Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and investor. He started PayPal in 1998, led it as CEO, and took it public in 2002. In 2004, he invested in Facebook (where he serves as a director) and launched PalantirTechnologies, a software company that harnesses computers to empower human analysts in fields like national security and global finance. He has provided early funding for LinkedIn, Yelp, and dozens of successful technology startups. He is also a partner at Founders Fund (a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has funded companies like SpaceX and Airbnb), and a founder of the Thiel Fellowship and Thiel Foundation.

Blake Masters was a student at Stanford Law School in 2012 when his detailed notes on Peter’s class “Computer Science 183: Startup” became an internet sensation. He went on to co-found Judicata, a legal research technology startup.