Peter Thiel is-quite simply- the greatest venture capitalist ever. When one makes such a claim in other areas of culture (such as sports) this usually spurns a raging, and usually unproductive, debate. However, in this realm, the most common following question is Who is Peter Thiel and this is a travesty. Today, we’re going to explore my favorite billionaire
.While talking about investing, there is generally three tiers. The lowest tier is retail investors. This includes everyday people, either looking to save diligently for retirement or those looking to lord over their male colleagues at the office water cooler. This has been gamified as of late thanks to the repugnant r/WallStreetBets, who’s misguided followers specialize in making short-term buys and entry level analysis of companies, caring little for the competitive moats or the track record of a company before gambling investing. Next are the long-term/value investors where some of the classic names come up; Buffet, Munger, Drucker, Graham, and so on. This is for good reason, as these titans specialize in finding established companies before buying their investments, with all of the risk aversion that entails. Careful planning and analysis occurs before making a selection, ensuring to hedge risk by buying at the right price and holding throughout storms. Credit where it’s due, this is a solid strategy. However, for all of his wisdom, Warren Buffet is relatively inexperienced at starting successful companies (with the exception of Berkshire Hathaway). Buffet is not an entrepreneur, nor does he usually provide seed capital to entrepreneurs or CEO’s. While there is considerable wisdom and temperance involved with Warren Buffet’s approach to investments, there is one tier above him, a tier where only the truly brave set foot. It takes more than brains to play in this arena, for one must also have a high stress tolerance and a tendency to be genuinely bold. We have entered the world of venture capital, where investors are willing to bet big on little-known startups in hopes of becoming large enough for Buffet to eventually salivate over. Peter Thiel is the LeBron James of venture capital.
Without Peter Thiel, our modern technological-and hence social- landscape would look drastically different. Thiel was one of the founders of the much-vaunted PayPal in the 90’s, which has gone on to produce numerous billionaire-founders of other companies (names such as Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Max Levchin, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Russell Simmons and more). Thiel was instrumental in honing PayPal into one of the largest payment processors in the nation, and is a service that is still widely used to this day. Therefore, without Peter Thiel’s guidance, level-headedness and leadership, the world would not have LinkedIn, a valuable tool for seeking employment and business connections. We’d also lack YouTube and its vast repository of instructional videos. Mankind would also lack Yelp, leaving countless diners and vacationers in the dark. There are countless more examples of what Peter Thiel’s disciples have gone on to accomplish. Without the PayPal juggernaut-created in no small part by Peter Thiel-we could easily be a decade or two behind technologically.
After a lucrative exit from PayPal, Peter Thiel fearlessly dove into venture capital, rather than resting on his laurels, and became the first outside investor into Facebook. Without Peter Thiel, there would be no Mark Zuckerburg, a fact briefly nodded to towards the end of the 2010 movie The Social Network. Thiel then went onto provided much-needed capital to stalwarts such as Spotify, AirBnB, Palantir, Lyft and many more homeruns. Workplaces, vacations, travel within cities and so many other facets of daily life would be radically different without the influence of the vaunted billionaire Peter Thiel.
But aside from the impact his investments his made, equally as impressive has been his thought process and the way he’s gone about making his much-deserved billions. Peter Thiel wrote Zero to One in which he describes the importance of solving the right problems and the importance of trying to become a monopoly, especially in an area that matters. While some may view that latter point as mere greed, The importance of not swimming against a current of competition cannot be understated. He also discusses the important questions he asks interview candidates at his companies; What uncomfortable truth do you know that most people will disagree with you on? Peter Thiel is known for pushing people just outside of their comfort zone to encourage growth. Throughout the pages of his book, and his section in Tim Ferriss’s Tools of Titans, Thiel lays out his mental groundwork for evaluating opportunities. Reading Zero to One, I felt the strong urge to quote Mel Gibson’s character from The Patriot “I have just been through the mind of a genius”. If Peter Thiel is on your side, the odds are in your favor of succeeding.
Peter Thiel is also known for his funding of Hulk Hogan’s legal defense against the hack-media site Gawker News. Gawker News had at that point served as a cautionary tale of what-not-to-do in journalism. Gawker had outed Thiel regarding his sexuality for the world to see. Luckily Thiel has lived in California for most of his life, and therefore was spared from widespread community disapproval for his LGBT status. However, that doesn’t excuse what Gawker did; had Thiel lived in the rural South-or worse, the Middle East-consequences for Gawker’s actions would have been much more dire. Thiel’s assistance resulted in a legal victory that forced Gawker to the point of insolvency. Peter Thiel has thus done yet another act of good for society.
My only critique of Peter Thiel is of how private he is; he could endear himself much more to the public by regularly writing more books and hosting more podcasts similar to his contemporary Reid Hoffman (side note, Reid Hoffman’s podcast Masters of Scale, and it’s paid version that host complete interviews are absolutely worth a listen). There exists much wisdom and battle-tested knowledge inside the mind of Peter Thiel, and it would be such a loss for humanity if Peter Thiel didn’t share more of it.
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