Peter Thiel

Imagine sending money as easily as sending an email — one person helped make that real! Peter Thiel is a tech entrepreneur born in 1967 who changed how people pay and how tech companies grow. For this short talk, we'll focus on his role in creating PayPal and then helping early startups become huge.

In the late 1990s Thiel co-founded PayPal, a service that let people send money quickly and securely over the internet. PayPal became popular, reached millions of users, and was sold to eBay in 2002. That success gave Thiel experience and resources that he used to help other companies grow.

After PayPal, Thiel invested in and helped build many tech teams. He was an early outside investor in a small social website that grew very big (Facebook) and co-founded Palantir, which makes powerful tools to find patterns in large amounts of data. He also helped start funds and programs that give money and advice to new founders.

Why this matters: because of people like Thiel, a simple idea can become something millions use. He helped make online payments easier and helped tiny teams turn into big companies. For kids: stay curious, try bold ideas, work with friends, and learn how to solve real problems.