Nearly a dozen major tech firms can trace their roots to PayPal. From Palantir to Tesla, here are the companies launched by members of the 'PayPal Mafia.' (2024)

FAQs

What are the PayPal Mafia startups? ›

Some of the members of the PayPal Mafia include people like Elon Musk (Tesla), Peter Thiel (Founders Fund), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Max Levchin (Affirm), amongst dozens of others. They all had a part in the co-founding and growth of PayPal.

The key members of the PayPal Mafia include Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, and Max Levchin, among others. Each of these individuals has since played a significant role in the tech industry.

Despite the name, this 'outfit' is an entirely legit group of tech entrepreneurs - the founders and former employees of PayPal. The 'Mafia' have continued to work and invest together since the company's 2002 sale to eBay. Between them, they've founded, funded or led some of the world's biggest tech firms.

Max Levchin: PayPal cofounder and Chief Technology Officer.

Max Levchin is sometimes called the "consigliere" of the PayPal Mafia — in "The Godfather," a consigliere is an advisor to the boss. Levchin made significant contributions to PayPal's anti-fraud efforts.

Under Thiel, the company focused on the money-transfer service and was renamed PayPal in 2001. In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk—PayPal's largest shareholder with 11.72% of shares—received $175.8 million.

Musk earned upward of $175 million when PayPal was sold to eBay in 2002, based on the total estimated purchase price of $1.5 billion.

IQ tests provide insight into an individual's cognitive ability. As mentioned earlier, Elon Musk's IQ score is believed to be between 155 and 160.

PayPal went public on 15 February 2002 and was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion in October of that year. Thiel remained CEO of the company until the sale. His 3.7% stake in the company was worth $55 million at the time of acquisition.

Established in 1998 as Confinity, PayPal went public through an IPO in 2002. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay later that year, valued at $1.5 billion.

How do I accept payments? You can accept online payments in your shop via Stripe and/or PayPal.

What has PayPal been accused of? ›

Oct 5 (Reuters) - Payments giant PayPal (PYPL. O) , opens new tab was hit with a consumer antitrust lawsuit on Thursday in San Jose, California, federal court for allegedly fashioning agreements with e-commerce merchants that artificially maintain high transaction fees.

Real Time Net Worth

Elon Musk cofounded six companies, including electric car maker Tesla, rocket producer SpaceX and tunneling startup Boring Company. He owns about 12% of Tesla excluding options, but has pledged more than half his shares as collateral for personal loans of up to $3.5 billion.

Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm PayPal, and in 2002 he founded SpaceX, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He was a major early funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars and batteries, and became its chief executive officer in 2008. He cofounded Neuralink, a neurotechnology company, in 2016.

No, eBay and PayPal are no longer owned by the same company. eBay spun off PayPal as a separate public company in 2015. While eBay and PayPal were closely linked for many years, they are now separate entities with their own management teams, shareholders, and operations.

A man who became the richest man in the world for just two minutes due to a PayPal glitch, has said he knows what he would have done with the money. Chris Reynolds from Pennsylvania was checking his PayPal account back in 2013, where he was expecting to see $140 that he had stored there.

Early history

The company was originally established by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek in December 1998 as Fieldlink, later renamed Confinity, a company that developed security software for hand-held devices. Having had no success with that business model, however, it switched its focus to a digital wallet.

Elon Musk co-founded PayPal at approximately 28 years old. The merger occurred in March 2000 when Musk's online banking business, X.com, combined with Confinity, a company specializing in online payments. Musk played a pivotal role as the CEO in guiding the newly formed organization.

PayPal, American e-commerce company formed in March 2000 that specializes in Internet money transfers. It was heavily used by the Internet auction company eBay, which owned PayPal from 2002 to 2015.