Type of Investing: Venture Capital
Firms:
https://twitter.com/allenf32/status/1247764356722380801?s=20
Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist most known for founding PayPal, Palantir, and Founders Fund. He is strong believer that technological innovations is what enables society to function, a thesis that is embodied in his investing, philanthropy, and political activism.
Peter's first company was a digital payments startup called Cofinity that eventually merged with a rival startup founded by Elon Musk. Post-merge the company was called PayPal, and it became one of the few success stories of companies that started right before the dot com crash. PayPal eventually went public and was later acquired by eBay. After PayPal, Peter went on to found and invest in many world-changing startups, funds, and philanthropy projects including Clarium Capital, Palantir, Facebook, Founders Fund, and the Thiel Fellowship.
In short, Peter Thiel is a live player that has played a significant role in the disruption of fintech, venture capital, social media, govtech, and education. Thiel's book, Zero to One, is one of Silicon Valley canons and can be credited with a disproportionate amount of influence on today's startup culture. His management practices and investing principles were heavily influenced by Rene Girard, a literary theorist at Stanford. Thiel's influence and success in business and investing has since popularized Girard's mimetic theory and crowned Peter as one of Silicon Valley's reigning philosopher kings.