How the PayPal Mafia Runs the Tech Industry

First and foremost, the PayPal mafia is not what you think it is. It’s a nickname that they’ve been given. “Basically, we were thrown out of our homeland and our temples were torched,” said David Sacks, the former COO of PayPal and current CEO of Yammer. We were dispersed over the four corners of the world. We were all upset as a result of this, yet we needed to construct one new home.

The narrative of none other than eBay, which is largely responsible for its success, but why all of the founders walked away from it all, is the Synonym “They.” What was less well-known was that all of the startups were achieving an exit value of at least $1.5 million. What was even more remarkable was the fact that it became a catalyst for the recovery of the local economy and other forms of investments.

When PayPal was sold to eBay in the summer of 2001, this is exactly what happened.

Now let’s take a look at who are these Mafia are and what are they up to now:

1. **Jawed Karim**

Jawed Karim is an American software engineer and also internet entrepreneur. He is also the co-founder of Youtube and the first person to upload a video on the website. The first video he uploaded to the website was “Me at the zoo” which was the inaugural video for youtube.

Role in PayPal — He has created and designed PayPal’s incendiary real-time anti-fraud system, and the other key components of the business.

Jawed Karim after PayPal

1. Karim and chad who has designed the first logo of PayPal.

2. He continues his advisory position on Youtube before going for the cashing in 137443 shares of stock (which is approx $64 million dollars).

3. Steve Chen who was also involved with PayPal and also was the ex-employee of Facebook founded a video sharing site in the year 2005.

4. After developing the website completely Karim went to Stanford University where he completed his computer science degree.

5. Estimated net worth $140 Million Dollar

2. Jeremy Stoppelman

He is a business leader from the United States who also serves as the CEO of Yelp. Yelp was created in 2004 by two co-founders. In 1999, Stoppelman graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. He started working for X.com after working for a home networking startup, and once the company was rebranded PayPal, he became the VP of engineering.

Role in PayPal- Joined X.com, which was then known as PayPal, as an Engineer. Later, he rose to the position of vice president of engineering.

Jeremy Stoppelman after PayPal

1. He and his former colleague Russel Simmons came up with the idea of an online review site known as Yelp in the year 2004.

2. Steve Job almost convinced him to reject google’s acquisition offer in the years 2010 and 2012

3. Yelp reviewers leaving negative reviews for which Yelp faced many legal actions from other businesses.

4. Estimated Net worth $111-$222 Million Dollars.

3. Andrew McCormack

Andrew McCormack is an entrepreneur and also an angel investor from San Fransisco Bay area. Andrew McCormack founded the famous startup known as Business Accelerator. Serving as a CEO until 2017, after that he resigned from the position. After that, he founded another venture known as Practical Venture Capital. This is the new venture capital that will work for other companies which he funded almost 500 startups.

Role in PayPal — Joined PayPal in the year 2001, he has worked closely as an assistant to Peter Thiel because the company has prepared for the initial public offering. joined PayPal in the year 2001, he has worked closely as an assistant to Peter Thiel because the company has prepared for the initial public offering.

Andrew McCormack after PayPal

1. Helped in setting up another Thiel venture.

2. He founded Thiel in 2008

3. Networth Unknown

4. Luke Nosek

Luke Nosek is an American entrepreneur, he is notable for being the co-founder of PayPal

Role in PayPal — Luke Nosek is one of the co-founders of PayPal, along with Elon Musk and Ken Howery and his other friends from the University of Illinois, Max Levchin, and vice president of marketing and strategies.

Luke Nosek after PayPal

1. Traveled the world after departing from eBay takeover

2. Founded San Fransisco venture capital firm with Thiel and Howery in 2005

3. Estimated net worth $1.2billion dollars

5. Ken Howery

Ken Howery is an American entrepreneur and also diplomat. He is the co-founder of PayPal and Founders fund along with Elon Musk. He also served as US Ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden from 2019 to 2021.

Role in PayPal — He was the co-founder of PayPal along with the Chief Financial Officer between 1998–2002.

Ken Howery after PayPal -

1. He was appointed as eBay’s Director of corporate development after the takeover.

2. Started Founders Fund in less than 12 months with Thiel and Nosek.

3. He is also the co-founder of Popexpert.

4. Howery is available for a consulting session if the person is ready to spare $10,00,000

5. Estimated Networth — $1.5 billion dollars

6. David O. Sacks

David Oliver Sacks is an American entrepreneur and also investor in internet technology firms. He is the general partner of the craft venture. Which he co-founded in late 2017. Previously he was the COO and the product leader of PayPal. Not only this he is also the founder and CEO of Yammer in the year 2016.

