PayPal Mafia
Encyclopedia
"PayPal Mafia" is an informal term for the community of American businesspeople and investors centered in Silicon Valley
, who were founders or early employees of e-commerce service PayPal
before founding a series of other technology companies. The PayPal Mafia are often credited with inspiring Web 2.0
, and for the re-emergence of consumer-focused Internet companies after the dot com bust of 2001. Some commentators consider these credits to be exaggerated or partly mythologized.
pitched his idea for a mobile device money transfer service to Peter Thiel
at a breakfast meeting near Stanford University
in 1998. Thiel invested and joined the company as co-founder. Later named PayPal after merging with an early competitor, the company grew to approximately 200 employees, hiring a number of people Levchin knew through the Computer Science
department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
as well as some contacts of Thiel from the Stanford Review, a libertarian magazine Thiel started at Stanford. The company grew to serve the broader market of electronic currency, used in particular for online auctions. It went public
in 2002 and was bought by eBay
later that year for $1.5 billion, after eBay gave up on its own competing service, BillPoint
. The original PayPal employees had difficulty adjusting to eBay's more traditional corporate culture, resulting in a mass departure: within four years approximately half of the original 200 employees, and all but 12 or fewer of the first 50 employees, had left. They remained connected as social and business acquaintances. A number of serial entrepreneurs
from the group worked with each other in the following years to form new companies, venture funds
, and to make private equity
investment in each other's companies, particularly in the fields of social networking service and other Web 2.0
online software services.
It is not uncommon for a company's employees to leave and start successful new companies of their own after their old company is acquired. However, the PayPal alumni are considered singularly prolific. PayPal's $1.5 billion acquisition price was relatively small compared to other technology company acquisitions, yet with less buyout money than other companies PayPal's former employees launched more successful companies in a shorter time than almost any other company in history. Their success has been attributed to a number of factors: their youth (many had never been in unsuccessful companies before starting PayPal, and were not interested in retiring on their company stock gains); the physical, cultural, and economic infrastructure of Silicon Valley, which facilitates rapid company formation and expansion; and the diversity of skill-sets among the former employees (which ensured that the social group has a full range of financiers, engineers, designers, operations experts, marketers and others available to help each other start new companies). By hiring mostly people they already knew, PayPal's founders encouraged tight social bonds among friends who continue to trust and support one another despite their relatively short time together at PayPal. The phenomenon has been compared to the founding of Intel in the late 1960s by engineers who had earlier founded Fairchild Semiconductor
after leaving Shockley Semiconductor, Silicon Valley's first successful computer device company.
Other aspects of PayPal's pre-eBay corporate culture were also unique. Company decisions were made according to reasoned arguments rather than executive experience. It was allowed and even encouraged for low level employees to criticize executive decisions and lobby for their own positions. All employees, not just managers, were made aware in detail of company finances and performance. Levchin and Thiel intentionally looked for a specific personality profile in their early hires. They hired workaholic engineers, often graduate school dropouts with anti-establishment leanings, and avoided hiring MBAs, consultants, or people they considered "frat boys" or "jocks". Many employees were multilingual. Recruited from the American Midwest, most were not initially interested in the San Francisco Bay Area
's many social distractions. The company was male-dominated and nearly all employees were young men. An intensely competitive environment and a shared struggle to keep the company solvent despite many setbacks, contributed to a strong and lasting camaraderie. All of these have been cited as contributing to the group work ethic that has led to success for so many of their newer start-up companies.
, but gained wide exposure due to a 2007 article in Fortune Magazine that used the term in its headline and featured most of the members posed at San Francisco's Tosca Cafe in gangster outfits. Others who were not present at the shoot were later photographed separately in gangster attire.
groups together.
Members include:
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
, who were founders or early employees of e-commerce service PayPal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
before founding a series of other technology companies. The PayPal Mafia are often credited with inspiring Web 2.0
Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
, and for the re-emergence of consumer-focused Internet companies after the dot com bust of 2001. Some commentators consider these credits to be exaggerated or partly mythologized.
