Peter Thiel's fellowship program has birthed power players worth more than $220 billion collectively, including design software firm Figma that Adobe said it was acquiring for $20 billion
by Katie Canales
Business Insider
Thu, September 15, 2022 at 10:00 PM
link Peter Thiel's fellowship program has been doling out $100,000 checks to young entrepreneurs for 11 years now.
The only catch? You have to drop out of college to pursue your big idea.
The program has helped drive some big names to success, like Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin.
Adobe plans to acquire the design software firm Figma in a deal worth about $20 billion, the company announced Thursday.
Figma was founded in 2012 by Dylan Field with the help of Peter Theil's fellowship program.
Thiel has been paying young adults $100,000 to drop out of college and launch their own companies for 11 years now.
The famed Silicon Valley investor and former Trump adviser founded his Thiel Fellowship program through his foundation for students aged 22 or younger.
The idea was to help young people see their budding ideas funded and realized with access to coaching from noted CEOs and other entrepreneurs, without the burden of attending classes in a university setting. The program encourages the fellows to return to school afterwards, though not all do.
The likes of Ethereum champion Vitalkin Buterin and others saw the light of day thanks to Thiel, who has been open about his stance on higher education being overrated.
"For some people, it's still worth it," Thiel told Newsweek in early 2017, referring to earning a college degree. "But a lot of graduates can't get good jobs; they're saddled with debt and moving back home with their parents. People are starting to see that something has gone wrong."
Here are some of the projects that have come out of Thiel's fellowship.
