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The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth
When Peter Thiel and Max Levchin launched an online payment website in 1999, they hoped their service could improve the lives of millions around the globe. But when their start-up, PayPal, survived the dot.com crash only to find itself besieged by unimaginable challenges, that dream threatened to become a nightmare. PayPal's history - as told by former insider Eric Jackson - is an engrossing study of human struggle and perseverance against overwhelming odds. The entrepreneurs that Thiel and Levchin recruited to overhaul world currency markets first had to face some of the greatest trials ever thrown at a Silicon Valley company before they could make internet history. Business guru Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence, called the hardcover edition of The PayPal Wars a real page turner that featured what he called the best description of business strategy unfolding in a world changing at warp speed. The new paperback edition will feature updated material and even more insights on the state of internet commerce.
230 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2004
72 people are currently reading
2222 people want to read
About the author
Eric M. Jackson
5 books11 followersEric M. Jackson is the co-founder of CapLinked, a project management and business transaction company. He is founder and former CEO of World Ahead Publishing (which was purchased by WorldNetDaily in 2007), and is a former vice president of marketing at PayPal. He is one of the PayPal Mafia, a growing number of PayPal alumni who have started new ventures after eBay bought the online payments firm.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
November 8, 2013
Jackson's writing is insufferable and self-satisfied, with no capacity for generating empathy. I wanted to cram a banana down his throat then reach in and peel it. Otherwise, a fascinating tale of the origins of the company that rose to dominate online payments.
January 12, 2013
Founders
PayPal was founded by Peter Thiel, David Sacks, and Max Levchin. Peter Thiel was born in Frankfurt, Germany. Max Levchin was born in Kiev, Ukraine. David Sacks was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Peter Thiel and Norman Book had earlier founded the libertarian newspaper, The Stanford Review. Thiel and Sacks had earlier written The Diversity Myth, which criticized political correctness and multiculturalism at Stanford University.
Money Transfers
PayPay was originally designed for people with Palm Pilot PDAs, to help them transfer money to each other. The Web interface was added as a secondary feature, but it became the primary feature. PayPal initially used the ACH (Automated Clearing House), which is what banks use with checks. It is slow, but the cost per transaction is very low.
Online Auctions
The author, Eric Jackson, was in charge of marketing at PayPal. He had the idea of growing PayPal's user base offering the eBay user the option to use PayPal to handle payments. PayPal became the most popular payment service at eBay. Paypal made it easy for eBay sellers to include a link to PayPal in the HTML of their storefront.
The Customer Is Always Right
PayPal often had to back out of changes they made to increase their profitability, because the changes proved to be unpopular with the users. Changes often had to be backed out of in a matter of days. PayPal also paid a lot of attention to message boards.
Transaction Fraud
One of the main problems PayPal had was protecting themselves from transaction fraud. PayPal developed a method to verify that their online customers had bank accounts. I’ve been through this, myself. PayPal deposits a small amount of money in your bank account. Then you go online and tell them how much it was.
Merger with X.com
For me, the most interesting part of PayPal's merger with X.com was the fact that the X.com programmers used Microsoft Windows NT software, while the PayPal people used UNIX and Oracle software. Some managers at PayPal saw this as being an arcane theological dispute, which I thought disrespected the importance of technology. Thank god, the UNIX and Oracle team won!
Acquisition by eBay
Soon after PayPal went public, it was acquired by eBay.
PayPal Mafia
Many of the early PayPal people have gone on to found other important companies:
• Peter Thiel was an early investor in Facebook.
• David Sacks produced and financed the movie Thank You For Smoking.
• Max Levchin was the main initial investor for Yelp, which was founded by PayPal engineers Russel Simmons, and Jeremy Stoppelman.
• Elon Musk, co-founder of X.com, later co-founded Tesla Motors and founded SpaceX.
• Reid Hoffman, Chief Operating Officer at PayPal, went on to found LinkedIn.
• PayPal programmers Steve Chen, Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley later founded YouTube.
PayPal was founded by Peter Thiel, David Sacks, and Max Levchin. Peter Thiel was born in Frankfurt, Germany. Max Levchin was born in Kiev, Ukraine. David Sacks was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Peter Thiel and Norman Book had earlier founded the libertarian newspaper, The Stanford Review. Thiel and Sacks had earlier written The Diversity Myth, which criticized political correctness and multiculturalism at Stanford University.
Money Transfers
PayPay was originally designed for people with Palm Pilot PDAs, to help them transfer money to each other. The Web interface was added as a secondary feature, but it became the primary feature. PayPal initially used the ACH (Automated Clearing House), which is what banks use with checks. It is slow, but the cost per transaction is very low.
Online Auctions
The author, Eric Jackson, was in charge of marketing at PayPal. He had the idea of growing PayPal's user base offering the eBay user the option to use PayPal to handle payments. PayPal became the most popular payment service at eBay. Paypal made it easy for eBay sellers to include a link to PayPal in the HTML of their storefront.
The Customer Is Always Right
PayPal often had to back out of changes they made to increase their profitability, because the changes proved to be unpopular with the users. Changes often had to be backed out of in a matter of days. PayPal also paid a lot of attention to message boards.
Transaction Fraud
One of the main problems PayPal had was protecting themselves from transaction fraud. PayPal developed a method to verify that their online customers had bank accounts. I’ve been through this, myself. PayPal deposits a small amount of money in your bank account. Then you go online and tell them how much it was.
Merger with X.com
For me, the most interesting part of PayPal's merger with X.com was the fact that the X.com programmers used Microsoft Windows NT software, while the PayPal people used UNIX and Oracle software. Some managers at PayPal saw this as being an arcane theological dispute, which I thought disrespected the importance of technology. Thank god, the UNIX and Oracle team won!
Acquisition by eBay
Soon after PayPal went public, it was acquired by eBay.
PayPal Mafia
Many of the early PayPal people have gone on to found other important companies:
• Peter Thiel was an early investor in Facebook.
• David Sacks produced and financed the movie Thank You For Smoking.
• Max Levchin was the main initial investor for Yelp, which was founded by PayPal engineers Russel Simmons, and Jeremy Stoppelman.
• Elon Musk, co-founder of X.com, later co-founded Tesla Motors and founded SpaceX.
• Reid Hoffman, Chief Operating Officer at PayPal, went on to found LinkedIn.
• PayPal programmers Steve Chen, Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley later founded YouTube.
December 25, 2025
A very interesting history of the early years of PayPal from founding as Confiniti, to the merger with X.com, the split with Musk, the public listing and the acquisition by eBay. The author was an early employee and was recruited by Peter Thiel.
March 11, 2013
Eric Jackson's recounting of Paypal's early days may stand the test of time as one of the best accounts of high-growth startup life right around the time of the dotcom bust. As someone who got into that world right around the time, I found a lot of this book to ring true.
