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PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel appeared on Benzinga partner James Altucher's podcast this week, and talked about everything from being Facebook's first investor to retirement.
One particularly interesting topic Thiel covered was PayPal itself, which he founded in 1998 with Elon Musk, Max Levchin, Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Just four years later, the e-commerce platform was acquired by eBay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY).
A 'PayPal Mafia'?
Speaking with Altucher, Peter Thiel explained what the characteristics of PayPal were that led to a "PayPal mafia" (in Altucher's words) -- a group of uber-successful, extremely talented entrepreneurs who once worked with the company.
"PayPal was probably the single company in Silicon Valley that produced most entrepreneurs and the most startups...there'd been something like seven companies started by ex-PayPal people worth over a...