Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and David Sacks, known as the 'PayPal Mafia', transitioned from disrupting the financial services industry with PayPal to wielding substantial political influence. Their experiences during PayPal's rise, which culminated in its sale to eBay, provided the foundation for their successful careers in tech and venture capital. As they pursued greater political engagement, their fortunes soared, especially under the Trump administration, establishing a notable connection between their business successes and involvement in shaping governmental policy.
"They went from scrappy guys dodging government regulation to now they are the government, in a generation," said Steve Blank, a Silicon Valley startup guru and an adjunct professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University.
In its early days, online payment platform PayPal defied the big banks, navigated steep regulatory obstacles, and, after it was sold to San Jose e-commerce titan eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002, catapulted most of its founders and early employees - dubbed the PayPal Mafia in a 2007 Fortune magazine article - into successful careers in technology and venture capital.
Few in the group are well known outside Silicon Valley. But Musk, Thiel and Sacks have eagerly pursued political influence, and when President Donald Trump took power for the second time, their stars ascended.
Musk, 53, was already the world's wealthiest man, with a Forbes' estimated net worth of $306 billion, when Trump appointed him in November to overhaul federal government spending in a controversial role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
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