Source - https://www.businessinsider.com/paypal-mafia-members-careers-elon-musk-peter-thiel-reid-hoffman-2019-11
TL;DR - Early PayPal employees (the “PayPal mafia”) have since founded many influential startups and VC funds, shaping Silicon Valley since the early 2000s.
Helpfulness - 3
Tags - notable investors, notable founders, vc history
Questions addressed:
- Who were the “PayPal mafia”?
- What impact did they have on Silicon Valley and the venture capital industry?
Summary:
- The entrepreneurs who founded PayPal (the so-called “PayPal mafia”) have gone on to shape Silicon Valley through successful ventures of their own.
- Peter Thiel (PayPal CEO) founded VC firm Founders Fund, as well as big data startup Palantir.
- Max Levchin (PayPal CTO) became chairman of Yelp and CEO of fintech Affirm.
- Ken Howery (PayPal CFO) worked for eBay before co-founding Founders Fund with Thiel.
- Elon Musk (PayPal CEO) founded Tesla and SpaceX.
- Reid Hoffman (PayPal COO) founded LinkedIn.
- Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen (engineers) founded YouTube.
- Jack Selby (PayPal VP) founded Clarium Capital Management with Thiel.
- Dave McClure (marketing) founded VC firm 500 Startups.
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