Check out Forbes cover story this week. Thiel is one of favorite entrepreneurs who is often overshadowed by well-known giants like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Although its a lengthy article, it is worth reading. He was founder and CEO of Paypal which he sold to Ebay for $1.5 billion. He also was the first major investor in Facebook, giving $500,000 to the unproven social network in exchange for a seat on the board of the directors and 3% stake now worth $1.5 billion (his lucky number I guess). While his most recent venture capital firm has struggled lately, his other firm invested early in YouTube, Linkedin, Yelp, Kiva Microloans and Tesla Motors.
His new goal is to "take civilization to the next level" by investing in some wacky but fascinating projects. For example, Thiel has donated $900,000 so far to the Seasteading Institute which aims to build floating city-states that can compete with governments of the world. In the article, Thiel says "Seasteading is the entrepreneurial way to fix government, by competing with governments rather than complaining." For further reading on Thiel, I recommend PayPal Wars, a quick and interesting book about Thiel's sturggles in building PayPal.
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