Lars Rasmussen

Here is a biography of Lars Rasmussen (with citations):

Lars Rasmussen – Life, Career, and Influence


Lars Rasmussen is a Danish computer scientist, entrepreneur, and technologist, best known for co-founding Google Maps and later leading engineering at Facebook. Learn his journey, work, and broader impact.

Introduction

Lars Eilstrup Rasmussen is a Danish computer scientist and technology leader. He co-founded the startup that became Google Maps, and later held senior engineering roles at Facebook. Over time he has become a startup advisor and angel investor.

Early Life and Education

Rasmussen graduated with a degree in Computer Science & Mathematics from Aarhus University in Denmark. Master’s in Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. University of California, Berkeley, earning his PhD in 1998.

His PhD work dealt with approximating the permanent and other problems in complexity theory.

Career & Major Achievements

Co-founding Where 2 Technologies → Google Maps

In 2003, Lars and his brother Jens Rasmussen co-founded a mapping startup named Where 2 Technologies. Google Maps.

At Google, Lars was part of the core efforts to integrate and scale mapping technologies that shaped how billions of people navigate the world.

Move to Facebook

In late 2010, Lars left Google and joined Facebook as an engineering director. Graph Search, a semantic search initiative for Facebook.

Startup & Investment Phase

In 2015, Rasmussen departed Facebook to co-found a music startup called Weav Music Inc. with his partner Elomida Visviki. Athens, Greece.

He has made investments in tech startups and remains influential in tech circles.

Influence, Style & Legacy

  • Rasmussen’s work on Google Maps helped transform digital cartography and navigation tools worldwide.

  • He exemplifies the path from academic theory (complexity & algorithms) into impactful product engineering.

  • His transitions—from Google to Facebook to founding startups—reflect a pattern of innovating within and outside of major tech firms.

  • As an investor and advisor, his legacy continues through supporting new generative and platform technologies.

Articles by the author

Our communication space is very fragmented today. We have a million different tools for different things with lots of different kinds of overlaps. The most natural way to try and solve that problem is to take all those different tools and try to make them smaller and fit into a single package and maybe integrate them across the boundaries.

Lars Rasmussen

Why do we have to live with divides between different types of communication?

Lars Rasmussen