Background
Max LevchinMax Levchin
Max Rafael Levchin is a Ukrainian-born American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur widely known as one of the co-founders and for his role as the former chief technology officer of PayPal....
pitched his idea for a mobile device money transfer service to Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel
Peter Andreas Thiel is an American business magnate, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager. With Elon Musk and Max Levchin, Thiel co-founded PayPal and was its CEO...
at a breakfast meeting near Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
in 1998. Thiel invested and joined the company as co-founder. Later named PayPal after merging with an early competitor, the company grew to approximately 200 employees, hiring a number of people Levchin knew through the Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
as well as some contacts of Thiel from the Stanford Review, a libertarian magazine Thiel started at Stanford. The company grew to serve the broader market of electronic currency, used in particular for online auctions. It went public
Initial public offering
An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...
in 2002 and was bought by eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
later that year for $1.5 billion, after eBay gave up on its own competing service, BillPoint
Billpoint
Billpoint was the name of a person-to-person money transfer service founded in 1998 and purchased in 1999 by online auctioneer eBay. Billpoint's website was taken offline while eBay integrated Billpoint into their auction service, and it did not reappear until the Spring of 2000 when it was...
. The original PayPal employees had difficulty adjusting to eBay's more traditional corporate culture, resulting in a mass departure: within four years approximately half of the original 200 employees, and all but 12 or fewer of the first 50 employees, had left. They remained connected as social and business acquaintances. A number of serial entrepreneurs
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
from the group worked with each other in the following years to form new companies, venture funds
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
, and to make private equity
Private equity
Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....
investment in each other's companies, particularly in the fields of social networking service and other Web 2.0
Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
online software services.
It is not uncommon for a company's employees to leave and start successful new companies of their own after their old company is acquired. However, the PayPal alumni are considered singularly prolific. PayPal's $1.5 billion acquisition price was relatively small compared to other technology company acquisitions, yet with less buyout money than other companies PayPal's former employees launched more successful companies in a shorter time than almost any other company in history. Their success has been attributed to a number of factors: their youth (many had never been in unsuccessful companies before starting PayPal, and were not interested in retiring on their company stock gains); the physical, cultural, and economic infrastructure of Silicon Valley, which facilitates rapid company formation and expansion; and the diversity of skill-sets among the former employees (which ensured that the social group has a full range of financiers, engineers, designers, operations experts, marketers and others available to help each other start new companies). By hiring mostly people they already knew, PayPal's founders encouraged tight social bonds among friends who continue to trust and support one another despite their relatively short time together at PayPal. The phenomenon has been compared to the founding of Intel in the late 1960s by engineers who had earlier founded Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. is an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1957, it was a pioneer in transistor and integrated circuit manufacturing...
after leaving Shockley Semiconductor, Silicon Valley's first successful computer device company.
Other aspects of PayPal's pre-eBay corporate culture were also unique. Company decisions were made according to reasoned arguments rather than executive experience. It was allowed and even encouraged for low level employees to criticize executive decisions and lobby for their own positions. All employees, not just managers, were made aware in detail of company finances and performance. Levchin and Thiel intentionally looked for a specific personality profile in their early hires. They hired workaholic engineers, often graduate school dropouts with anti-establishment leanings, and avoided hiring MBAs, consultants, or people they considered "frat boys" or "jocks". Many employees were multilingual. Recruited from the American Midwest, most were not initially interested in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
's many social distractions. The company was male-dominated and nearly all employees were young men. An intensely competitive environment and a shared struggle to keep the company solvent despite many setbacks, contributed to a strong and lasting camaraderie. All of these have been cited as contributing to the group work ethic that has led to success for so many of their newer start-up companies.
The name
The group's name for itself, "PayPal Mafia", was already a minor cultural memeMeme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
, but gained wide exposure due to a 2007 article in Fortune Magazine that used the term in its headline and featured most of the members posed at San Francisco's Tosca Cafe in gangster outfits. Others who were not present at the shoot were later photographed separately in gangster attire.
Membership
The PayPal Mafia is not a formal organization, so there is no formal criterion for membership. Many of the group's members do acknowledge that it exists and use the name when referring to themselves. Some have formed various social networking service and other online communityOnline community
An online community is a virtual community that exists online and whose members enable its existence through taking part in membership ritual. An online community can take the form of an information system where anyone can post content, such as a Bulletin board system or one where only a restricted...
groups together.
