Luke Nosek

Luke Nosek
Nosek in 2007
Born
Łukasz Nosek

(1975-06-01) June 1, 1975 (age 49)[1]
Tarnów, Poland
Alma materUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Occupation(s)Venture capitalist, Entrepreneur
Known forCo-founder and VP of marketing at PayPal
WebsiteForbes profile

Łukasz Nosek (/ˈnoʊsɪk/;[2] born June 1, 1975) is a Polish-American 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.[3]

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.[4][5]

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.[6] Thiel himself would later follow Nosek's example.[7]

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.[1]

In July 2017, Nosek left Founders Fund to launch Gigafund, an investment fund focused on space exploration.[8]

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.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b Feldman, Amy (March 1, 2007). "Putting Founders First: How one VC Firm coddles its CEOs". Inc. Archived from the original on March 28, 2007.
  2. ^ "Luke Nosek | Consciousness Hacking | 6/14/2014"
  3. ^ "Alumni Awards". Archived from the original on 2014-08-26. Retrieved 2014-08-24.
  4. ^ Plotkin, Hal (September 8, 1999). "Beam Me up Some Cash". CNBC. Archived from the original on November 28, 1999. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
  5. ^ Forrest, Conner (June 30, 2014). "How the 'PayPal Mafia' redefined success in Silicon Valley". TechRepublic. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  6. ^ Thiel, Peter (September 16, 2014). Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. Crown Business. p. 1 (chapter 14). ISBN 978-0-8041-3929-8.
  7. ^ Brown, Mick (September 19, 2014). "Peter Thiel: the billionaire tech entrepreneur on a mission to cheat death". The Telegraph. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  8. ^ Roof, Katie (July 28, 2017). "PayPal co-founder Luke Nosek leaving Founders Fund, reportedly for SpaceX-focused fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  9. ^ "Press Coverage". researchgate.net. February 22, 2012. Retrieved April 19, 2017.