If you work in startups - or if you're simply curious about what it was really like to build a Silicon Valley company during those days - definitely pick this one up.
If you work in startups - or if you're simply curious about what it was really like to build a Silicon Valley company during those days - definitely pick this one up.
August 9, 2011
Eric M. Jackson's "The PayPal Wars" stands as one of the finest accounts yet written of the heady days of dot-com in 2000 and 2001. What makes Jackson's account so imminently readable is the author's sense of humility, and his reflexive empathy for the travails of his colleagues at PayPal.
Originally recruited away from Anderson by Peter Theil, Jackson writes from the vantage of one accustomed to the ways of the old economy-- strict hierarchy, clearly-defined roles, and an emphasis on structure. Jackson reported to work his first day to find that no one at PayPal was aware he had been hired; after getting over his initial panic, he quickly learned that the new economy prized a different set of values: speed, flexibility, egalitarianism, and, above all, talent. Despite having no prior marketing experience, Jackson quickly learned the ropes and ascended to a position of prominence within the fledgling organization.
Jackson's observations ring true to anyone fortunate enough to have worked in a high-growth tech startup:
* Customer service was playing catch-up to the company's emphasis on growth, with unanswered email queues exceeding 100,000 at times.
* Simple search queries used to generate internal usage reports would threaten to crash the public site due to scaling problems.
* Engineers sparred over which platform to use (Oracle or NT), ultimately developing for both in parallel.
* Upper-management preoccupied itself with inking biz dev deals to increase growth instead of fixing serious site problems that were causing users to leave.
Throughout his narrative, Jackson pulls few punches, and writes with convincing sincerity about the strengths and weaknesses of the company he helped to create:
"I'll certainly acknowledge that our company wasn't beyond media dissection. In fact, we deserved it! We had racked up $92 million in operating losses through the first three quarters of the year against revenues of just $6 million. CNET, The Red Herring, and other media outlets had every right to sink their teeth into a company with such a dangerous burn rate..."
Peter Theil emerges as a true visionary, having originally conceived of PayPal as a way of allowing citizens across the world bypass currency-devaluing actions of their local governments by letting them transfer savings into foreign-denominated currency. While this vision never came to pass, the encompassing nature of his vision seized the imagination of those who toiled to make PayPal succeed. Theil also had the financial acumen to realize that unless he closed his venture round quickly in the spring of 2001, the continuing slide of NASDAQ would scare away the investors he had so carefully brought to the table. He closed a $100 million round just in time by instructing the investment bank not to haggle over the company's valuation-- just to close the round as fast as possible. Had he waited even a few more days, his investors would have fled to safety, and PayPal would have run out of cash.
Some of the most delicious passages of Jackson's account are those which describe the culture of PayPal's ultimate buyer, eBay:
"EBay employees seemed trained to make phone calls to everyone who might have even the remotest interest in the matter and invite them to the yet-to-be-scheduled meeting. After at least two dozen invitations had been extended, a meeting time and location would be scheduled about a week in advance. The following day, like clockwork, the meeting would be rescheduled because of a calendar conflict of a peripheral stakeholder. After several rounds of schedule shuffling, attendees filing into the summit would be handed a thick set of PowerPoint slides filled with bullet points, tables, and an aphorism or two... The duration of the meeting would then be devoted to wading through the voluminous set of slides, with the usual outcome being an agreement to set up a follow-up meeting wo that the issues raised by the slides could be further discussed."
Ultimately, the usurpation of PayPal's innovative culture for eBay's beauracratic one led Jackson, as well as most of his fellow PayPal colleagues, to depart. The strength of PayPal's bench can be readily seen by considering what its members did later--
* Peter Theil became a major figure in the venture arena, where he helped build the then-nascent social network, Facebook.
* Reid Hoffman went on to take the helm of LinkedIn, which has since gone through a successful IPO.
* Chad Hurley and Steve Chen founded YouTube (later acquired by Google).
* Jeremy Stoppleman and Russel Simmons founded Yelp.
* Premal Shah founded Kiva.
* Dave McClure founded SimplyHired.
One of the few downsides of Jackson's compelling account is his insertion of political positions which he presents as if his readers will naturally share his outlook. While not over-wrought, his endorsements of Milton Freidman, Bernie Goldberg, and his sweeping denunciations of regulatory agencies wear on the reader who is otherwise inclined to affirm Jackson's observations on life in a high-growth company. In an afterword which describes the threat posed to eBay and PayPal from an ascendent Google, Jackson intones that "Google's management appears to be overwhelmingly left-wing"-- a pronouncement which is intended to spook the reader.
Despite his politics, Eric Jackson has penned a wonderful time-capsule of the heady days of the dot-com blast. If you are looking for a highly-readable volume which avoids the standard cant while offering a first-hand account of what life is really like in a startup, look no further.
Originally recruited away from Anderson by Peter Theil, Jackson writes from the vantage of one accustomed to the ways of the old economy-- strict hierarchy, clearly-defined roles, and an emphasis on structure. Jackson reported to work his first day to find that no one at PayPal was aware he had been hired; after getting over his initial panic, he quickly learned that the new economy prized a different set of values: speed, flexibility, egalitarianism, and, above all, talent. Despite having no prior marketing experience, Jackson quickly learned the ropes and ascended to a position of prominence within the fledgling organization.
Jackson's observations ring true to anyone fortunate enough to have worked in a high-growth tech startup:
* Customer service was playing catch-up to the company's emphasis on growth, with unanswered email queues exceeding 100,000 at times.
* Simple search queries used to generate internal usage reports would threaten to crash the public site due to scaling problems.
* Engineers sparred over which platform to use (Oracle or NT), ultimately developing for both in parallel.
* Upper-management preoccupied itself with inking biz dev deals to increase growth instead of fixing serious site problems that were causing users to leave.
Throughout his narrative, Jackson pulls few punches, and writes with convincing sincerity about the strengths and weaknesses of the company he helped to create:
"I'll certainly acknowledge that our company wasn't beyond media dissection. In fact, we deserved it! We had racked up $92 million in operating losses through the first three quarters of the year against revenues of just $6 million. CNET, The Red Herring, and other media outlets had every right to sink their teeth into a company with such a dangerous burn rate..."
Peter Theil emerges as a true visionary, having originally conceived of PayPal as a way of allowing citizens across the world bypass currency-devaluing actions of their local governments by letting them transfer savings into foreign-denominated currency. While this vision never came to pass, the encompassing nature of his vision seized the imagination of those who toiled to make PayPal succeed. Theil also had the financial acumen to realize that unless he closed his venture round quickly in the spring of 2001, the continuing slide of NASDAQ would scare away the investors he had so carefully brought to the table. He closed a $100 million round just in time by instructing the investment bank not to haggle over the company's valuation-- just to close the round as fast as possible. Had he waited even a few more days, his investors would have fled to safety, and PayPal would have run out of cash.
