Serial Entrepreneurs
Have you heard of the “PayPal Mafia?” According to Charlie Parrish’s Business Insider article “Meet the PayPal Mafia, the Richest Group of Men in Silicon Valley,” PayPal employees and founders are called the PayPal Mafia because after founding PayPal, they founded multiple world-leading companies like Tesla, LinkedIn, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, Affirm, Slide, Kiva, YouTube, Yelp, and Yammer. Peter Thiel, the former CEO of PayPal, became a billionaire after investing early in Facebook and other ventures. Before joining PayPal as a chief operating officer, Reid Hoffman tried unsuccessfully to build several companies, like Social Net. After PayPal’s acquisition, Reid was called “the most connected man in Silicon Valley.” It is no surprise that he co-founded LinkedIn within the same year that PayPal was acquired. Today, LinkedIn is the most extensive professional network globally (Parrish, 2014). Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Reid Hoffman are billionaires, and even now they are actively founding, mentoring, and investing in startups. While they certainly have a talent for building businesses, their considerable wealth comes from their relationships.
Parrish, Charlie. “Meet The PayPal Mafia, The Richest Group of Men in Silicon Valley.” Business Insider, September 20, 2014.
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