Inside Peter Thiel’s powerful Silicon Valley network which started with a student paper

Jul 24, 2023

Forget about the PayPal Mafia. There’s another elite network in Silicon Valley you need to know about—and it all started at a student newspaper called the Stanford Review.

The conservative student newspaper cofounded by Peter Thiel in 1987 has been riling up the left-leaning Stanford community for more than three decades. But it’s also quietly become one of the surest paths to an enviable job in Silicon Valley.

Here’s a look at the extensive network of tech investors and founders who got their start writing for the Review:

As I write in my latest feature story:

A look back through the archived mastheads of the Review shows how vast—but also how tight—the legendary investor’s orbit is. Several of PayPal’s cofounders or early executives—Thiel, Craft Ventures’ David Sacks, and former U.S. ambassador to Sweden Ken Howery—wrote for the paper, as did three founders of Palantir, a defense technology company with a market capitalization of nearly $33 billion as of mid-August. You can add Founders Fund investor Keith Rabois, who had stints at LinkedIn and Square, and Founders Fund principal John Luttig to the mix as well. Joe Lonsdale, who worked for Thiel after serving as editor-in-chief of the Review and now runs venture capital firm 8VC, has hired a number of the conservative paper’s staffers, including Alex Moore, one of Lonsdale’s longest-running investing partners, and, just last year, recent Stanford alum Maxwell Meyer. (Lonsdale married another Review editor, Tayler Cox, and Lonsdale’s brother wrote for the paper, too.)

Thiel himself continues to be influential in cultivating the paper’s community:

Thiel remains involved to this day, hosting dinners for staffers for more than three decades now—at his home, or at places like the Sundance steakhouse in Palo Alto—where he discusses world events and political philosophy and asks students questions about college life and what ideas are circulating around campus. In 2017, there was a 30th anniversary party for Review alumni, and the Stanford Review’s current editor-in-chief, Walker Stewart, told Fortune he had attended a dinner for Review writers hosted by Thiel in just the past year.

I spoke with 10 current or former Review editors and staffers, including Thiel, and reviewed hundreds of pages of nonprofit filings as well as an extensive network of company websites, LinkedIn pages, and archived newspaper articles to understand how the student newspaper became such a prominent, yet controversial, launchpad into the Silicon Valley tech ecosystem—and to piece together the common thread that bound them together. You can read the full story here.

Until Monday,

Jessica MathewsTwitter: @jessicakmathewsEmail: [email protected] a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.

Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

- Modular, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based A.I. software development platform, raised $100 million in funding. General Catalyst led the round and was joined by existing investors.

- Gympass, a New York City-based corporate wellness platform, raised $85 million in Series F funding. EQT Growth led the round and was joined by Neuberger Berman.

- LemFi, a Oakland, Calif.-based digital banking service platform for immigrants living in North America and Europe, raised $33 million in Series A funding. Left Lane Capital led the round and was joined by Y Combinator, Zrosk, Global Founders Capital, and Olive Tree.

- Ikigai Labs, a San Francisco-based A.I. spreadsheet platform designed to automate analytics workflows, raised $25 million in funding. Premji Invest led the round and was joined by Foundation Capital and e& capital.

- Cypago, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based developer of a platform that helps organizations adopt, implement, and maintain security standards, raised $13 million in funding. Entrée Capital, Axon Ventures, and Jump Capital led the round and were joined by Ariel Maislos, Prof. Ehud Weinstein, and Ofir Shalvi.

- Panobi, a San Francisco-based growth platform for product and marketing teams, raised $5 million in seed funding. Index Ventures led the round and was joined by Stewart Butterfield, Cal Henderson, and others.

- Raleon, a Wilmington, N.C.-based web3 engagement platform, raised $3.8 million in seed funding. Blockchange led the round and was joined by Play Ventures, Alliance DAO, and Portal Ventures.

- Lex, a Los Angeles-based A.I.-powered writing platform, raised $2.75 million in seed funding. True Ventures led the round.

- Weekday, a San Francisco-based recruiting and networking platform for software engineers, raised $2.2 million in seed funding. Venture Highway led the round and was joined by others.

PRIVATE EQUITY

- Blue Star Innovation Partners acquired a majority stake in PlayMetrics, a Morrisville, N.C.-based provider of operations management software for youth sports organizations. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- PAI Partners agreed to acquire Alphia, a Denver, Colo.-based pet food manufacturer. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Roark Capital Group agreed to acquire Subway, a Milford, Conn.-based restaurant chain. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- The Purple Guys, a portfolio company of Kian Capital Partners, acquired Advantex, a Dallas, Tex.-based IT consulting firm, and Herrod Technology, an Arlington, Tex.-based IT service provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.

OTHER

- Churchill Downs acquired Exacta Systems, a Boynton Beach, Fla.-based developer of electronic gaming systems for historical horse racing, for $250 million in cash.

IPOS

- VNG, a Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam-based gaming, communications, and media startup, filed to go public in the U.S. Tencent, GIC Asset Management, Temasek, and Ant Group back the company.

FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS

- Questa Capital Management, a Washington D.C.-based venture capital firm, raised $397 million for a third fund focused on healthcare services, tech, and medical device businesses.

PEOPLE

- Capstreet, a Houston, Tex.-based private equity firm, promoted Chas Richard to principal. Formerly, he was with Barclays.

This is the web version of Term Sheet, a daily newsletter on the biggest deals and dealmakers. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.