Members include:
- Founder and Chief Executive OfficerChief executive officerA chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
Peter Thiel, often called the "don" of the PayPal Mafia, earned approximately $68 million in the eBay buyout. He made a $500,000 early investment in FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
that was worth approximately $1 billion at the valuation established by MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's investment in 2007. He started The Founders FundThe Founders FundFounders Fund is a San Francisco based venture capital firm which invests at all stages in companies with revolutionary technologies. The firm’s six partners, Peter Thiel, Sean Parker, Ken Howery, Luke Nosek, Bruce Gibney, and Brian Singerman have been founders of or early investors in numerous...
with fellow members Ken HoweryKen HoweryKen Howery is a co-founder and managing partner at Founders Fund.Howery graduated from Stanford University in 1998 with a B.A. in Economics. He was a co-founder of PayPal and served as the company's first CFO from 1998 until 2002. His partner within this Paypal project was Peter Thiel at Thiel...
and Luke NosekLuke NosekLuke Nosek is an American entrepreneur of Polish descent.Nosek received a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During college in the summer of 1995, he cofounded SponsorNet New Media, Inc., along with fellow UIUC students Max Levchin and Scott Banister...
in 2005. The Founders Fund and its principals collectively made early investments in SpaceXSpaceXSpace Exploration Technologies Corporation, or more popularly and informally known as SpaceX, is an American space transport company that operates out of Hawthorne, California...
, Facebook, Geni.comGeni.comGeni is a genealogy and social networking website. Launched on January 16, 2007, the Web 2.0 company aims to create a family tree of the world. While family profiles are private, Geni’s mission is to create a shared family tree of common ancestors...
, IronPortIronPortIronPort Systems, Inc., headquartered in San Bruno, California, was a company that designed and sold products and services that protect enterprises against Internet threats. It was best known for IronPort AntiSpam, the SenderBase email reputation service, and email security appliances...
, OomaOomaOoma is a consumer telecommunications company based in Palo Alto, California, in the United States that allows its users to make phone calls anywhere in the United States with no monthly service fees. After an initial purchase, customers only pay applicable government taxes and access fees, around...
, QuantcastQuantcastQuantcast is a California based company that provides publishers and marketers with the ability to understand, deliver and reach their best audiences at a massive scale...
, RapleafRapleafRapleaf is a Web 2.0 start-up company based in San Francisco, California founded by Auren Hoffman and Manish Shah. Acting primarily a B2B firm, Rapleaf's consumer information technology helps businesses understand their customers so they can personalize experiences in real time, segment customers,...
, slide.com, LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...
, FriendsterFriendsterFriendster is a social gaming site that is based in Malaysia, KL. The company now operates mainly from the three Asian countries namely in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore....
, YammerYammerYammer is an enterprise social network service that was launched in September 2008. Unlike Twitter, which is used for broadcasting messages to the public, Yammer is used for private communication within organizations or between organizational members and pre-designated groups, making it an example...
, Yelp, Inc., PowersetPowerset (company)Powerset is a Microsoft owned company based in San Francisco, California that, in 2006, was developing a natural language search engine for the Internet....
, VatorVatorVator is a community-based website focused on the business of funding and building emerging technologies for startups. Vator operates a database of dynamic, private-company profiles and a newsroom, covering technology and Internet trends through analysis and interviews...
, Palantir TechnologiesPalantir TechnologiesPalantir Technologies, Inc., headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices in Tysons Corner, Virginia, New York City and Covent Garden, London, is a software company that produces the Palantir Government and Palantir Finance platforms...
, JoyentJoyentJoyent is a cloud computing software and services company based in San Francisco, California, since 2004. Joyent provides application virtualization....
, and SmartDrive SystemsSmartDrive SystemsSmartDrive Systems, Inc. is a global Measured Safety Program company located in San Diego, California, USA.SmartDrive measures safety for fleet vehicle drivers by monitoring their driving habits as well as capturing accidents and erratic driver behaviors through video. This is done by installing...
, among others. He also founded Clarium CapitalClarium CapitalClarium Capital Management LLC is an American investment management and hedge fund company that pursues a global macro strategy, that Peter Thiel founded in San Francisco in 2002...
, a $2 billion hedge fundHedge fundA hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...
. He was executive producerExecutive producerAn executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
of Thank You for Smoking and co-wrote The Diversity Myth: 'Multiculturalism' and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford. - Founder and Chief Technology Officer Max Levchin invested in IronPort as well, a company founded by early PayPal investor Scott Bannister. With the money he made from the sale of that company to Cisco SystemsCisco SystemsCisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
he founded Slide.com and made the founding $1 million investment in Yelp, Inc. - Former Chief Operating Officer David O. SacksDavid O. SacksDavid Oliver Sacks is the founder and CEO of Web 2.0 companies Geni, Inc. and Yammer, Inc..-Biography:Sacks attended the Memphis University School in Memphis, Tennessee. He earned his B.A. in Economics from Stanford University in 1994 and received a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School...
later founded Geni.comGeni.comGeni is a genealogy and social networking website. Launched on January 16, 2007, the Web 2.0 company aims to create a family tree of the world. While family profiles are private, Geni’s mission is to create a shared family tree of common ancestors...
and YammerYammerYammer is an enterprise social network service that was launched in September 2008. Unlike Twitter, which is used for broadcasting messages to the public, Yammer is used for private communication within organizations or between organizational members and pre-designated groups, making it an example...
