Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and investor. He founded PayPal in 1998, led it as CEO, and took it public in 2002. In 2004 he made the first outside investment in Facebook and launched Palantir Technologies, a software company that empowers human analysts in fields like national security and global finance. His venture capital firm, Founders Fund, has backed SpaceX, Airbnb, and dozens of other successful technology startups, many run by former colleagues now known as the “PayPal Mafia”. Peter started the Thiel Fellowship, which ignited a national debate by encouraging young people to put learning before schooling. Peter is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future.