The Founders
The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley
The chaotic origin story of PayPal and the people it launched.
The Founders chronicles the turbulent early years of PayPal, drawing on extensive interviews and internal material. It traces how a fractious group including Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Elon Musk, and Reid Hoffman built the company and then went on to shape much of Silicon Valley. The book is both a startup history and a study of an unusually generative founding team.
It shows the messy reality of early-stage startups: pivots, near-death moments, fraud battles, and team conflict that the polished myths leave out. Founders learn how culture, hiring, and resilience under pressure forge companies and the networks that outlast them.
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