Some of the most delicious passages of Jackson's account are those which describe the culture of PayPal's ultimate buyer, eBay:
"EBay employees seemed trained to make phone calls to everyone who might have even the remotest interest in the matter and invite them to the yet-to-be-scheduled meeting. After at least two dozen invitations had been extended, a meeting time and location would be scheduled about a week in advance. The following day, like clockwork, the meeting would be rescheduled because of a calendar conflict of a peripheral stakeholder. After several rounds of schedule shuffling, attendees filing into the summit would be handed a thick set of PowerPoint slides filled with bullet points, tables, and an aphorism or two... The duration of the meeting would then be devoted to wading through the voluminous set of slides, with the usual outcome being an agreement to set up a follow-up meeting wo that the issues raised by the slides could be further discussed."
Ultimately, the usurpation of PayPal's innovative culture for eBay's beauracratic one led Jackson, as well as most of his fellow PayPal colleagues, to depart. The strength of PayPal's bench can be readily seen by considering what its members did later--
* Peter Theil became a major figure in the venture arena, where he helped build the then-nascent social network, Facebook.
* Reid Hoffman went on to take the helm of LinkedIn, which has since gone through a successful IPO.
* Chad Hurley and Steve Chen founded YouTube (later acquired by Google).
* Jeremy Stoppleman and Russel Simmons founded Yelp.
* Premal Shah founded Kiva.
* Dave McClure founded SimplyHired.
One of the few downsides of Jackson's compelling account is his insertion of political positions which he presents as if his readers will naturally share his outlook. While not over-wrought, his endorsements of Milton Freidman, Bernie Goldberg, and his sweeping denunciations of regulatory agencies wear on the reader who is otherwise inclined to affirm Jackson's observations on life in a high-growth company. In an afterword which describes the threat posed to eBay and PayPal from an ascendent Google, Jackson intones that "Google's management appears to be overwhelmingly left-wing"-- a pronouncement which is intended to spook the reader.
Despite his politics, Eric Jackson has penned a wonderful time-capsule of the heady days of the dot-com blast. If you are looking for a highly-readable volume which avoids the standard cant while offering a first-hand account of what life is really like in a startup, look no further.
December 16, 2015
While initially captivating, after some time I started noticing repetitive and exaggerated statements, like "had I known", or "would turn out fateful" or "PayPal vs entire planet Earth" or "hostile media".
Yes, battles with eBay were indeed battles and they were interesting. The media - IMO - were skeptical rather than hostile (and after .com bust who can blame them?). The Mafia turned out to be not quite what was initially hinted at. Yes, PayPal dealt with money, money means fraud, fraud requires countering (if you want to be trusted). Nothing that I would label "battling Mafia". Not after watching documents about Sicilian Mafia and watching in the news how Italian Mafia killed prominent judges, shot police officers bombed politicians etc.
I liked the book and it was interesting but Mr. Jackson really whipped my appetite and raised my expectations with early chapters, promising an epic struggle of enormous proportions. Instead, he wrote an interesting story of a game-changing (when it comes to e-finance and e-auction markets) startup survival. If not for that, I'd probably rated it 4 stars.
Minor thing: most PayPal Mafia later started more companies, some of which were (and are) quite interesting both sociologically and technically (YT, Yelp, Yammer, LinkedIn, etc.). However in the book little is mentioned about technical aspect of PayPal struggles. I attribute it to author's own domain being marketing, but as a programmer, I found it regretful.
Yes, battles with eBay were indeed battles and they were interesting. The media - IMO - were skeptical rather than hostile (and after .com bust who can blame them?). The Mafia turned out to be not quite what was initially hinted at. Yes, PayPal dealt with money, money means fraud, fraud requires countering (if you want to be trusted). Nothing that I would label "battling Mafia". Not after watching documents about Sicilian Mafia and watching in the news how Italian Mafia killed prominent judges, shot police officers bombed politicians etc.
I liked the book and it was interesting but Mr. Jackson really whipped my appetite and raised my expectations with early chapters, promising an epic struggle of enormous proportions. Instead, he wrote an interesting story of a game-changing (when it comes to e-finance and e-auction markets) startup survival. If not for that, I'd probably rated it 4 stars.
Minor thing: most PayPal Mafia later started more companies, some of which were (and are) quite interesting both sociologically and technically (YT, Yelp, Yammer, LinkedIn, etc.). However in the book little is mentioned about technical aspect of PayPal struggles. I attribute it to author's own domain being marketing, but as a programmer, I found it regretful.
December 21, 2021
erstwhile
compatriots
cautionary tale
I joined an independent student newspaper named the Stanford Review. Founded by Peter in 1987
He then began collaborating with another former Review editor, David Sacks, on The Diversity Myth
Peter had recently moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area to set up his own hedge fund, and the lecture opportunity enabled him to discuss an issue he knew well. The animated speech Peter delivered inspired a twenty-four year old programmer in the audience to introduce himself afterward. Max Levchin had good reason to show interest in Peter’s remarks.
raison d’être
Peter’s background in finance prompted him to suggest money as a potential area of focus.
credit card and ATM networks had vastly expanded the payment options available to consumers, but these infrastructure-heavy systems also had significant shortcomings. Without exact cash on hand, a consumer’s only option was to write a check, a cumbersome form of payment that required a trip to the bank and a wait of several days before the check cleared and the recipient could take possession of the funds. Peter and Max surmised that technology had yet to offer a viable alternative to cash for person-to-person payments.
Confinity, a combination of “confidence” and “infinity.”
Marty Hellman, the inventor of public key cryptography, joined the company’s advisory board, and Bill Melton, the founder of VeriFone, provided his backing, as well.
“Ken Howery has just Beamed you Money!” the message’s text read.
“You now have $1.00 waiting for you at PayPal. Visit www.PayPal.com to set up your PayPal account today!”
its promotional bonus program rewarded all new account holders with a $10 deposit just for registering and linking a credit card to their account. And that wasn’t all. Confinity would also pay users $10 for every new customer they referred to the service who completed the registration requirements!
Because of his penchant for demanding long hours and assigning inane tasks, Andersen staffers didn’t ask people working for the Troll how things were going— they knew what the answer would be. I settled for a euphemism. “It���s been busy.”
a left-brained, analytical type who weighs his options carefully before passing judgment
“Great! On Sunday I’m going to be up in the city to meet with some potential Japanese investors,” Peter replied. “Let’s meet around one o’clock in the Marina.”
over a plate of ravioli. Within forty-
eight hours I had received and accepted a verbal offer from Peter and agreed to start the following Friday.
but our group’s head partner turned red with rage and roared that I had burned my bridges. to chase after fool’s gold
Luke Nosek, the company’s vice president of marketing
zestful greeting
He said I could do either marketing or press and investor relations.
