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> The Mafia is all-male and has been accused of contributing to the lack of women in the technology industry Last I checked there is nothing stopping women fro

> The Mafia is all-male and has been accused of contributing to the lack of women in the technology industry Last I checked there is nothing stopping women from doing what these guys did... Why are these men the gate keepers to success? I don't know all of their stories but it seems that anybody can do what they did...

rebuilder 8y ago
It seems hard to leverage wealth made in the early days of the IT boom for power if you didn't gain that wealth back then in the first place.
- giancarlostoro 8y ago
  When was this IT boom exactly? Cause we got companies like Facebook (2004), Slack(2013), GitHub (2008 - now Microsoft, but that's a testament to their success), Atlassian (2002) and others who are still growing and expanding. Edit: Added years these companies were founded.
  - rebuilder 8y ago
    Paypal - 1998.
  - rjzzleep 8y ago
    They're talking about PayPal mafia [1] in the article. So it's specifically about PayPal, Confinity and X.com. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confinity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confinity [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.com
    - giancarlostoro 8y ago
      "IT boom" sounds more generic though so I wasn't sure, I am not as familiar with the PayPal Mafia term till this article came about. I may of heard it briefly in the past and dismissed it. I was aware of some of those people running PayPal once upon a time, but I didn't really think too much about it.
  - erikb 8y ago
    Shortly after 2008 till around 2017 was when Silicon Valley, HN, and the start-up world in general surged heavily. Now I think most people agree it's behind it's ceiling point. (most != all) Of course before the first internet bubble also companies succeeded, but then when the bubble burst there was a dry phase.
lexs 8y ago
> Why are these men the gate keepers to success? The point of this article is how they invest their money not how they founded paypal
- mbrumlow 8y ago
  And my point is they founded companies without taking money from themselves. So anybody else should be able to do the same as they did. Further more, why is their money better for founding companies than somebody else's ? On top of that. What is the suggestion? Sorry Uber I have already invested in my quota of companies founded by men ? Even more being founders is not a job position nyou hire for. You have to have something to have a idea and plan. The assertion that they are telling women with amazing ideas that they won't invest them because they are woemen is silly. Not every idea is a good one. They fund founders who they think have good ideas. This whole article is silly and flame bait. I wish I had never replied.
  - pjc50 8y ago
    Thiel got started with just a million dollars from his family. Surely anyone can do that, right? > The assertion that they are telling women with amazing ideas that they won't invest them because they are woemen is silly. The judgement of "amazing" is extremely subjective and vulnerable to unconscious bias on the part of those being pitched to.
    - mbrumlow 8y ago
      So you are telling me these were the only guys ever to have friends and family with that sort of cash to help out ? Many millions are lost every year by friends and families helping start companies that fail.
      - pjc50 8y ago
        > Many many many millions are lost every year by friends and families helping start companies that fail. As you've seen, there is a huge amount of luck involved as well.
pjc50 8y ago
Asserting that "anyone can do X" and then observing that very few people do X in reality: don't you think there's a contradiction here? Even if I just read bits of information from Thiel's bio on wikipedia, I see quite a few "not everyone" moments: " With financial support from friends and family, he was able to raise $1 million toward the establishment of Thiel Capital Management and embark on his venture capital career." "his luck changed when Max Levchin, a friend of Nosek's, introduced him to his cryptography-related company idea, which later became their first venture called Confinity in 1998"
- mbrumlow 8y ago
  None of those seem to have anything to do with gender... Many people have access to a million dollars, not many seem to have good ideas.

rebuilder 8y ago

It seems hard to leverage wealth made in the early days of the IT boom for power if you didn't gain that wealth back then in the first place.

giancarlostoro 8y ago
When was this IT boom exactly? Cause we got companies like Facebook (2004), Slack(2013), GitHub (2008 - now Microsoft, but that's a testament to their success), Atlassian (2002) and others who are still growing and expanding. Edit: Added years these companies were founded.
- rebuilder 8y ago
  Paypal - 1998.
- rjzzleep 8y ago
  They're talking about PayPal mafia [1] in the article. So it's specifically about PayPal, Confinity and X.com. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confinity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confinity [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.com
  - giancarlostoro 8y ago
    "IT boom" sounds more generic though so I wasn't sure, I am not as familiar with the PayPal Mafia term till this article came about. I may of heard it briefly in the past and dismissed it. I was aware of some of those people running PayPal once upon a time, but I didn't really think too much about it.
- erikb 8y ago
  Shortly after 2008 till around 2017 was when Silicon Valley, HN, and the start-up world in general surged heavily. Now I think most people agree it's behind it's ceiling point. (most != all) Of course before the first internet bubble also companies succeeded, but then when the bubble burst there was a dry phase.

lexs 8y ago

> Why are these men the gate keepers to success? The point of this article is how they invest their money not how they founded paypal

mbrumlow 8y ago
And my point is they founded companies without taking money from themselves. So anybody else should be able to do the same as they did. Further more, why is their money better for founding companies than somebody else's ? On top of that. What is the suggestion? Sorry Uber I have already invested in my quota of companies founded by men ? Even more being founders is not a job position nyou hire for. You have to have something to have a idea and plan. The assertion that they are telling women with amazing ideas that they won't invest them because they are woemen is silly. Not every idea is a good one. They fund founders who they think have good ideas. This whole article is silly and flame bait. I wish I had never replied.
- pjc50 8y ago
  Thiel got started with just a million dollars from his family. Surely anyone can do that, right? > The assertion that they are telling women with amazing ideas that they won't invest them because they are woemen is silly. The judgement of "amazing" is extremely subjective and vulnerable to unconscious bias on the part of those being pitched to.
  - mbrumlow 8y ago
    So you are telling me these were the only guys ever to have friends and family with that sort of cash to help out ? Many millions are lost every year by friends and families helping start companies that fail.
    - pjc50 8y ago
      > Many many many millions are lost every year by friends and families helping start companies that fail. As you've seen, there is a huge amount of luck involved as well.

pjc50 8y ago

Asserting that "anyone can do X" and then observing that very few people do X in reality: don't you think there's a contradiction here? Even if I just read bits of information from Thiel's bio on wikipedia, I see quite a few "not everyone" moments: " With financial support from friends and family, he was able to raise $1 million toward the establishment of Thiel Capital Management and embark on his venture capital career." "his luck changed when Max Levchin, a friend of Nosek's, introduced him to his cryptography-related company idea, which later became their first venture called Confinity in 1998"

mbrumlow 8y ago
None of those seem to have anything to do with gender... Many people have access to a million dollars, not many seem to have good ideas.