Former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel estimates the PayPal Mafia to be around 220 people. While those may seem like vastly different stages in a company’s life, it’s more like splitting hairs, as PayPal’s IPO happened only a few months before it was acquired. The PayPal Mafia–a term that’s used with affection and awe in Silicon Valley–is defined as the Mountain View PayPal team either pre-IPO or pre-acquisition, depending on which founding member you ask. Yet even more extraordinary is that exit becoming the catalyst for a revitalization of a local economy and a specific type of investing.ĭespite astronomical odds, this is what happened when PayPal sold to eBay in the summer of 2002, and the PayPal team members went on to found some of the most important startups–and make some of the most strategic investments–of all time. What is decidedly less common is that startup reaching an exit upwards of $1 billion. It’s a pretty rare occurrence that a startup will make it from inception to exit. The ominous “they” in this story is eBay, and eBay is partly responsible for both the success of PayPal and why the founders walked away from it. That’s how David Sacks, former COO of PayPal and former CEO of Yammer, described it. So, we were scattered to the four corners of the globe, and we had to make new homes.” “Basically, we were kicked out of our homeland and they burned down our temple. For more info, visit our Terms of Use page. This may influence how and where their products appear on our site, but vendors cannot pay to influence the content of our reviews. We may be compensated by vendors who appear on this page through methods such as affiliate links or sponsored partnerships. Their blueprint for explosive growth and scale forever changed the tech industry. Diane Hamilton, Elon Musk, Eric M.How the ‘PayPal Mafia’ redefined success in Silicon ValleyĪfter its acquisition by eBay, PayPal's original team built unicorn startups, such as Tesla, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Diane hamilton, Jobs, Linkedin, News, Social media, Technology, Uncategorized by dianehamilton. Posted in Business, Career, Celebrities, Dr. Top Seven Ways for Entrepreneurs to Obtain Funding.Top 30 Links for the Successful Entrepreneur.Will the Poc Pack Become the PayPal Mafia of Digital Health?.What Created the PayPal Mafia of Successful Entrepreneurs?.Where are They Now? The PayPal Mafia is More Powerful than Ever.Reid Hoffman – was an Executive VP with PayPal before later creating Linkedin.įor a more complete list of the PayPal Mafia members and their accomplishments, click here.Premal Shah – was a product manager at PayPal and later founded.Jackson – wrote The PayPal Wars and became CEO of WND Books, Elon Musk – was forced out of PayPal but found success with Tesla Motors.Steve Chen and Jawed Karim (engineers for PayPal), and Chad Hurley (web designer) – founded YouTube. Roelof Botha – was the CFO for PayPal and invested in Youtube, Facebook, Xoom and other profitable ventures.David Sacks – was the COO for PayPal and later founded Yammer and Geni.Max Levchin – was the CTO for PayPal and continued with his success investing in Yelp, a company co-founded by Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman.Thiel urges young people to skip school and create companies instead. Investments in Facebook also helped to sky rocket his earnings. Peter Thiel – aka the “don” of the PayPal Mafia – was the founder of PayPal.To learn more about some of the individuals associated with the PayPal Mafia check out the following members and how their initial success led to other serial successes: As opposed to a typical entrepreneur, who will often come up with an idea, start the company, and then see it through and play an important role in the day to day functioning of the new company, a serial entrepreneur will often come up with the idea and get things started, but then give responsibility to someone else and move on to a new idea and a new venture.” These men are serial entrepreneurs or individuals who, “continuously come up with new ideas and starts new businesses. The entrepreneurs created PayPal before they set out to develop other multiple successful technology-based companies. The PayPal Mafia refers to a group of individuals who created multiple companies that created a frenzy of growth in the Silicon Valley.
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