On Luke’s monitor was a rectangular pop-up box labeled the “World Domination Index.” It was a counter linked to the PayPal database that refreshed every few minutes. The number inside the box stood at 2,413.
megalomaniacal
Watching Dave address a matter that was beneath his position in a field in which he had no experience at least suggested that I wasn’t the only person in the company whose responsibilities were not set in stone.
“Here it is,” he exclaimed as he flicked on the lights, “the ping pong room!”
ensconced
The CFO—David Jaques, a British national and the former treasurer of Silicon Valley Bank
The massive plank served as my makeshift workstation until I finished assembling my own particleboard desk over the weekend
extolling
Board games, especially “Risk,” littered the floors. occasional water gun fight broke out in the hallways.
the company’s average employee was about twentyfive years old. At thirty-two, Peter was the second oldest person
They use inflation and sometimes wholesale currency devaluations, like we saw in Russia and several Southeast Asian countries last year, to take wealth away from their citizens.
diminish the magnitude of Peter’s vision
this little startup had the ability to upend the world’s financial systems by giving consumers unparalleled power over their own finances.
Many of the engineers carried around copies of Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, a novel about the offspring of World War II army coders who conspired to build an offshore haven for encryption-protected data in Asia
whisk their money away to safety by exchanging it for a more stable foreign currency and storing it far away from the reach of their own floundering governments.
Kenny Howery and Jennifer Chwang, the fiancée of my venture capitalist friend
Luke echoed this strategy. Growth, he insisted, was critical for a startup at this stage to deter potential competitors and position us to implement a business model that would begin to generate serious revenue.
With this focus, Luke tasked our team with introducing a combination of advertising banner and direct mail campaigns to acquire new customers. Soon I found myself surfing direct marketing sites and calling smoozy salesmen to ask about their clickthrough rates and opt-in lists, terms I hadn’t even known a few weeks earlier.
on Sand Hill Road in adjacent Menlo Park
Sand Hill is to venture capital what Wall Street is to the stock market
I’d like to introduce Reid Hoffman,” he said. “Reid is the founder of SocialNet.com and is a member of our board. Starting next week, Reid is going to come on full-time as president, reporting directly to me. He’ll be in charge of operations and day-to-day matters, letting me spend more time on setting our strategic vision and financing.”
even the Japanese businessman whom an engineer accidentally struck in the head with a remote-controlled dirigible went away undeterred.
X.com made a media splash when Elon lured Bill Harris, the former CEO of software maker Intuit, to head the venture. Harris bragged to The Wall Street Journal that he had received CEO offers from more than one hundred startups but chose X.com because he saw it as “a blank canvas upon which to write new rules on the delivery of financial services.”
X.com also generated some additional buzz toward the end of 1999 with a no-fee, no-minimum balance S&P 500 index fund, the only one of its kind.3 This loss leader product had been rationalized as a way to attract new users who could be up-sold to X.com’s other financial products, including its bond and money market funds, interest-bearing checking accounts, and low APR credit lines.
Robert Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet and founder of 3Com, coined Metcalfe’s Law as a way of understanding the power of networks. He claimed that the value of a network equals the square of its users, implying that a network with twice as many users as a competitor is four times as valuable.
He pushed hard on the engineering team to add dotBank’s money request and group billing features to our site before Christmas, and later to duplicate X.com’s customized referral link.
After interviewing a score of opt-in subscription services, I chose a mailing company that offered lists with tech-loving “early adopters,” including Palm users and college students.
“What did the cost per user acquisition work out to?” Peter asked, getting quickly to the point by collecting the data he believed was needed to make a decision. “A little less than $20 per account, but we’ll see that come down a little over the next few days as more recipients read the e-mail and sign up,” I noted. “That’s really good,” Peter replied, leaning back in his chair and pausing to calculate some figures in his head. When he finally opened his mouth again, the words that came out surprised me. “We need to scale this up quickly. How fast can you spend $1 million?” Online auction shoppers immediately came to mind.
This meant that buyers typically had to mail checks or money orders to their seller in the amount of their winning bid. The time the payments spent in the mail, plus the time required for personal checks to clear, added about a week to the waiting period that high bidders had to endure just to receive their treasure. It was a clumsy process for an Internet service, one that PayPal could clearly improve.
If I made the call to invest a significant amount of funds to pursue this demographic, while it might help me meet Peter’s ambitious marketing target, it would also leave me vulnerable to criticism for pursuing a demographic the company didn’t want.
technophiles
PayPal seemed to be firing on all cylinders
His focus, much like his wavy hair, had a habit of bouncing from place to place without much warning. Yet unlike so many intellectuals who seem to care more about ideas than people, Luke took an active interest in those around him.
Sacks, on the other hand, exuded focus. Though an avid movie buff, this law graduate spent jaw-dropping amounts of time at work.
PayPal also proved a hot topic on eBay’s discussion boards, with the conversation topics varying from the practical to the paranoid. Is PayPal safe? How do I get my money out? How many referral bonuses have you earned? What happens to my money if PayPal shuts down?
proof that PayPal was beginning to take root in eBay’s online community
my marketing campaign had already planted the seed. Now it was time for us to help it grow.
If we could increase our number of accounts to reach critical mass before our competitors, the resulting network effect would freeze out any opponents. Potential users would not waste time signing up for multiple accounts with different payment services if PayPal were ubiquitous. But if we failed and another service outpaced us, then there probably would be nothing we could do to catch up.
“For the next several months,” Luke continued, “all of our work is going to focus on eBay. For marketing, all of our direct mails should be to auction users. And, since we can’t buy advertising directly on eBay’s site, we’ll get online banners and magazine ads in other places where eBay users go.
PayPal reached a significant milestone. In late January we registered our 100,000th account. As a countdown to the event, our receptionist pasted a large thermometer made out of white construction paper to the wall of our lobby. Each day she used a red marker to fill in another portion of the thermometer and the company watched as we drew closer to the 100,000 figure at the top. When PayPal finally reached the mark, we held a party complete with six cakes—one sported the number “1” on top, and the other five each had a “0.”
compatriots
cautionary tale
I joined an independent student newspaper named the Stanford Review. Founded by Peter in 1987
He then began collaborating with another former Review editor, David Sacks, on The Diversity Myth
Peter had recently moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area to set up his own hedge fund, and the lecture opportunity enabled him to discuss an issue he knew well. The animated speech Peter delivered inspired a twenty-four year old programmer in the audience to introduce himself afterward. Max Levchin had good reason to show interest in Peter’s remarks.
raison d’être
Peter’s background in finance prompted him to suggest money as a potential area of focus.
credit card and ATM networks had vastly expanded the payment options available to consumers, but these infrastructure-heavy systems also had significant shortcomings. Without exact cash on hand, a consumer’s only option was to write a check, a cumbersome form of payment that required a trip to the bank and a wait of several days before the check cleared and the recipient could take possession of the funds. Peter and Max surmised that technology had yet to offer a viable alternative to cash for person-to-person payments.
