- Techzi
- Posts
- Meet the PayPal Mafia: The OG Tech Titans Who Conquered Silicon Valley
Meet the PayPal Mafia: The OG Tech Titans Who Conquered Silicon Valley
A look back at the all-star team of future billionaires and startup legends who emerged from PayPal's early days
Anuj Kumar Verma
November 23, 2023
The PayPal Mafia emerged as a trailblazing group of entrepreneurs and investors who leveraged their early success to shape Silicon Valley over the following decades by founding, leading, or financing companies like Tesla, LinkedIn, Yelp, and beyond.
The 'Don' of Tech and His Enduring Legacy
Gather round... today we're dishing on the legendary PayPal mafia - the OG tech titans who conquered Silicon Valley after their PayPal days.
Peter Thiel started things off in 1999; he cofounded Confinity with his cofounders Max Levchin and Luke Nosek.
He continued as CEO until 2002, when it was sold to eBay for $1.5bn. This minted Peter as a millionaire; his 3.7% stake was worth $55 million.
Peter later found entities like Founders Fund, a VC firm involved in early-stage investments in SpaceX and AirBnB. Now, Peter is a billionaire worth over $8 billion.
What happened to Max Levchin?
Max was key in PayPal's anti-fraud efforts in the early days. After PayPal, he founded a company called Slide that Google acquired.
He was an early investor in Yelp, serving as board chairman from 2004-2015.
And now he's CEO of the fintech Affirm, which IP'd in 2021, raising $1.2 billion.
Some of the other Big Names
Well, no list would be complete without Elon Musk. But he gets so much attention already that we don't think expounding on Elon is needed. Just open any media site.
There's Roelof Both, who was the CFO. And is now a partner at the VC, Sequoia Capital.
There's Reid Hoffman, then the COO of Linkedin. And who later cofounded LinkedIn.
David Sacks was Paypal's COO and later became an interim CEO at Zenefits. Then, he cofounded Craft Ventures and podcasted on the "All-in Podcast" with fellow billionaires.
There's menacing mafia man Keith Rabois, who brought his hustle from PayPal to LinkedIn and beyond. Now, he's a VC godfather at Founders Fund. Bow down!
Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman turned Yelp into the ultimate soapbox for heated hot take reviews. Bless their early PayPal engineering days!
And you can't forget Dave McClure, who rocked marketing at PayPal before launching VC firm 500 Startups. Of course, some scandal eventually struck.
Other PayPal alums like Yishan Wong and Premal Shah moved on to lead Reddit and Branch.
Even interns like Joe Lonsdale parlayed PayPal into big-shot VC careers.
Unconventional Spirit and Influence
So pour one out for the OG PayPal crew who dominated tech and finance long after their startup glory days.
Just remember, with great power comes great responsibility. And the occasional scandal. Hey, no one's perfect.
Reply