket.IO.
Sources
- Vercel: Series F announcement (September 30, 2025) · Funding, valuation, Next.js and AI SDK figures, Rauch quotes
- EY: World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025, Argentina · Title, early career, LearnBoost, Cloudup, Next.js, quote
- HumanX: Guillermo Rauch speaker page · Current title as of the April 2026 event, Socket.IO and Mongoose.js
- Fortune: Jeanne DeWitt Grosser joins Vercel as COO (March 13, 2025) · Title, IPO-readiness quote, COO hire
- Vercel: About · Company page; checked for leadership details
- Wikipedia: Vercel · Pointer only; ZEIT history, earlier funding rounds, headcount
Facts were read from the linked pages on October 31, 2026. Some pages were read through a fetch tool that returns summaries, so confirm details on the original page. The hero photo is by Oynickj via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Funding figures are company-reported. This page covers public professional information only.
Top photo: Oynickj / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons