The PayPal Mafia is a group of former PayPal employees and founders who have since founded and/or developed additional technology companies based in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

, such as

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...

, Palantir Technologies,

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...

, Affirm, Slide, Kiva,

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, Yelp, and Yammer. Most of the members attended

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

or University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

History

Originally, PayPal was a money-transfer service offered by a company called Confinity, which merged with X.com in 1999. Later, X.com was renamed PayPal and purchased by eBay in 2002. The original PayPal employees had difficulty adjusting to eBay's more traditional corporate culture and within four years all but 12 of the first 50 employees had left. They remained connected as social and business acquaintances, and a number of them worked together to form new companies and venture firms in subsequent years. This group of PayPal alumni became so prolific that the term ''PayPal Mafia'' was coined. The term gained even wider exposure when a 2007 article in '' Fortune'' magazine featured the group, along with a now-iconic photograph of its members dressed in mafia-style attire, highlighting their influence in Silicon Valley and their role in founding or investing in major technology companies.

Members

Individuals whom the media refers to as members of the PayPal Mafia include: * Peter Thiel, PayPal founder and former CEO who is sometimes referred to as the "don" of the PayPal Mafia. He serves as Chairman of the Palantir board, was a founder of Founders Fund, and was the first outside investor in

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. Since 2025, he helps the management of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for Second presidency of Donald Trump. * Max Levchin, founder and chief technology officer at PayPal. Current CEO of Affirm. * Elon Musk, co-founder of Zip2, and founder of X.com (which merged with Confinity to form PayPal),

, OpenAI, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. He bought a controlling share in Tesla Motors and purchased

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

(rebranded as X). He is the wealthiest person on Earth, with a net worth of $384 billion. Since 2025, he has been acting as a senior advisor to United States President Donald J. Trump and as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). * David O. Sacks, former PayPal COO who later founded Geni.com and Yammer. * Scott Banister, early advisor and board member at PayPal. * Roelof Botha, former PayPal CFO who later became a partner at the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. * Steve Chen, former PayPal engineer who co-founded

. * Reid Hoffman, former executive vice president who later founded

and was an early investor in

and

Aviary An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds, although bats may also be considered for display. Unlike birdcages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where Bird flight, they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flig ...

. Currently sits on the board of

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. * Ken Howery, former PayPal CFO who became a partner at Founders Fund, and later served as the US ambassador to Sweden during the Trump administration. * Chad Hurley, former PayPal web designer who co-founded

. * Eric M. Jackson, who wrote the book '' The PayPal Wars'' and became chief executive officer of WND Books and co-founded CapLinked. * Jawed Karim, former PayPal engineer who co-founded

. Founder of YVentures. * Dave McClure, former PayPal marketing director who later co-founded 500 Global and became a super angel investor for startup companies. * Luke Nosek, PayPal co-founder and former vice president of marketing and strategy who later became a partner at Founders Fund. * Keith Rabois, former executive at PayPal who later worked at

Square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

, Khosla Ventures, and Founders Fund. * Jack Selby, former vice president of corporate and international development at PayPal who co-founded Clarium Capital with Peter Thiel. * Premal Shah, former product manager at PayPal who later became the founding president of Kiva.org. Serves on the Change.org board. * Russel Simmons, former PayPal engineer who later co-founded Yelp. * Jeremy Stoppelman, former vice president of technology at PayPal who later co-founded Yelp. * Yishan Wong, former engineering manager at PayPal who later worked at

, became the CEO of

Reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

, and founded Terraformation Inc. * Yu Pan was one of the co-founders of PayPal and played a role in designing the company's user interface and user experience. He later became involved in private ventures and some successful startups.

Legacy

The PayPal Mafia is sometimes credited with inspiring the re-emergence of consumer-focused Internet companies after the dot-com bust of 2001. The PayPal Mafia phenomenon has been compared to the founding of

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

in the late 1960s by engineers who had earlier founded Fairchild Semiconductor after leaving Shockley Semiconductor. They are discussed in journalist Sarah Lacy's book '' Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good.'' According to Lacy, the selection process and technical learning at PayPal played a role, but the main factor behind their future success was the confidence they gained there. Their success has been attributed to their youth; the physical, cultural, and economic infrastructure of

; and the diversity of their skill sets. PayPal's founders encouraged tight social bonds among its employees, and many of them continued to trust and support one another after leaving PayPal. An intensely competitive environment and a shared struggle to keep the company solvent despite many setbacks also contributed to a strong and lasting camaraderie among former employees.

Politics

Some members of the group, such as Peter Thiel, David Sacks and Elon Musk, later expressed libertarian and

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

political views. By contrast, Reid Hoffman has regularly been a top donor for many Democratic campaigns and political pushes. After the 2024 United States presidential election, ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' wrote that ⁣⁣the PayPal Mafia would " take over America's government" with the reelection of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

. Thiel protégé

JD Vance James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman, August2, 1984) is an American politician, author, attorney, and Marine Corps veteran who is the 50th vice president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republic ...

became Trump's

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

, Musk became head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and Sacks became Trump's advisor on AI and

cryptocurrencies A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership records ...

. Musk alone had donated over $250 million to Trump's re-presidential campaign.

History

Members

Legacy

Politics

See also

References

Further reading