Confinity, a combination of “confidence” and “infinity.”
Marty Hellman, the inventor of public key cryptography, joined the company’s advisory board, and Bill Melton, the founder of VeriFone, provided his backing, as well.
“Ken Howery has just Beamed you Money!” the message’s text read.
“You now have $1.00 waiting for you at PayPal. Visit www.PayPal.com to set up your PayPal account today!”
its promotional bonus program rewarded all new account holders with a $10 deposit just for registering and linking a credit card to their account. And that wasn’t all. Confinity would also pay users $10 for every new customer they referred to the service who completed the registration requirements!
Because of his penchant for demanding long hours and assigning inane tasks, Andersen staffers didn’t ask people working for the Troll how things were going— they knew what the answer would be. I settled for a euphemism. “It���s been busy.”
a left-brained, analytical type who weighs his options carefully before passing judgment
“Great! On Sunday I’m going to be up in the city to meet with some potential Japanese investors,” Peter replied. “Let’s meet around one o’clock in the Marina.”
over a plate of ravioli. Within forty-
eight hours I had received and accepted a verbal offer from Peter and agreed to start the following Friday.
but our group’s head partner turned red with rage and roared that I had burned my bridges. to chase after fool’s gold
Luke Nosek, the company’s vice president of marketing
zestful greeting
He said I could do either marketing or press and investor relations.
On Luke’s monitor was a rectangular pop-up box labeled the “World Domination Index.” It was a counter linked to the PayPal database that refreshed every few minutes. The number inside the box stood at 2,413.
megalomaniacal
Watching Dave address a matter that was beneath his position in a field in which he had no experience at least suggested that I wasn’t the only person in the company whose responsibilities were not set in stone.
“Here it is,” he exclaimed as he flicked on the lights, “the ping pong room!”
ensconced
The CFO—David Jaques, a British national and the former treasurer of Silicon Valley Bank
The massive plank served as my makeshift workstation until I finished assembling my own particleboard desk over the weekend
extolling
Board games, especially “Risk,” littered the floors. occasional water gun fight broke out in the hallways.
the company’s average employee was about twentyfive years old. At thirty-two, Peter was the second oldest person
They use inflation and sometimes wholesale currency devaluations, like we saw in Russia and several Southeast Asian countries last year, to take wealth away from their citizens.
diminish the magnitude of Peter’s vision
this little startup had the ability to upend the world’s financial systems by giving consumers unparalleled power over their own finances.
Many of the engineers carried around copies of Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, a novel about the offspring of World War II army coders who conspired to build an offshore haven for encryption-protected data in Asia
whisk their money away to safety by exchanging it for a more stable foreign currency and storing it far away from the reach of their own floundering governments.
Kenny Howery and Jennifer Chwang, the fiancée of my venture capitalist friend
Luke echoed this strategy. Growth, he insisted, was critical for a startup at this stage to deter potential competitors and position us to implement a business model that would begin to generate serious revenue.
With this focus, Luke tasked our team with introducing a combination of advertising banner and direct mail campaigns to acquire new customers. Soon I found myself surfing direct marketing sites and calling smoozy salesmen to ask about their clickthrough rates and opt-in lists, terms I hadn’t even known a few weeks earlier.
on Sand Hill Road in adjacent Menlo Park
Sand Hill is to venture capital what Wall Street is to the stock market
I’d like to introduce Reid Hoffman,” he said. “Reid is the founder of SocialNet.com and is a member of our board. Starting next week, Reid is going to come on full-time as president, reporting directly to me. He’ll be in charge of operations and day-to-day matters, letting me spend more time on setting our strategic vision and financing.”
even the Japanese businessman whom an engineer accidentally struck in the head with a remote-controlled dirigible went away undeterred.
X.com made a media splash when Elon lured Bill Harris, the former CEO of software maker Intuit, to head the venture. Harris bragged to The Wall Street Journal that he had received CEO offers from more than one hundred startups but chose X.com because he saw it as “a blank canvas upon which to write new rules on the delivery of financial services.”
X.com also generated some additional buzz toward the end of 1999 with a no-fee, no-minimum balance S&P 500 index fund, the only one of its kind.3 This loss leader product had been rationalized as a way to attract new users who could be up-sold to X.com’s other financial products, including its bond and money market funds, interest-bearing checking accounts, and low APR credit lines.
Robert Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet and founder of 3Com, coined Metcalfe’s Law as a way of understanding the power of networks. He claimed that the value of a network equals the square of its users, implying that a network with twice as many users as a competitor is four times as valuable.
He pushed hard on the engineering team to add dotBank’s money request and group billing features to our site before Christmas, and later to duplicate X.com’s customized referral link.
After interviewing a score of opt-in subscription services, I chose a mailing company that offered lists with tech-loving “early adopters,” including Palm users and college students.
“What did the cost per user acquisition work out to?” Peter asked, getting quickly to the point by collecting the data he believed was needed to make a decision. “A little less than $20 per account, but we’ll see that come down a little over the next few days as more recipients read the e-mail and sign up,” I noted. “That’s really good,” Peter replied, leaning back in his chair and pausing to calculate some figures in his head. When he finally opened his mouth again, the words that came out surprised me. “We need to scale this up quickly. How fast can you spend $1 million?” Online auction shoppers immediately came to mind.
This meant that buyers typically had to mail checks or money orders to their seller in the amount of their winning bid. The time the payments spent in the mail, plus the time required for personal checks to clear, added about a week to the waiting period that high bidders had to endure just to receive their treasure. It was a clumsy process for an Internet service, one that PayPal could clearly improve.
If I made the call to invest a significant amount of funds to pursue this demographic, while it might help me meet Peter’s ambitious marketing target, it would also leave me vulnerable to criticism for pursuing a demographic the company didn’t want.
technophiles
PayPal seemed to be firing on all cylinders
His focus, much like his wavy hair, had a habit of bouncing from place to place without much warning. Yet unlike so many intellectuals who seem to care more about ideas than people, Luke took an active interest in those around him.
Sacks, on the other hand, exuded focus. Though an avid movie buff, this law graduate spent jaw-dropping amounts of time at work.
PayPal also proved a hot topic on eBay’s discussion boards, with the conversation topics varying from the practical to the paranoid. Is PayPal safe? How do I get my money out? How many referral bonuses have you earned? What happens to my money if PayPal shuts down?
proof that PayPal was beginning to take root in eBay’s online community
my marketing campaign had already planted the seed. Now it was time for us to help it grow.
If we could increase our number of accounts to reach critical mass before our competitors, the resulting network effect would freeze out any opponents. Potential users would not waste time signing up for multiple accounts with different payment services if PayPal were ubiquitous. But if we failed and another service outpaced us, then there probably would be nothing we could do to catch up.