, and formed a movie production studio, Room 9 Entertainment, that produced Thank You for SmokingThank You for SmokingThank You for Smoking is a 2005 black comedy film written and directed by Jason Reitman and starring Aaron Eckhart, based on the 1994 satirical novel of the same name by Christopher Buckley...
with funding from Thiel and Hoffman. - Chief Financial Officer Roelof BothaRoelof BothaRoelof F. Botha is a venture capitalist and company director. By training, he is a qualified actuary.Botha is a partner at Sequoia Capital and sits on the board of Eventbrite, Jawbone, Mahalo, Meebo, Nimbula, Square, Tokbox, Tumblr, Unity and Xoom...
later joined as a partner of Sequoia CapitalSequoia CapitalSequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...
, a venture capital firm that has funded many PayPal Mafia companies. Botha personally invested in YouTube, Facebook, JoostJoostJoost is an Internet TV service, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis . During 2007-8 Joost used peer-to-peer TV technology to distribute content to their Mozilla-based desktop player; in late 2008 this was migrated to use a Flash-based Web player instead.Joost began development in 2006...
, TokboxTokboxTokBox provides a free API that allows anyone to add group video chat features to their own websites. Experienced programmers use the OpenTok API to build custom interactive video chat applications...
, and XoomXOOMXoom was an early dot-com that used to primarily provide free unlimited space web hosting, similar to GeoCities.-History:Xoom was founded by Chris Kitze in September 1996 as a download website offering free clipart and a productivity suite including a word-processing application, centering around a...
. - Engineers Steve ChenSteve Chen (YouTube)Steven Shih "Steve" Chen is a Chinese Taiwanese American and a co-founder and previous Chief Technology Officer of the popular video sharing website YouTube.- Early years and education :...
and Jawed KarimJawed KarimJawed Karim is a Bangladeshi German American technologist and co-founder of the popular video sharing website YouTube...
, and web designer Chad HurleyChad HurleyChad Meredith Hurley is an American co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer of the popular video sharing website YouTube. In June 2006, he was voted 28th on Business 2.0's "50 People Who Matter Now" list...
founded YouTube, after investigating why it was so difficult at the time to share videos online. - Elon MuskElon MuskElon Musk is an American engineer and entrepreneur heritage best known for co-founding PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla Motors. He is currently the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors and Chairman of SolarCity...
, who was forced out after losing a fight to run the PayPal service on Microsoft servers, co-founded Tesla MotorsTesla MotorsTesla Motors, Inc. is a Silicon Valley-based company that designs, manufactures and sells electric cars and electric vehicle powertrain components. It was the only automaker building and selling a zero-emission sports car, the Tesla Roadster, in serial production...
, and also founded private space exploration company SpaceX with $100 million of his own money. - Eric M. JacksonEric M. JacksonEric M. Jackson is the co-founder of CapLinked, focused on linking companies and investors. He was founder and former CEO of WND Books and a former vice president of marketing at PayPal...
, later wrote The PayPal WarsThe PayPal WarsThe PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth is a book by former PayPal marketing executive Eric M. Jackson that was published in 2004 by World Ahead Publishing.ISBN 0-9746701-0-3...
and became Chief Executive Officer of WND Books, the publishing arm of World Net Daily. He then went on to co-found CapLinked, focused on linking companies and investors. - Russel SimmonsRussel SimmonsRussel Simmons is a co-founder of Yelp, Inc..He was previously an early employee of PayPal.- References :...
