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confluence, you've been awfully negative about the fellowship and Peter Thiel thus far. However, you should be careful to not conflate the lack of readily avai

confluence, you've been awfully negative about the fellowship and Peter Thiel thus far. However, you should be careful to not conflate the lack of readily available data on the fellows with lack of progress on their end. The fact that there isn't much press is a (very) rough indicator that the fellows are spending time working with their heads-down rather than attention-whoring. Anyways, I'll do some homework for you and dig up some concrete cases of what the fellows have done: - Andrew Hsu raised $1.5M as a solo founder for Airy Labs from Google Ventures and Foundation Capital (http://www.forbes.com/sites/briancaulfield/2011/08/04/names-you-need-to-know-andrew-hsu-19-raises-1-5m-for-educational-gaming-startup/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/briancaulfield/2011/08/04/names-...) - Ben Yu has built a transdermal caffeine company (http://sprayableenergy.com/ http://sprayableenergy.com/), which he holds provisional patents for (http://benyu.org/thiel-fellowship-closing-ceremony-speech http://benyu.org/thiel-fellowship-closing-ceremony-speech) - Clay Allsopp is building Propeller (http://usepropeller.com/ http://usepropeller.com/), a drag-and-drop native iOS app builder. He has also authored a RubyMotion book (http://pragprog.com/book/carubym/rubymotion http://pragprog.com/book/carubym/rubymotion). - Connor Zwick is building YC-backed Coco Controller (http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/14/the-yc-backed-coco-controller-will-turn-your-iphone-into-a-gaming-powerhouse/ http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/14/the-yc-backed-coco-controll...) to augment iOS and Android gaming. He also has a Flashcards app with 1M+ downloads (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flashcards+/id408490162?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flashcards+/id408490162?mt=8). - Darren Zhu is working on a synthetic biology company and has gotten a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/06/thiel-fellows-are-making-the-grade/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/06/thiel-fellows-are-making-th...). - Dale J Stephens has published a book, Hacking Your Education (http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Your-Education-Lectures-Thousands/dp/0399159967 http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Your-Education-Lectures-Thousa...) through Perigee Books, and has launched the UnCollege movement (http://www.uncollege.org/ http://www.uncollege.org/) - Daniel Friedman is building personalized online education startup Thinkful, which has raised $1M (http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/02/26/peter-thiel-backs-thinkful-for-personalized-online-education/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/02/26/peter-thie...). - Eden Full is building the SunSaluter (http://www.sunsaluter.com/ http://www.sunsaluter.com/) through her social venture Roseicollis Technologies, which has won the Westly Prize, the Mashable-UN Foundation Startups for Social Good Challenge, second prize at the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, and the grand prize at the Staples-Ashoka Youth Social Entrepreneurship Challenge (http://www.linkedin.com/in/edenfull http://www.linkedin.com/in/edenfull). - James Proud sold his company GigLocator for undisclosed 6-figure sum (http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2012/06/20/skip-school-sell-company-meet-the-thiel-fellow-who-just-turned-a-profit/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2012/06/20/skip-school-s...) - Laura Deming has her own fund (http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mkg45jfej/laura-deming-18-2/ http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mkg45jfej/laura-deming-18-2/) and has been working working closely with biotech legend Corey Goodman to fund anti-aging therapies. She also spoke at TEDMED 2013 (http://www.tedmed.com/speakers/show?id=46921 http://www.tedmed.com/speakers/show?id=46921) - Nick Cammarata "started a company that was recently acquired" (http://pandodaily.com/2013/04/24/examining-the-thiel-fellowship-where-are-they-now/ http://pandodaily.com/2013/04/24/examining-the-thiel-fellows...). - Paul Gu is working with Upstart, which raised $5.9M as a kickstarter for people (http://pandodaily.com/2013/04/22/upstart-grabs-5-9-million-to-let-investors-back-people-yep-a-kickstarter-for-people/ http://pandodaily.com/2013/04/22/upstart-grabs-5-9-million-t...) - Ritik Malhotra is working on YC-backed Streem, a Dropbox for Video (https://angel.co/streem https://angel.co/streem) - Sujay Tyle is working at Developer Auction (http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/21/developerauction-sujay-tyle/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/21/developerauction-sujay-tyle...), which has raised $2.7M (http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/03/14/developerauction-raises-2-7m-seed-for-tech-hiring-service/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/03/14/developera...) - Taylor Wilson is building small nuclear fission reactors (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HL1BEC024g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HL1BEC024g) - Tom Currier built out a robotic solar panel tracking company (http://www.qbotix.com/ http://www.qbotix.com/) that has raised $7.5M total (http://www.qbotix.com/pressseptember4/ http://www.qbotix.com/pressseptember4/) and got a couple patents for it (http://www.google.com/patents/WO2011150373A1 http://www.google.com/patents/WO2011150373A1, http://www.google.com/patents/WO2012009470A1 http://www.google.com/patents/WO2012009470A1) - Yoonseo Kang has been working on Open Source Ecology and Open Tech Forever (http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/User:Yoonseo_Kang http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/User:Yoonseo_Kang). You can check out some of the stuff he's built here: http://vimeo.com/user9565582 http://vimeo.com/user9565582 The fellows who haven't been explicitly mentioned here aren't necessarily dormant; they simply have not bothered to garner any press. Please tread a little more carefully next time you label something as being "little different from child beauty pageants and dog shows" -- or at the very least, do your homework so a "college dropout" doesn't have to do it for you.

