The Silicon Valley Secret Society: How the PayPal Mafia Conquered the World

Late 1990s. Two startups. One dream about transforming money. Confinity and X merged, led by hungry young entrepreneurs. They wanted to make online payments as simple as sending an email. And boy, did they do more than that. They built a dynasty.

The road? Rocky as hell. Scammers everywhere. Regulators breathing down their necks. eBay trying to crush them before they could stand. This pressure created something special though - a brotherhood. The "PayPal Mafia" was born in fire.

2002 rolls around. eBay buys them for $1.5 billion. Most people would've vanished with their cash. Not these guys. It wasn't an exit. More like an entry ticket.

Look at Elon Musk. Retirement? Please. The man poured money into Tesla and SpaceX when everyone thought he'd lost his mind. Now he's sitting pretty as the second richest person on Earth. Kind of wild how that worked out.

Peter Thiel, the "Don." Saw something in big data nobody else could see. Created Palantir. Then made that crazy Facebook bet. It seems his instinct for spotting the next big thing wasn't just luck. His Founders Fund keeps finding winners.

Reid Hoffman imagined networks going digital. Created LinkedIn. Sold it to Microsoft for $26 billion. But he wasn't done. Backed Airbnb and Facebook when they were nothing.

Their real power? Loyalty. They had each other's backs. Found opportunities. Shared them. The numbers don't lie - nearly half of Keith Rabois's investments have other Mafia members involved. They built a network that still runs Silicon Valley.

At PayPal, risk wasn't just tolerated. It was expected. Every idea got tested. Every plan challenged. Think big or go home. They didn't just move fast. They played chess while others played checkers.

From payments to space. Professional networks to big data. Video sharing to ride sharing. Their fingerprints are everywhere.

When electric cars seemed impossible, Musk pushed forward. When space seemed only for governments, he disagreed. Hoffman proved networking wasn't just about business cards.

They didn't ride the wave. They made it. The most powerful entrepreneurial network Silicon Valley has ever known. Started as outsiders. Became the establishment. Not just a business story. A refusal to accept things as they are.