Julian Zehetmayr is an entrepreneur and technology executive from Austria. Julian is the co-founder and co-CEO of LimeWire, alongside Paul Zehetmayr. LimeWire is a Web3 platform that enables creators to generate, own, and exchange AI-produced content, including NFTs.^[1]

Early Years

Zehetmayr was born in Vienna, Austria, where he obtained a degree in Business Law at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Career

In 2015 Zehetmayr cofounded two companies, Stack Holdings, a software development firm, and APILayer, a platform for integrating external API services into various projects.

The second company was later acquired by Idera, Inc. In 2016, Zehetmayr also cofounded eversign, an electronic signatures company, where he held the CEO role until 2022. Furthermore, the subject also helped cofound Invoicely, a company that produces invoicing software. ^[2]

LimeWire

The most prominent business led by Zehetmayr is LimeWire. He co-founded it with his sibling Julian in 2021 after buying the rights from the original file-sharing company. It is now a generative AI platform powered by web3, allowing creators to own and sell content that their AI creates in the form of NFTs. It is the second-largest AI image-generating community on Discord, with over 2 mln active members. ^[3] Julian Zehetmayr shared his thoughts on this transition:

“more advanced tools and more user-friendly interface.”^[6]

Besides working on various AI models, the startup recently purchased BlueWillow, a producer of an image-generating AI. The co-founders are also planning to expand their field of operations by developing AI for music and videos. ^[4]

Julian Zehetmayr presented his objectives with NFTs and generative AI:

“our goal was to make everyone a creator [...] That was also the thesis of the old LimeWire. Anyone was able to create something and put it on there”^[6]