The “PayPal Mafia” is no mafia at all. It’s a diaspora.
“Basically, we were kicked out of our homeland and they burned down our temple. So, we were scattered to the four corners of the globe, and we had to make new homes.” That’s how David Sacks, former COO of PayPal and current CEO of Yammer, described it. The ominous “they” in this story is eBay, and eBay is is partly responsible for both the success of PayPal and why the founders walked away from it.
It’s a pretty rare occurrence that a startup will make it from inception to exit. What is decidedly less common is that startup reaching an exit upwards of $1 billion dollars. Yet even more extraordinary is that exit becoming the catalyst for a revitalization of a local economy and a specific type of investing.
via How the ‘PayPal Mafia’ redefined success in Silicon Valley – Feature – TechRepublic.