argonaut 13y ago
While I feel like confluence is being overly snarky and cynical about the Thiel program, upon hitting the fact that you listed Andrew Hsu and Airy Labs among the list of accomplished Thiel Fellows it becomes immediately apparent that you really haven't actually done your homework. At the risk of sounding like I'm attacking Andrew, he was just about the worst possible example for you to pick. His startup is and was notorious for imploding after being run into the ground with highly public mismanagement that involved interference from his family members. If I were someone who wanted to make a spurious argument attacking the Thiel Fellowship, he would be exhibit #1. The rest of your post is merely a long list of people all in the process of "starting" something - but not actually having accomplished anything of particular note. It is easy to "start" a company, or a fund, or an organization. It is much harder to actually achieve anything with that. And despite what TechCrunch/other mdia may wish for you to believe, raising funding, giving talks, and winning random competitions are hardly accomplishments. Now, I don't think the Thiel Fellowship is a bad thing. If I was younger than 20 I would very much be interested in applying for the program. The fact that most Thiel Fellows have not accomplished anything of great external significance has so much less to do with the program and the fellows themselves, and so much more to do with how damn hard it is to start a successful company / solve a big hairy problem. It's not something you do in two years. It's a process and I think the Thiel Fellowship was only ever meant as an experience in independent learning/self-starting for the fellows. I have no doubt that every Thiel Fellow has learned a lot in his/her experience, but I think it is unwise to tout many of the people in your list as having made concrete achievements.

argonaut 13y ago

While I feel like confluence is being overly snarky and cynical about the Thiel program, upon hitting the fact that you listed Andrew Hsu and Airy Labs among the list of accomplished Thiel Fellows it becomes immediately apparent that you really haven't actually done your homework. At the risk of sounding like I'm attacking Andrew, he was just about the worst possible example for you to pick. His startup is and was notorious for imploding after being run into the ground with highly public mismanagement that involved interference from his family members. If I were someone who wanted to make a spurious argument attacking the Thiel Fellowship, he would be exhibit #1. The rest of your post is merely a long list of people all in the process of "starting" something - but not actually having accomplished anything of particular note. It is easy to "start" a company, or a fund, or an organization. It is much harder to actually achieve anything with that. And despite what TechCrunch/other mdia may wish for you to believe, raising funding, giving talks, and winning random competitions are hardly accomplishments. Now, I don't think the Thiel Fellowship is a bad thing. If I was younger than 20 I would very much be interested in applying for the program. The fact that most Thiel Fellows have not accomplished anything of great external significance has so much less to do with the program and the fellows themselves, and so much more to do with how damn hard it is to start a successful company / solve a big hairy problem. It's not something you do in two years. It's a process and I think the Thiel Fellowship was only ever meant as an experience in independent learning/self-starting for the fellows. I have no doubt that every Thiel Fellow has learned a lot in his/her experience, but I think it is unwise to tout many of the people in your list as having made concrete achievements.