Paul Scherer is Founder and CEO at Eigen, an AI startup building the world's first mutual friend to enhance human connection and tackle the loneliness epidemic.

Paul grew up in a village of fewer than 1,000 people outside Frankfurt, left high school at 17, and taught himself to code before arriving in San Francisco in May 2025 on an O-1 visa. He previously helped scale Augment, a Paris-based alternative MBA for entrepreneurs, from near-zero to over $1 million in monthly revenue.

Paul is assembling a U-shaped team pairing experienced tech veterans with young creative builders, and nearly all of Eigen's engineers are former startup founders. The company has even hired a screenwriter to work on the engineering team, reflecting Paul's view that building a mutual friend is a narrative and empathetic challenge as much as a technical one.

Eigen raised a $15 million seed round from Benchmark in April 2026, with angel investors including Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann, Spotify co-president Gustavo Sodertstrom, Notion co-founder Akshay Kothari, Stripe CTO David Singleton, and former Snap product lead Will Wu.

Eigen is building shared, synchronous AI experiences that bind people together rather than atomize them, addressing a market where half of U.S. adults reported feeling isolated and the global AI companion market is projected to reach $552.49 billion by 2035. Benchmark partner Sarah Tavel noted that Paul's vision was completely contrarian and deeply thought through.