Peter Thiel | Speaker

In 1998 Thiel and several others cofounded Confinity, which was designed to handle payments between Palm Pilots. The following year it merged with Elon Musk’s X.com, and PayPal was created, with Thiel becoming its CEO and chairman. Designed to create “a new world currency,” the e-commerce company specialized in Internet money transfers. PayPal proved hugely successful, aided by its use on the online marketplace eBay. In 2002 eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion. The transaction made Thiel a multimillionaire, and he subsequently invested in a number of start-ups, notably Facebook (2004), an online social networking service. He also established the hedge fund Clarium Capital Management.

In 2004 Thiel cofounded Palantir Technologies, a data analytics firm. Critics questioned its subsequent involvement with the CIA and other government agencies, especially given Thiel’s libertarianism. However, he argued that Palantir’s technology allowed for focused data retrieval, preventing overreaching searches and more draconian measures. The company was also used by banks to detect fraud and handle other cybersecurity efforts. In 2005 Thiel established Founders Fund, a venture capital firm. It invested in such companies as Airbnb, Lyft, and Musk’s SpaceX. Thiel also founded the Thiel Fellowship, which seeks to revolutionize education. He's also the author of Zero to One.

Bambi Francisco Roizen | Moderator & Co-Host

Bambi Francisco Roizen is a Filipina-American wife, mother, entrepreneur, investor and writer. She is co-founder and CEO of Vator, a media and investment company. She co-founded Invent Health, a forum for digital health innovators, with a focus on mental and behavioral health. She was an award-winning syndicated columnist and TV correspondent for Dow Jones MarketWatch. She is a graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in Economics and studied Apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary. She is the author of Unequally Yoked: Finding balance and hope in our differences.

Also see the first ,panel "Founders, Cities, and Building the Future"    • Panel: Founders, Cities, and Building...   Ft. Saif Ishoof, Delian Asparouhov, Marshall Kosloff, and Helen Andrews