# The PayPal Mafia

One payments company in 1999, and the companies its founders and early employees went on to start.

Source: https://netgraf.isik.co/m/paypal-mafia
Kind: Real
Summary: 14 people, 24 relationships, 1967 to 2008
Structure: average 2.7 connections each, 21% of the possible ties drawn, 3 communities

## People (14)

- Peter Thiel, PayPal CEO, then Founders Fund, from 1967
- Elon Musk, Founded X.com, merged into PayPal, from 1971
- Max Levchin, PayPal co-founder and CTO, from 1975
- Luke Nosek, PayPal co-founder, from 1975
- Ken Howery, PayPal co-founder, from 1975
- David Sacks, PayPal COO, from 1972
- Reid Hoffman, PayPal COO, founded LinkedIn, from 1967
- Roelof Botha, PayPal CFO, then Sequoia, from 1973
- Keith Rabois, PayPal executive, then investor, from 1969
- Russel Simmons, PayPal engineer, founded Yelp, from 1976
- Jeremy Stoppelman, PayPal engineer, founded Yelp, from 1977
- Steve Chen, PayPal engineer, founded YouTube, from 1978
- Chad Hurley, PayPal designer, founded YouTube, from 1977
- Jawed Karim, PayPal engineer, founded YouTube, from 1979

## Relationships (24)

- Peter Thiel and Max Levchin: co-founded PayPal with (business, confirmed, 1998 to 2002) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek: co-founded PayPal with (business, confirmed, 1998 to 2002) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- Peter Thiel and Ken Howery: co-founded PayPal with (business, confirmed, 1998 to 2002) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- Elon Musk -> Peter Thiel: merged X.com into PayPal (business, confirmed, 2000) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal]
- Peter Thiel -> David Sacks: COO under him (business, confirmed, 1999 to 2002) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- Peter Thiel -> Reid Hoffman: COO under him (business, confirmed, 2000 to 2002) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- Peter Thiel -> Roelof Botha: CFO under him (business, confirmed, 2001 to 2002) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- Peter Thiel -> Keith Rabois: executive under him (business, confirmed, 2000 to 2002) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- Max Levchin -> Russel Simmons: engineer under him (business, confirmed, 2000 to 2002) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- Max Levchin -> Jeremy Stoppelman: engineer under him (business, confirmed, 2000 to 2002) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- Max Levchin -> Steve Chen: engineer under him (business, confirmed, 2000 to 2002) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- Max Levchin -> Jawed Karim: engineer under him (business, confirmed, 2000 to 2002) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- David Sacks -> Chad Hurley: designer under him (business, confirmed, 2000 to 2002) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- Russel Simmons and Jeremy Stoppelman: co-founded Yelp with (business, confirmed, from 2004) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp]
- Steve Chen and Chad Hurley: co-founded YouTube with (business, confirmed, from 2005) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube]
- Steve Chen and Jawed Karim: co-founded YouTube with (business, confirmed, from 2005) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube]
- Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim: co-founded YouTube with (business, confirmed, from 2005) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube]
- Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek: co-founded Founders Fund with (business, confirmed, from 2005) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founders_Fund]
- Peter Thiel and Ken Howery: co-founded Founders Fund with (business, confirmed, from 2005) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founders_Fund]
- Peter Thiel -> Reid Hoffman: invested in LinkedIn (business, confirmed, from 2003) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn]
- Peter Thiel -> Elon Musk: invested in SpaceX (business, reported, from 2008) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founders_Fund]
- Roelof Botha -> Jeremy Stoppelman: backed Yelp at Sequoia (business, confirmed, from 2005) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp]
- Reid Hoffman -> Steve Chen: early investor (business, reported, from 2005) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia]
- Elon Musk and Peter Thiel: ousted as CEO while on honeymoon (conflict, confirmed, 2000) [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal]

## Tour (4 steps)

1. PayPal sold to eBay in 2002. What made it famous was what its people did next.
2. The founders. Thiel and Levchin ran it, and Musk arrived through the X.com merger, then lost the CEO job in a boardroom coup.
3. The engineers went on to found YouTube and Yelp, within three years of leaving.
4. And the money circled back. Thiel's Founders Fund, and Botha at Sequoia, funded the companies their old colleagues started.

## Sources

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founders_Fund
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn