Peter Thiel: From A Successful Entrepreneur to a Successful Venture Capitalist

Peter Thiel is an American is a businessman, philanthropist and political activist. He was born in Frankfurt, has a Germany citizenship, and is worth$2.7 billion. He is the author of Zero to One. Peter was born in Germany, but his family moved to the US when he was one year old. He was raised in California but also spent a significant part of his life in Southern Africa. he studied at Stanford University for his B.A where he also joined the law school at Stanford. He worked as a clerk and other law-related jobs and even once worked as a speech writer. In 1997, he founded PayPal. this is because he thought using paper money was “ancient and inconvenient.” True to his word and thanks to his great innovation, the world uses and needs PayPal. He later sold PayPal in 2004. He is also co-founder of Palantir this is a software commonly used by the US defense and the health-care industries for analysis. The software is of great benefit to not only America but various corporate entities around the world.

Venture capitalism has been an obsession has taken up. Peter was the first investor outside Facebook. It was a great risk to take considering Facebook was not that popular or famous in 2004. He gave Zuckerberg and his cohorts a $500,000 check for more than 10 percent of the company’s share. Though Peter sits on the Facebook board, he sold most of his stake during the May 2012 Initial Public Offer.  He has also founded a number of venture capital funds.
Politics
He is also a political activist and he supported Donald’s Trump presidential bid in 2016. He was part of the presidential transition team following his victory.

Recognition and awards
2006- Herman Lay
2012- Alumnus of the Year
2013- TechCrunch Crunchie

Pierre Omidyar- The Internet Tycoon with a Philanthropic Heart

Pierre Omidyar is a French-born computer scientist and philanthropist who was born is Paris, France of Iranian parents who were studying in France. The billionaire worth $7.2 billion has one wife, Pamela Kerr and three children. He had early interest in computers and received his High school education in Potomac, Virginia and later at the Tufts University in Massachusetts, where he graduated with a degree in computer science. The business figure and Internet tycoon wrote his first computer program at 14 that cataloged the school library. Pierre worked at the Apple Subsidiary, Claris and played a significant contribution in starting Ink Development Corp in 1996.

In 1995 he conceptualized the idea of an on-line marketplace, by starting Auction Web which later became eBay.  His site attracted many buyers and sellers, and he changed the site to eBay. The charges range from 25 cents-$2 for sellers, and the company takes a small percentage. The eBay Auction Site founder and board Chairman (till 2015) doubles up as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Pierre became a billionaire at 31 after the initial Initial Public Offer of eBay. Ebay had over 2.1 million members and revenue of about $750 million in 1998. eBay’s success attracted Amazon who ran its auctions in 1999. He has endured a number of challenges despite his great success. Thomas Woolston sued eBay for patent infringement in 2003. Thomas had invented the “Buy it Now” feature in late 1990.Pierre’s web site hosted the service. However, Pierre had designed the website to share Ebola information. Also, the first item sold on his website was a broken laser printer. Pierre later learned the buyer specialized in buying the broken items.

Pierre has an interest in journalism. He opened an online publication named The Intercept in 2014 that focuses on the importance of an independent and free press. He is the founder of Omidyar Network philanthropic center. He is the co-founder of Enterprise Zimbabwe.