Peter Thiel

From recruiting for Palantir to landing a plane on Highway 85: meet defense tech’s wildest power broker

In 2023, defense tech recruiter Peterson Conway VIII pulled up to the offices of nuclear fusion startup Fuse in a black Suburban, donning his signature cowboy hat. He picked up a recent Fuse hire and proceeded to regale her with stories of his old recruiting days. One story involved prostitutes attending a recruiting event (“not […]

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From forced landings to stuffed animal heads, headhunter Peterson Conway is defense tech’s wildest power broker

In 2023, defense tech recruiter Peterson Conway VIII pulled up to the offices of nuclear fusion startup Fuse in a black suburban, donning his signature cowboy hat. He picked up a recent Fuse hire and proceeded to regale her with stories of his old recruiting days. One story involved prostitutes attending a recruiting event (“not

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Peter Thiel-backed venture debt firm Tacora raises $268.7M for new fund

Tacora Capital, a Texas firm that specializes in venture debt, has raised $268.7 million for its second fund, according to a new SEC filing. Tacora’s inaugural fund in 2022 raised about $350 million, including $250 million from Peter Thiel — the prominent Republican billionaire and investor — in what was considered an “unusually large investment”

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Thiel’s Gawker takedown could be coming to a theater near you

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have acquired a screenplay called “Killing Gawker,” which presumably delves into billionaire VC Peter Thiel’s campaign to bury the media outfit for posting excerpts from a Hulk Hogan sex tape. The film is based on a book that details the 2016 court case in which Hogan won a $140 million

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Lavish parties and moral dilemmas: 4 days with Silicon Valley’s MAGA elite at the RNC

It was an eventful week for the Silicon Valley moguls who have vowed to support Donald Trump in his bid to return to the presidency. Given the collision course of tech and Trump, when Leda Health founder Madison Campbell asked me if I’d care to buy an extra ticket to the Republican National Convention from

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Why it made sense for an online community college to raise venture capital

When Tade Oyerinde first set out to fundraise for his startup, Campus, a fully-accredited online community college, it was incredibly difficult. VCs have backed for-profit education companies in the past, including Coursera and Udacity, but backing a more traditional two-year college is different. Plus, he was looking for funds a few years ago when higher

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Trump’s VP candidate JD Vance has long ties to Silicon Valley, and was a VC himself

Former President Donald Trump picked Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate on Monday, as he runs to reclaim the office he lost to President Joe Biden in 2020. Vance, who’s best known for his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” spent years as a venture capitalist before leaving the industry when elected to the U.S. Senate

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AI startup Hebbia rased $130M at a $700M valuation on $13 million of profitable revenue

Hebbia, a startup that uses generative AI to search large documents and respond to large questions, has raised a $130 million Series B at a roughly $700 million valuation led by Andresen Horowitz with participation of Index Ventures, Google Ventures and Peter Thiel. And its funding demonstrates that 50x annual recurring revenue (ARR) is becoming

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Peter Thiel-founded Valar Ventures raised a $300 million fund, half the size of its last one

The perception in Silicon Valley is that every investor would love to be in business with Peter Thiel. But the venture capital fundraising environment has become so difficult, that even Valar Ventures, one of the VC firms he helped found, has raised a much smaller fund this year compared to previous ones.  Thiel set up

Peter Thiel-founded Valar Ventures raised a $300 million fund, half the size of its last one Read More »