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Rough timeline of Peter Thiel's accomplishments: - Started his hedge fund at age 29 - Co-founded Paypal at 31 - Paypal acquired at 35 (Thiel took home $55M)

by sayemm 12y ago

Rough timeline of Peter Thiel's accomplishments: - Started his hedge fund at age 29 - Co-founded Paypal at 31 - Paypal acquired at 35 (Thiel took home $55M) - Angel investment in Facebook at 37, co-founded Palantir the same year - Founder's Fund at age 38 Interesting that he's had all of his big wins starting in his 30s, that each success compounded into more successes and enabled him to go up to bat for even bigger wins, and that it's the result of 10+ years of hard work and intense focus.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
inthewoods 12y ago
Don't forget about Clarium Capital - at it's peak $8b under management - but then he made a series of bad bets on hyper-inflation in the dollar and got crushed. Anyone know if it is still open? I think he's clearly better at the private investing side than the public investing side.
- sayemm 12y ago
  Yeah, with his experience I bet he has way more of an edge with private investing. Good point, several mistakes and failures throughout his tech/investing career path too, like that $100K investment in Luke Nosek's startup that failed. It goes with taking risks and playing the game, only way to learn and level-up.
- gwern 12y ago
  The article covers that: > His hedge fund did get clobbered. Thiel’s peak-oil thesis did well by Clarium until mid-2008, as the price of oil soared from about $40 a barrel in 2002 to nearly $140. During that stretch the fund swelled in value from about $10 million to more than $6 billion as stock valuations skyrocketed and new investors flocked to his door. > But by February 2009 oil prices had temporarily fallen back to almost $40 again. And though Thiel had foreseen the real estate bubble, he still underestimated it. “We didn’t fully believe our own theories about how bad things were,” he admits. > Worse, he overreacted and missed the rebound, causing Clarium to badly underperform in 2009 and 2010. Most institutional investors fled. Today Clarium—with about $200 million under management—handles just the money of Thiel, friends and family, and a few select investors.
GuiA 12y ago
- Born into immense privilege at 0

by sayemm 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

inthewoods 12y ago

Don't forget about Clarium Capital - at it's peak $8b under management - but then he made a series of bad bets on hyper-inflation in the dollar and got crushed. Anyone know if it is still open? I think he's clearly better at the private investing side than the public investing side.

sayemm 12y ago
Yeah, with his experience I bet he has way more of an edge with private investing. Good point, several mistakes and failures throughout his tech/investing career path too, like that $100K investment in Luke Nosek's startup that failed. It goes with taking risks and playing the game, only way to learn and level-up.
gwern 12y ago
The article covers that: > His hedge fund did get clobbered. Thiel’s peak-oil thesis did well by Clarium until mid-2008, as the price of oil soared from about $40 a barrel in 2002 to nearly $140. During that stretch the fund swelled in value from about $10 million to more than $6 billion as stock valuations skyrocketed and new investors flocked to his door. > But by February 2009 oil prices had temporarily fallen back to almost $40 again. And though Thiel had foreseen the real estate bubble, he still underestimated it. “We didn’t fully believe our own theories about how bad things were,” he admits. > Worse, he overreacted and missed the rebound, causing Clarium to badly underperform in 2009 and 2010. Most institutional investors fled. Today Clarium—with about $200 million under management—handles just the money of Thiel, friends and family, and a few select investors.

GuiA 12y ago

- Born into immense privilege at 0