“For the next several months,” Luke continued, “all of our work is going to focus on eBay. For marketing, all of our direct mails should be to auction users. And, since we can’t buy advertising directly on eBay’s site, we’ll get online banners and magazine ads in other places where eBay users go.
PayPal reached a significant milestone. In late January we registered our 100,000th account. As a countdown to the event, our receptionist pasted a large thermometer made out of white construction paper to the wall of our lobby. Each day she used a red marker to fill in another portion of the thermometer and the company watched as we drew closer to the 100,000 figure at the top. When PayPal finally reached the mark, we held a party complete with six cakes—one sported the number “1” on top, and the other five each had a “0.”
June 28, 2017
It's an incredible account of a company which had set out to change how payments were looked at (and also was able to do it to a large extent)
November 1, 2011
The story of Paypal's struggle for World Domination is well told by their former marketing director who joined the company Conformity in its early days. He is a strong supporter of the Paypal Brand and an arch enemy of all things Ebay whose attempts to throw "roadblocks" at the company would almost cause disaster on numerous occasions. This book is very well done with top analysis on the business functions of Paypal. It considers Paypal's inability to get profitable and the problems inherent in its business model to ways that it prepared its consumer base to enjoy the benefits of having a flexible pay service. The internet and computer industry is filled with wonderful business stories and Paypal's is truly near the top. For those who want real business analysis and an understanding of how Silicon Valley works this book cannot be topped.
July 17, 2022
Book describes how PayPal grew from dozen of employees to a couple of hundreds (actually until eBay acquired them). It describes how:
-marketing moves,
-product development,
-strategic decisions / market positioning,
...affect each other. In 2021-22 this is the area of business that is super interesting for me so I liked it.
The growth of PayPal was a constant battle - with eBay who owned PayPal's main market, internal conflicts, regulators, and market dynamics. It is no surprise that later those people became famous "PayPal mafia". Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, David Sacks - book illustrates how they worked 20 years ago. Even then Elon was "original". Even then Peter Thiel had outstanding "big picture thinking skills".
-marketing moves,
-product development,
-strategic decisions / market positioning,
...affect each other. In 2021-22 this is the area of business that is super interesting for me so I liked it.
The growth of PayPal was a constant battle - with eBay who owned PayPal's main market, internal conflicts, regulators, and market dynamics. It is no surprise that later those people became famous "PayPal mafia". Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, David Sacks - book illustrates how they worked 20 years ago. Even then Elon was "original". Even then Peter Thiel had outstanding "big picture thinking skills".
April 8, 2016
Cool story for those interested in payments and the start-up world, though the writing style got repetitive after a few chapters.
The epilogue makes an interesting argument - very true to a libertarian / fiscal conservative viewpoint and supported by the story of PayPal's experience immediately post-IPO - that Joseph Schumpeter's idea of creative destruction has now largely moved from being driven by competitive "market forces" to non-market forces such as capricious regulatory bodies, clueless headline-grabbing news writers, and litigious patent trolls.
The epilogue makes an interesting argument - very true to a libertarian / fiscal conservative viewpoint and supported by the story of PayPal's experience immediately post-IPO - that Joseph Schumpeter's idea of creative destruction has now largely moved from being driven by competitive "market forces" to non-market forces such as capricious regulatory bodies, clueless headline-grabbing news writers, and litigious patent trolls.
June 6, 2016
Bought it because Amazon kept recommending it and I usually like business stories. Story was disappointing. Mr. Jackson was not high level enough to have great insights. The interesting personalities at PayPal such as Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, etc., which should have been the focus of the story, received less pages than placement of various buttons in the "fight" with eBay. The author found out about the PayPal merger after it was announced so missed that key story as well. Overall quite disappointing.
September 27, 2020
This isn't the best book in the history of startup books. Yet, it's uniquely written from the perspective of an early employee instead of a CEO or an executive. Paypal (and further adventures of PayPal Mafia members) was one of the most important fragments of the history of the silicon valley of the last 30 years. And for a Peter Thiel nerd like myself, it was a no brainer to pick this book up. If you are into the history of Fintech, Silicon Valley, Peter Thiel, or considering becoming an employee of a startup for the first time - it's probably worth reading this one.
December 15, 2009
Amazing read. Couldn't put it down .. for real.
December 27, 2024
This is the first book I finished reading using Palma2. Written by a former PayPal senior manager, this book details PayPal's journey from its founding to its acquisition by eBay, highlighting several key moments: the company's establishment, competition with eBay, merger with [X.com](http://X.com), confrontation with Musk, IPO, and finally the eBay acquisition.
PayPal's great advantage partly came from its flexibility as a small company, with a straightforward decision-making process from idea to action. However, for small companies, wrong decisions can be catastrophic, making talented personnel crucial. PayPal succeeded because of these advantages, and its talent pool later gave rise to well-known internet companies like LinkedIn, YouTube, and SpaceX.
It's worth noting that in China's market environment, it would be difficult for a small company like PayPal to emerge. Today, it would be extremely challenging for PayPal to compete with giants like Tencent and Alibaba. It's hard to imagine seeing Alipay as an option in WeChat Pay's interface, let alone a small payment company.
I must say, reading with Palma2 is truly enjoyable. Compared to my previous Kindle and Kobo devices, it's more portable and practical. For me, portability and reading experience are crucial, making Palma2 paired with WeChat Reading the perfect combination.
PayPal's great advantage partly came from its flexibility as a small company, with a straightforward decision-making process from idea to action. However, for small companies, wrong decisions can be catastrophic, making talented personnel crucial. PayPal succeeded because of these advantages, and its talent pool later gave rise to well-known internet companies like LinkedIn, YouTube, and SpaceX.
It's worth noting that in China's market environment, it would be difficult for a small company like PayPal to emerge. Today, it would be extremely challenging for PayPal to compete with giants like Tencent and Alibaba. It's hard to imagine seeing Alipay as an option in WeChat Pay's interface, let alone a small payment company.
I must say, reading with Palma2 is truly enjoyable. Compared to my previous Kindle and Kobo devices, it's more portable and practical. For me, portability and reading experience are crucial, making Palma2 paired with WeChat Reading the perfect combination.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 18, 2024
If you're interested in tech history and the story behind the rise of PayPal, "The PayPal Wars" is a fascinating read. The book offers an insider's perspective on the early days of the company, filled with intense competition, legal battles, and strategic moves that led PayPal to become the dominant player in online payments. I appreciated the detailed accounts of the internal challenges and conflicts with eBay, but I did feel that some parts were a bit biased, giving more credit to the company than may be deserved.
One thing to keep in mind is that while this book talks a lot about PayPal's triumphs, if you've ever had to deal with their customer service, you might find yourself a bit skeptical. There’s a big difference between what’s written in the book and what customers experience today. For real-world experiences, I’d recommend checking out reviews on sites like https://paypal.pissedconsumer.com/cus... to get a sense of how the company handles issues in the present day.
