Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel is the originator of PayPal and is often referred to as the “Don of the PayPal Mafia.” Thiel served as PayPal’s Chief Executive Officer until October 2002, when eBay acquired the firm for $1.5 billion. His stake was valued at $55 million, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In 2003, he co-established Palantir, a company focusing on big data analytics. Thiel was also the inaugural major external backer of Facebook (designated as an extremist organization and banned in Russia; owned by Meta, which is also designated as an extremist organization and banned in the Russian Federation) and provided early capital to Yelp and LinkedIn, alongside several other ventures launched by his PayPal associates.
Furthermore, Thiel co-founded Founders Fund, a venture capital enterprise that supported the beginnings of SpaceX and Airbnb. More details about Peter Thiel’s path to success can be found in our feature article.
As of 2025, Forbes estimates Peter Thiel’s net worth at $24.8 billion.
Max Levchin
Max Levchin, a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of PayPal, is sometimes dubbed the “Consigliere of the PayPal Mafia,” drawing a comparison to a figure from “The Godfather.”
Together with PayPal’s technical architect, David Wetherall, he developed the Wetherall-Levchin test, an early iteration of CAPTCHA for commercial software.
Following his time at PayPal, Levchin launched Slide, a media-sharing service that was later acquired by Google. He was also an early investor in Yelp and held the position of Chairman of Yelp’s board from the company’s inception in 2004 until July 2015.
In 2012, Levchin founded Affirm, a fintech entity enabling consumers to finance online purchases at the point of sale via installment payments. Affirm went public in 2021, raising $1.2 billion through its IPO.
Levchin also occupies the role of Chairman of the board for Glow, a fertility tracking application designed to assist users in improving their chances of conception.
As of 2025, Forbes assesses Max Levchin’s wealth at $2 billion.
Elon Musk
The world’s wealthiest individual, Elon Musk, also played a part in the creation of PayPal. In 1999, Elon Musk founded the payment firm X.com, which merged with Peter Thiel’s Confinity in 2000 and was subsequently rebranded as PayPal. He briefly served as PayPal’s CEO before being removed by the board in September 2000 and replaced by Thiel.
Musk is the most recognizable figure among all “PayPal Mafia” members. After his tenure at PayPal, Musk founded and led Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, and Neuralink. He also took ownership of Twitter, renaming it X, after reclaiming the X.com domain name from PayPal.
Should you wish to invest in PayPal, Tesla, or other enterprises established by PayPal Mafia members, the “Segregated Global” account at “Finam” offers qualified investors the opportunity to trade US equities, futures, and options on the NYSE, NASDAQ, CBOE, and CME Group exchanges.
As of 2025, Forbes pegs Elon Musk’s net worth at $480.5 billion.
Luke Nosek
Luke Nosek was one of the co-founders and served as the Vice President of Marketing and Strategy at PayPal.
In 2005, Nosek joined Thiel and also became a partner at Founders Fund. In 2017, he established the investment firm Gigafund, which was instrumental in raising capital for Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Nosek was the very first institutional investor in SpaceX and sits on the company’s board of directors. He also joined the board of ResearchGate, a platform where academics and researchers can pose questions, follow specific topics, and peer-review each other’s papers.
Roelof Botha
At PayPal, Roelof Botha began as the Director of Corporate Development, subsequently moving to the role of VP of Finance, and ultimately attaining the position of Chief Financial Officer.
In 2003, Botha joined the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital as a Partner and Managing Director. He currently oversees Sequoia’s operations across the United States and Europe and is regarded as one of the preeminent technology investors globally. Under his guidance, Sequoia Capital has financed technological titans such as Apple, Google, and YouTube.
Botha has also served on the boards of over a dozen companies, including Square, EventBrite, Weebly, Tumblr, YouTube, and 23andMe.
Reid Hoffman
From PayPal’s inception, Reid Hoffman was a member of the board of directors and held the office of Chief Operating Officer.
In 2002, Hoffman launched LinkedIn, which has since become the world’s foremost social network for professional connections.
Hoffman is also recognized as one of Silicon Valley’s most active angel investors. He was an early backer of OpenAI, Flickr, Care.com, and numerous other companies. In 2017, Hoffman joined the board of directors at Microsoft.
As of 2025, Forbes calculates Reid Hoffman’s wealth at $2.5 billion.
David Sacks
Similar to Hoffman, Sacks also held the Chief Operating Officer role at PayPal. In 2006, he founded Geni.com, an online service for constructing family trees.
Sacks is a serial entrepreneur and investor, holding angel investments in Airbnb, Postmates, Slack, and many other firms. In 2017, Sacks co-founded Craft Ventures, an investment company focused on the incipient stages of business development.
He remains closely associated with Elon Musk and is a supporter of Trump. In December 2024, Trump announced his intention to appoint Sacks as the White House “Czar for Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrencies.”
Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley, and Steve Chen first crossed paths at PayPal in its early days. Karim and Chen were engineers, while Hurley served as a web designer.
In 2005, this trio launched the video hosting platform YouTube. Karim uploaded the very first video, “Me at the zoo”—an 18-second clip showing him standing in front of the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo. The video currently boasts 376 million views.
In 2008, Karim also established the venture fund YVentures, through which he invested in Palantir, Reddit, Eventbrite, and Airbnb.
Hurley stepped down as YouTube’s CEO in 2010. Since then, he has invested in the educational startup Uptime and several sports franchises.
Chen has backed the music platform HitRecord, which secured $6.4 million in Series A funding in February 2024.
About the Author
