Luke Nosek
{{short description|Polish-born American entrepreneur; co-founder of PayPal}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Luke Nosek
| image = Graphing Social Patterns 07 - IMG 9586 (1527725262).jpg
| imagesize = 200
| caption = Nosek in 2007
| birthname = Łukasz Nosek
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1975|06|01}}{{cite web|url=https://www.inc.com/magazine/20070301/finance-raising-funds.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070328172047/https://www.inc.com/magazine/20070301/finance-raising-funds.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 28, 2007|title=Putting Founders First: How one VC Firm coddles its CEOs.|first=Amy|last=Feldman|date=March 1, 2007|work=Inc.}}
| birth_place = Tarnów, Poland
| alma_mater = University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (BS)
| occupation = Venture capitalist, Entrepreneur
| known_for = Co-founder and VP of marketing at PayPal
| networth =
| spouse =
| children =
| website = [https://www.forbes.com/profile/luke-nosek/?list=billionaires Forbes profile]
| footnotes =
}}
Łukasz Nosek ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|oʊ|s|ɪ|k}};[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uGZyn1Pjd8 "Luke Nosek | Consciousness Hacking | 6/14/2014"] born June 1, 1975) is a Polish-American-French entrepreneur, notable for being a co-founder of PayPal.
Biography
Łukasz Nosek was born in Tarnów, Poland. After emigrating to the US, he earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.{{cite web|url=http://www.ece.illinois.edu/alumni/awards/yaaa/2011-Nosek.html|title=Alumni Awards|accessdate=2014-08-24|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826120121/http://www.ece.illinois.edu/alumni/awards/yaaa/2011-Nosek.html|archivedate=2014-08-26}}
In the summer of 1995, while still in college, he co-founded SponsorNet New Media, Inc., along with fellow Illinois students Max Levchin and Scott Banister. Nosek then worked for Netscape. In 1998, with Max Levchin, Peter Thiel and Ken Howery, Nosek co-founded PayPal, serving as vice president of marketing and strategy, creating the company's "instant transfer" product.{{cite web|url = http://www.cnbc.com/commentary/commentary_full_story_stocks.asp?StoryID=6517|title = Beam Me up Some Cash|last = Plotkin|first = Hal|publisher = CNBC|date = September 8, 1999|accessdate = April 17, 2022|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/19991128221108/http://www.cnbc.com:80/commentary/commentary_full_story_stocks.asp?StoryID=6517|archivedate = November 28, 1999|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-the-paypal-mafia-redefined-success-in-silicon-valley/|title=How the 'PayPal Mafia' redefined success in Silicon Valley|last=Forrest|first=Conner|date=June 30, 2014|website=TechRepublic|access-date=November 11, 2014}}
In his first conversation with Thiel, he told Thiel he had just registered to be cryonically suspended, in other words, that he would be subject to low-temperature preservation in case of his legal death in hopes that he might be successfully revived by future medical technology.{{cite book|last1=Thiel|first1=Peter|title=Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future|date=September 16, 2014|publisher=Crown Business|isbn=978-0-8041-3929-8|page=1 (chapter 14)}} Thiel himself would later follow Nosek's example.{{cite news|last1=Brown|first1=Mick|title=Peter Thiel: the billionaire tech entrepreneur on a mission to cheat death|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/11098971/Peter-Thiel-the-billionaire-tech-entrepreneur-on-a-mission-to-cheat-death.html|accessdate=October 16, 2014|work=The Telegraph|date=September 19, 2014}}
After PayPal went public and was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002, Nosek left the company to travel and pursue angel investing. In 2005, with Thiel and Ken Howery, he started Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm with over $1 billion under management.
In July 2017, Nosek left Founders Fund to launch Gigafund, an investment fund focused on space exploration.{{Cite news|url=https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/28/paypal-co-founder-luke-nosek-leaving-founders-fund-reportedly-for-spacex-focused-fund|title=PayPal co-founder Luke Nosek leaving Founders Fund, reportedly for SpaceX-focused fund|last=Roof|first=Katie|work=TechCrunch|date=July 28, 2017|access-date=February 16, 2018}}
Nosek was the first institutional investor in Elon Musk's SpaceX, and sits on the company's board. He also sits on the board of ResearchGate.{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/aboutus.AboutUsPressPage.html?page=aboutus.AboutUsPressPage2012February22|title=Press Coverage|work=researchgate.net|date=February 22, 2012|accessdate=April 19, 2017}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline}}
{{PayPal Mafia}}
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Category:American venture capitalists
Category:American technology company founders
Category:American corporate directors
Category:Polish emigrants to the United States
Category:Grainger College of Engineering alumni
Category:21st-century American businesspeople