Role in PayPal — After joining the management consultancy firm McKinsey and company, Sacks becomes the Chief operating officer (COO) of PayPal.

David O. Sacks after PayPal -

1. Sacks is one of the mafias who boasted the diverse post in PayPal’s CV.
2. After eBay took over PayPal he went to Hollywood and produced and financed the golden globe in the year 2005
3. He also founded the Genealogy Website known as Geni.com.
4. In July 2012 Microsoft acquired the company for $1.2 billion dollars.
5. Estimated Worth Unknown.

7. Elon Musk

Elon Musk is an entrepreneur, industrial designer, and engineer. He is the company’s founder, CEO, CTO, and chief designer. He is also Tesla’s Product Architect. Elon Musk is also the founder of neural link and boring firm.

Role in PayPal — Elon Musk has merged PayPal with all the financial serviced and other email payment firms like X.com in the year 1999. Musk became the largest shareholder when PayPal was sold to eBay. He has earned $165 million from that deal.

Elon Musk after PayPal

1. Just after PayPal Musk launched Space Exploration Technology (SpaceX) in June 2002
2. In May 2012 Dragon spacecraft ensured SpaceX to become the first commercial vehicle to launch an international space station.
3. He also assumed leadership of electric cars known as Tesla in 2008
4. Estimated net worth $9.7 billion dollars.

8. Max Levchin

Max Levchin is a Ukrainian American software engineer and also businessman. He is co-founded a company that slowly became PayPal in the year 1998. He also made contributions to PayPal for anti-fraud efforts.

Role in PayPal — He is the co-founder and also the firm’s chief technology officer, he was regarded for his contribution to PayPal’s anti-fraud efforts.

Max Levchin after PayPal

1. He pocketed $34 million from the PayPal deal.
2. He became the vice president of Google Engineering on 25th august.
3. He was later appointed as board of directors of Evernote.
4. He also co-founded Affirm, a financial services startup.
5. Estimated net worth $300 million dollars

9. Reid Hoffman

Reid Hoffman is an American internet entrepreneur and also a venture capitalist and author. He was also the co-founder and executive chairman of Linkedin. which is a business-oriented social network that is used for professional networking.

Role in PayPal — He was the world’s first failed social network social net who became a member of the board of directors, later went full-time to become PayPal’s COO. He was the executive vice president when eBay took over PayPal.

Reid Hoffman after PayPal

1. He is the most connected man in silicon valley
2. He also co-founded imbox bothering business of social media networks like Linkedin in the year 2002
3. He owns a stake of $2.39 billion dollars with the IPO in May 2011
4. He made upwards of 80 angel investments.
5. In 2010 he joined Greylock Partners along with running their discovery funds of $20 million
6. The estimated net worth is 3.9 billion dollars.

10. Keith Rabois

Keith Rabois is a technology executive and investor from the United States. He is the founder’s fund’s general partner. His early startup investments and executive roles at PayPal and LinkedIn have made him famous.

Role in PayPal — He was well known for his designation which was Executive vice president, Business Development and Public Affairs between November 2000 and November 2002.

Keith Rabois after PayPal

1. Honored as a very powerful person for the startup
2. He was the senior position holder at LinkedIn.
3. Controversies held which accompanied his exit from the square
4. Estimated net worth $1 billion dollars.

11. Peter Thiel

Thiel is the german American billionaire entrepreneur and also a venture capitalist. He is the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir technology. He was ranked 4th on the Forbes maidens list in the year 2014. He was also known as the “Don of Paypal Mafia”

Role in PayPal — Co-founder and CEO of PayPal

Peter Thiel after PayPal

1. Earned $55 million from his 3.7 percent stake in the eBay deal.
2. Thiel founded hedge fund claim capital.
3. The first outsider investor in the company was thiel
4. The estimated net worth $2.2billion

Conclusion

In some aspects, PayPal is definitely a product of the dot-com bubble. Once the company has boasted a burn rate of $10million in a single month. However, the PayPal team is conducting the business and ran the organization it was like a valley which was never been seen before.

Doing everything for the PayPal teams on their own dime because they were able to file for initial public offerings in late 2001. The initial public offering was completed in February 2002. According to PayPal’s website, the stock jumped more than 54 percent on the first day and closed at $20.09 per share at the time.

Souvik Ganguly