Why I’d Go Big. And Why You Should Ignore Me, and Most of the Others That Tell You That.
Everything on the web, and in SaaS, these days is about going big. Larry Page at Google I/O wants Google to start doing brave new things that build billion dollar markets. Peter Thiel wants the best of us to skip college and go straight to building the next Pallantir and PayPal, just bigger. Elon Musk […]
Xero Raises a Truckload of Cash from US Funds
Last week the announcement came that Xero had secured a huge investment round from US venture funds Valar Ventures (backed by Facebook founder Peter Thiel) and Matrix Capital Management. I’ve spent time talking with these US investors about Xero’s prospects and areas I thought the company would need to improve
Facebook, Part Deux
Nearly two years ago, I asked the question, “Did Peter Thiel Make The Single Best Investment In History?” Today, now that Thiel has sold most of his remaining stake in Facebook, it’s a good time to re-examine the math surrounding his investment. Two years ago, I wrote: In 2005, Peter Thiel paid $500,000 for a […]
Xero Raises Another Round and Acquires WorkFlowMax
Exciting news today from Xero ahead of their user conference tomorrow that spans two important announcements. I’ll cover them individually. $20M Raised from Existing Shareholders Existing shareholders have reinvested to the aggregate tune of $20M. Sam Morgan, Sam Knowles, Craig Winkler and Peter Thiel’s fund Valar Ventures have all taken
Education Bubble maybe or maybe not – the siren call of Peter Thiel
I will agree with Peter Thiel that education as we know it is hard to justify the inputs versus the outputs, especially the costs of education. I have attended many colleges over the years, graduated from two of them, have an advanced degree and feel good about it. The degree has helped me with employment, […]
Did Peter Thiel Make The Single Best Investment In History?
In 2005, Peter Thiel paid $500,000 for a 10% stake in Facebook.Today, with Facebook’s estimated value topping $33 billion, his stake is worth between $2-3 billion. That’s a 6,000x return on his capital in 5 years.I’ll put it this way–if you made a $2…