Overall, "The PayPal Wars" is a compelling read for anyone interested in the tech industry, though it's always good to remember the other side of the story.
One thing to keep in mind is that while this book talks a lot about PayPal's triumphs, if you've ever had to deal with their customer service, you might find yourself a bit skeptical. There’s a big difference between what’s written in the book and what customers experience today. For real-world experiences, I’d recommend checking out reviews on sites like https://paypal.pissedconsumer.com/cus... to get a sense of how the company handles issues in the present day.
Overall, "The PayPal Wars" is a compelling read for anyone interested in the tech industry, though it's always good to remember the other side of the story.
March 20, 2022
The author offers a very detailed account of how a startup goes trough its very early phase, such as founding the company on network effect, targeting its users in a very efficient way, in this case it is Ebay users, vividly competing with Ebay with many small ball tactics, and coping with regulators and many others. It is very rare to have a chance to look inside how a startup scales up and operate, and I could really sympathize with the author for the dramatic ups and downs emotionally that happens in a very intense way, and in a such short time of three years, so many thanks to Eric.
Besides all that, I will say if the same story was narrated by Peter Thiel or other higher-level management member, it may be more comprehensive, many things may be much more uncertain back then without the benefit of hindsight.
Besides all that, I will say if the same story was narrated by Peter Thiel or other higher-level management member, it may be more comprehensive, many things may be much more uncertain back then without the benefit of hindsight.
November 22, 2020
Eric M. Jackson's "The PayPal Wars" stands as one of the finest accounts yet written of the heady days of dot-com in 2000 and 2001. What makes Jackson's account so imminently readable is the author's sense of humility, and his reflexive empathy for the travails of his colleagues at PayPal.
Originally recruited away from Anderson by Peter Theil, Jackson writes from the vantage of one accustomed to the ways of the old economy-- strict hierarchy, clearly-defined roles, and an emphasis on structure. Jackson reported to work his first day to find that no one at PayPal was aware he had been hired; after getting over his initial panic, he quickly learned that the new economy prized a different set of values: speed, flexibility, egalitarianism, and, above all, talent. Despite having no prior marketing experience, Jackson quickly learned the ropes and ascended to a position of prominence within the fledgling organization.
Jackson's observations ring true to anyone fortunate enough to have worked in a high-growth tech startup:
* Customer service was playing catch-up to the company's emphasis on growth, with unanswered email queues exceeding 100,000 at times.
* Simple search queries used to generate internal usage reports would threaten to crash the public site due to scaling problems.
* Engineers sparred over which platform to use (Oracle or NT), ultimately developing for both in parallel.
* Upper-management preoccupied itself with inking biz dev deals to increase growth instead of fixing serious site problems that were causing users to leave.
Throughout his narrative, Jackson pulls few punches, and writes with convincing sincerity about the strengths and weaknesses of the company he helped to create:
"I'll certainly acknowledge that our company wasn't beyond media dissection. In fact, we deserved it! We had racked up $92 million in operating losses through the first three quarters of the year against revenues of just $6 million. CNET, The Red Herring, and other media outlets had every right to sink their teeth into a company with such a dangerous burn rate..."
Peter Theil emerges as a true visionary, having originally conceived of PayPal as a way of allowing citizens across the world bypass currency-devaluing actions of their local governments by letting them transfer savings into foreign-denominated currency. While this vision never came to pass, the encompassing nature of his vision seized the imagination of those who toiled to make PayPal succeed. Theil also had the financial acumen to realize that unless he closed his venture round quickly in the spring of 2001, the continuing slide of NASDAQ would scare away the investors he had so carefully brought to the table. He closed a $100 million round just in time by instructing the investment bank not to haggle over the company's valuation-- just to close the round as fast as possible. Had he waited even a few more days, his investors would have fled to safety, and PayPal would have run out of cash.
Some of the most delicious passages of Jackson's account are those which describe the culture of PayPal's ultimate buyer, eBay:
"EBay employees seemed trained to make phone calls to everyone who might have even the remotest interest in the matter and invite them to the yet-to-be-scheduled meeting. After at least two dozen invitations had been extended, a meeting time and location would be scheduled about a week in advance. The following day, like clockwork, the meeting would be rescheduled because of a calendar conflict of a peripheral stakeholder. After several rounds of schedule shuffling, attendees filing into the summit would be handed a thick set of PowerPoint slides filled with bullet points, tables, and an aphorism or two... The duration of the meeting would then be devoted to wading through the voluminous set of slides, with the usual outcome being an agreement to set up a follow-up meeting wo that the issues raised by the slides could be further discussed."
Ultimately, the usurpation of PayPal's innovative culture for eBay's beauracratic one led Jackson, as well as most of his fellow PayPal colleagues, to depart. The strength of PayPal's bench can be readily seen by considering what its members did later--
* Peter Theil became a major figure in the venture arena, where he helped build the then-nascent social network, Facebook.
* Reid Hoffman went on to take the helm of LinkedIn, which has since gone through a successful IPO.
* Chad Hurley and Steve Chen founded YouTube (later acquired by Google).
* Jeremy Stoppleman and Russel Simmons founded Yelp.
* Premal Shah founded Kiva.
* Dave McClure founded SimplyHired.
One of the few downsides of Jackson's compelling account is his insertion of political positions which he presents as if his readers will naturally share his outlook. While not over-wrought, his endorsements of Milton Freidman, Bernie Goldberg, and his sweeping denunciations of regulatory agencies wear on the reader who is otherwise inclined to affirm Jackson's observations on life in a high-growth company. In an afterword which describes the threat posed to eBay and PayPal from an ascendent Google, Jackson intones that "Google's management appears to be overwhelmingly left-wing"-- a pronouncement which is intended to spook the reader.
Despite his politics, Eric Jackson has penned a wonderful time-capsule of the heady days of the dot-com blast. If you are looking for a highly-readable volume which avoids the standard cant while offering a first-hand account of what life is really like in a startup, look no further.
Originally recruited away from Anderson by Peter Theil, Jackson writes from the vantage of one accustomed to the ways of the old economy-- strict hierarchy, clearly-defined roles, and an emphasis on structure. Jackson reported to work his first day to find that no one at PayPal was aware he had been hired; after getting over his initial panic, he quickly learned that the new economy prized a different set of values: speed, flexibility, egalitarianism, and, above all, talent. Despite having no prior marketing experience, Jackson quickly learned the ropes and ascended to a position of prominence within the fledgling organization.
Jackson's observations ring true to anyone fortunate enough to have worked in a high-growth tech startup:
* Customer service was playing catch-up to the company's emphasis on growth, with unanswered email queues exceeding 100,000 at times.
* Simple search queries used to generate internal usage reports would threaten to crash the public site due to scaling problems.
* Engineers sparred over which platform to use (Oracle or NT), ultimately developing for both in parallel.
* Upper-management preoccupied itself with inking biz dev deals to increase growth instead of fixing serious site problems that were causing users to leave.
