Peter Thiel

PETER THIEL

Place of Birth: Frankfurt, Germany

Net worth $1.3 billion

Peter Andreas Thiel, 43, who is co-founded PayPal and was its CEO. He is an American entrepreneur, hedge fund manager, libertarian and venture capitalist. He currently serves as president of Clarium Capital, a global macro hedge fund with more than $2 billion under management, and a managing partner in The Founders Fund, a $275 million venture capital fund he launched with Ken Howery and Luke Nosek in 2005.

Thiel was ranked #377 on the Forbes 400, with a net worth of $1.3 billion. After co-founding PayPal, Thiel took the company public on Feb. 15, 2002, and sold it to eBay for USD 1.5 billion later that year.
Fortune magazine reports that PayPal alumni have founded or invested in dozens of startups with an aggregate value of around $30 billion.

Prior to founding PayPal, Peter ran Thiel Capital Management, the predecessor to Clarium, which started with $1 million under management in 1996.He is also a managing partner at The Founders Fund. Before starting Clarium, Peter served as Chairman and CEO of PayPal, an Internet company he co-founded in December 1998 and was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002.

Peter Thiel, Ken Howery, and Luke Nosek – cofounders of PayPal – provide venture capital seed money plus vision strategy, product marketing, and guidance drawn from our diverse background to serious entrepreneurs with big ideas.

Since then, he’s founded a $2 billion hedge fund, Clarium Capital, and the Founders Fund, a venture fund with $275 million under management.

“It’s a really good time to be an entrepreneur. If you have a halfway decent idea, you can get it completely funded.”

“Hubris is an issue at every one of these Silicon Valley companies that are successful. I don’t know if it’s any worse at Google than it’s been at other highly successful technology companies.”