, one of the first engineers, and Jeremy Stoppelman, Vice President of Technology, founded Yelp, Inc. in 2004, after a luncheon at the Slanted Door restaurant hosted by Levchin. The conversation turned to why it was so hard to find a good dentist. Levchin discussed the idea with Simmons and Stoppelman on the walk back to Levchin's business incubatorBusiness incubatorBusiness incubators are programs designed to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services, developed and orchestrated by incubator management and offered both in the incubator and through its network of contacts...
office and agreed the next day to fund their company proposal for local business reviews. Yelp has a number of other PayPal Mafia members among its employees, advisers, and investors. - Product manager Premal ShahPremal ShahPremal Shah is President of Kiva.org and is a leading social entrepreneur.In 2009, he was selected to Fortune Magazine's 40 Under 40 List and was named as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum....
became founding president of Kiva.org. - Daniel Issen became Vice President of Engineering at AdBriteAdBriteAdBrite, Inc. is an online advertising network based in San Francisco, California. It was founded by Philip J. Kaplan and Gidon Wise.AdBrite serves advertisements on 112,009 sites, according to their published statistics , and is the 10th largest advertising network on the Internet, according to...
- Keith Rabois was an early executive who later held positions at LinkedIn and Slide, and invested in Tokbox, Xoom, Slide, LinkedIn, Geni, Room 9 Entertainment, YouTube, and Yelp. He is now COO of Jack Dorsey's payment company SquareSquare (payment service)Square is an electronic payment service, and the name of the card-reading device it uses. Square allows users in the United States to accept credit cards through their mobile phones, either by swiping the card on the Square device or by manually entering the details on the phone.-Creation:The...
- Jared Kopf was an assistant to the PayPal CEO, helped found Slide, and later served as a Director of Clarium Capital before founding several other companies, including a behavioral targetingBehavioral targetingBehavioral targeting is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns.Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual's web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select...
company, Adroll. - Former Executive Vice President Reid HoffmanReid HoffmanReid G. Hoffman is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Hoffman is best known as the co-founder of LinkedIn, a social network used primarily for business connections and job searching.-Early education and career:...
founded LinkedIn in 2002, and was an early investor in Friendster, Six ApartSix ApartSix Apart Ltd., sometimes abbreviated 6A, is a software company known for creating the Movable Type blogware, TypePad blog hosting service, and Vox. The company also is the former owner of LiveJournal. Six Apart is headquartered in Tokyo and is planning to open a new, U.S.-based office in New York...
, ZyngaZyngaZynga is a social network game developer located in San Francisco, United States. The company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace....
, IronPort, FlickrFlickrFlickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
, DiggDiggDigg is a social news website. Prior to Digg v4, its cornerstone function consisted of letting people vote stories up or down, called digging and burying, respectively. Digg's popularity prompted the creation of copycat social networking sites with story submission and voting systems...
, GrockitGrockitGrockit is an online social learning game company. Grockit prepares students for the SAT, ACT, GMAT, LSAT and GRE standardized exams. Students can take practice tests while collaborating online with other users. Grockit was founded in 2006 by Farbood Nivi...
, Ping.fmPing.fmPing.fm is a free social networking and micro-blogging web service that enables users to post to multiple social networks simultaneously.Making an update on Ping.fm pushes the update to a number of different social websites at once...
, NanosolarNanosolarNanosolar is a developer of solar power technology. Based in San Jose, CA, Nanosolar has developed and commercialized a low-cost printable solar cell manufacturing process. The company started selling panels mid-December 2007, and plans to sell them at around $1 per watt...
, Care.com, KnewtonKnewtonKnewton is an adaptive learning company that has developed a platform to personalize educational content. The Knewton platform allows schools, publishers, and developers to provide adaptive learning for any student. Knewton recently announced a partnership with Pearson Education to power the...
, KongregateKongregateKongregate is an online games hosting website owned by Gamestop Corporation, which allows users to upload user-created Adobe Flash or Unity3D games. It features an API that Flash and Unity developers can integrate into their games which allows users to submit high scores and in some games, earn...
, Last.fmLast.fmLast.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
, NingNingNing is an online platform for people and organizations to create custom social networks, launched in October 2005. Ning offers customers the ability to create a community website with a customized appearance and feel, feature sets such as photos, videos, forums and blogs, and the service layers in...
, TechnoratiTechnoratiTechnorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media...
, Tagged and a number of other Web 2.0Web 2.0The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
firms. When YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
was first formed, Hoffman housed them in his LinkedIn office which had also been PayPal's office. In 2009 he became a partner at venture capital firm Greylock Partners. - Other members include Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, and Yishan Wong.
External links
- note: links to other company websites and personal home pages may be found on the articles linked to above.
- Room 9 Entertainment - Room 9 Entertainment official site