Throughout his narrative, Jackson pulls few punches, and writes with convincing sincerity about the strengths and weaknesses of the company he helped to create:
"I'll certainly acknowledge that our company wasn't beyond media dissection. In fact, we deserved it! We had racked up $92 million in operating losses through the first three quarters of the year against revenues of just $6 million. CNET, The Red Herring, and other media outlets had every right to sink their teeth into a company with such a dangerous burn rate..."
Peter Theil emerges as a true visionary, having originally conceived of PayPal as a way of allowing citizens across the world bypass currency-devaluing actions of their local governments by letting them transfer savings into foreign-denominated currency. While this vision never came to pass, the encompassing nature of his vision seized the imagination of those who toiled to make PayPal succeed. Theil also had the financial acumen to realize that unless he closed his venture round quickly in the spring of 2001, the continuing slide of NASDAQ would scare away the investors he had so carefully brought to the table. He closed a $100 million round just in time by instructing the investment bank not to haggle over the company's valuation-- just to close the round as fast as possible. Had he waited even a few more days, his investors would have fled to safety, and PayPal would have run out of cash.
Some of the most delicious passages of Jackson's account are those which describe the culture of PayPal's ultimate buyer, eBay:
"EBay employees seemed trained to make phone calls to everyone who might have even the remotest interest in the matter and invite them to the yet-to-be-scheduled meeting. After at least two dozen invitations had been extended, a meeting time and location would be scheduled about a week in advance. The following day, like clockwork, the meeting would be rescheduled because of a calendar conflict of a peripheral stakeholder. After several rounds of schedule shuffling, attendees filing into the summit would be handed a thick set of PowerPoint slides filled with bullet points, tables, and an aphorism or two... The duration of the meeting would then be devoted to wading through the voluminous set of slides, with the usual outcome being an agreement to set up a follow-up meeting wo that the issues raised by the slides could be further discussed."
Ultimately, the usurpation of PayPal's innovative culture for eBay's beauracratic one led Jackson, as well as most of his fellow PayPal colleagues, to depart. The strength of PayPal's bench can be readily seen by considering what its members did later--
* Peter Theil became a major figure in the venture arena, where he helped build the then-nascent social network, Facebook.
* Reid Hoffman went on to take the helm of LinkedIn, which has since gone through a successful IPO.
* Chad Hurley and Steve Chen founded YouTube (later acquired by Google).
* Jeremy Stoppleman and Russel Simmons founded Yelp.
* Premal Shah founded Kiva.
* Dave McClure founded SimplyHired.
One of the few downsides of Jackson's compelling account is his insertion of political positions which he presents as if his readers will naturally share his outlook. While not over-wrought, his endorsements of Milton Freidman, Bernie Goldberg, and his sweeping denunciations of regulatory agencies wear on the reader who is otherwise inclined to affirm Jackson's observations on life in a high-growth company. In an afterword which describes the threat posed to eBay and PayPal from an ascendent Google, Jackson intones that "Google's management appears to be overwhelmingly left-wing"-- a pronouncement which is intended to spook the reader.
Despite his politics, Eric Jackson has penned a wonderful time-capsule of the heady days of the dot-com blast. If you are looking for a highly-readable volume which avoids the standard cant while offering a first-hand account of what life is really like in a startup, look no further.
February 9, 2019
Because it’s really the only book in town about PayPal so despite the average rating I decided to give it a try. It wasn’t nearly as bad. Different from most books about startup, which are usually written by or from the perspective of the founders, this one is written by a low level employee who joined the firm at the very early stage and went through all the changes. It gives you a totally different perspective. The whole book is very conversational, an easy read. It’s best for those who look to switch career to join a tech startup.
June 26, 2019
Bra bok med et nært blikk på paypals kamp for å overleve vs konkurrenter og senere Ebay. Spennende innblikk i hvordan de jobbet og tenkte. Vekst var utrolig viktig i begynnelsen, de ønsket å bruke "networks effects" til å nå "critical mass". Veldig annerledes kultur hvor folk tok så mange selvstendige avgjørelser som mulig uten masse møter. Dette i kontrast med Ebay som de senere ble kjøpt opp av.
June 3, 2023
That is a one more book useing paypal business work job we'll be ask social media can you bring publish though receive instrument of American University California college we are logical organizations administration.This email is sent to you by the contracting entity to your User Agreement, either PayPal Inc, PayPal Pte. Ltd or PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A. Société en Commandite par Actions, Registered Office: 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg RCS Luxembourg B 118 349.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2018
An entertaining description of the roller coast of practical decisions that an iconic company with lots of huge personalities experienced 20 years ago. One thing that comes our clearly is that Elon Musk has really been a generational talent when it comes to getting fabulously rich by losing prodigious amounts of other people’s money....
February 24, 2019
Good read about PayPal's struggles (doh), a new startup battling the old economy, Peter Thiels mental composure and clarity, and Elon Musk's shenanigans.
I just wish the writer could've injected some more drama, not into PayPal (it's had more than it's fair share) but into his narration style, felt very bland.
I just wish the writer could've injected some more drama, not into PayPal (it's had more than it's fair share) but into his narration style, felt very bland.
October 31, 2019
Book was "meh"... I could still handle how it's written, but having to read about Peter Thiel (whom I despise) was far worse.
Being from South Africa, I want to keep routing for everything Elon, but alas. They are all the same sharks in my opinion.
Meh.
Ruoall @ Project Success Mastery
Being from South Africa, I want to keep routing for everything Elon, but alas. They are all the same sharks in my opinion.
Meh.
Ruoall @ Project Success Mastery
July 15, 2025
Excellent book. Eric Jackson was fortunate enough to land in among some of the most effective entrepreneurs in America. Interesting for its mentions of Elon Musk, and for the foreshadowing it gives of the future man. It's always interesting to hear the inside view of an era you lived through--but from the outside.
September 1, 2025
Entertaining and Educational
I found this firsthand look at the early days of PayPal to be engaging, educational, and entertaining. The author’s experience adds to the story and provides a perspective that an outsider couldn’t. While at times the events are relayed melodramatically, overall this is a good read that has aged well.
I found this firsthand look at the early days of PayPal to be engaging, educational, and entertaining. The author’s experience adds to the story and provides a perspective that an outsider couldn’t. While at times the events are relayed melodramatically, overall this is a good read that has aged well.
November 15, 2017
interesting story and well-written by Jackson, though not sure how many outside the payments industry will find the level of detail compelling. Cast of characters certainly is.
May 19, 2018
Interesting story about beginnings of PayPal and the difficulties starting a business that ultimately benefits from network effects.
November 24, 2019
Informative read on the beginnings of PayPal and why PP eventually got acquired by eBay.
March 30, 2020
Really enjoyed hearing this story and reading about the roles of all these "paypal mafia" in the original story.
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