"It was hard and we succeeded." This is a quote from David Sacks, entrepreneur, investor and an early PayPal employee and I think it sums up the PayPal story well.

PayPal is a unique and pivotal company in our wonderful tech history. Its founders alone include some of the most successful and prolific engineers, entrepreneur and investors from Elon Musk to Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Reid Hoffman. But the story of PayPal traditionally only tells the PayPal mafia story and not the real, true, gritty story of a group of people, many immigrants, and lots of women, who helped shape the company and each other during one of the most critical times in history.

My guest today is Jimmy Soni – author of The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley and he does what many others haven’t. Over five years, he sought out the very people who were there in the early days and not just the founders and big name early employees but all of those who shaped it and made PayPal what it was. 

He goes back in time to the very inception when Elon was just a young man still showering at the local YMCA and Max Levchin who sought relief from a very hot day by heading to a lecture given by Peter Thiel in a hall gifted with air con.

There are so many twists and turns and a huge sprinkling of serendipity, hard work and genius teams that made PayPal what it was and that’s what Jimmy and I dig deep into in this interview which I know you will enjoy.

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Jimmy Twitter

The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley

Danielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter

Episode edited by Jolin Cheng