Are you ready to change your diploma for start-up capital?
Have you ever thought that a higher education is a waste of time, and is it better to leave right now without even waiting for a diploma? If yes, then you are not alone. American entrepreneur Peter Thiel thinks the same way. This extraordinary thinking billionaire made his fortune as a co-founder of Paypal and one of the earliest investors on Facebook (see the movie “Social Network”). Now he is ready to invest a couple of million in venture capital projects, and in an unusual way. Peter Thiel pays students to drop out and do what they want (in business, of course).
Peter Thiel was one of the few businessmen who guessed the peak of the “dot-com bubble” peak in 2000. Being then at the helm of Paypal, he persuaded other co-owners to accept investments based on the “ridiculous”, in their opinion, business valuation of $ 500 million. He was sure that at the peak of the bubble, you had to take everything to a single cent, what could be - and the market collapse took place a few months after this transaction.
After selling Paypal, Til, sitting in millions, basically did not buy a house for himself, because he was confident in the real estate bubble. What happened to real estate prices in 2006–2008 - we all know very well. The bubble burst, and Thiel finally bought a villa in California.
Now the entrepreneur is talking about another bubble, but for some reason not in the dot-com market, but in a completely different area. He says that the real and long-standing bubble has inflated in the US higher education sector. They say that learning costs unreasonably expensive and does not pay for itself, while driving each student into the huge debts. One can agree with such an opinion, especially if you look at the number of graduates who cannot find a job after university.
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To prove his provocative idea, the billionaire launched the “ 20 to 20 ” project. It provides for the issuance of twenty students under 20 years old at $ 100k each, if they agree to leave the college or university. Til wants to prove that for a smart person, start-up capital is much more important than higher education.
When the experiment was announced a few months ago, Thiel received more than 400 questionnaires from those who wanted to drop out. Surprisingly, many of the questionnaires were from students at very prestigious universities, including 17 from Stanford students.
Two weeks ago, the number of applicants was reduced to 45, now they are coming to San Francisco for personal interviews, and in a couple of weeks the twenty winners of the competition will be announced. All of them will immediately leave their universities and get busy.
via TechCrunch
Peter Thiel was one of the few businessmen who guessed the peak of the “dot-com bubble” peak in 2000. Being then at the helm of Paypal, he persuaded other co-owners to accept investments based on the “ridiculous”, in their opinion, business valuation of $ 500 million. He was sure that at the peak of the bubble, you had to take everything to a single cent, what could be - and the market collapse took place a few months after this transaction.
After selling Paypal, Til, sitting in millions, basically did not buy a house for himself, because he was confident in the real estate bubble. What happened to real estate prices in 2006–2008 - we all know very well. The bubble burst, and Thiel finally bought a villa in California.
Now the entrepreneur is talking about another bubble, but for some reason not in the dot-com market, but in a completely different area. He says that the real and long-standing bubble has inflated in the US higher education sector. They say that learning costs unreasonably expensive and does not pay for itself, while driving each student into the huge debts. One can agree with such an opinion, especially if you look at the number of graduates who cannot find a job after university.
')
To prove his provocative idea, the billionaire launched the “ 20 to 20 ” project. It provides for the issuance of twenty students under 20 years old at $ 100k each, if they agree to leave the college or university. Til wants to prove that for a smart person, start-up capital is much more important than higher education.
When the experiment was announced a few months ago, Thiel received more than 400 questionnaires from those who wanted to drop out. Surprisingly, many of the questionnaires were from students at very prestigious universities, including 17 from Stanford students.
Two weeks ago, the number of applicants was reduced to 45, now they are coming to San Francisco for personal interviews, and in a couple of weeks the twenty winners of the competition will be announced. All of them will immediately leave their universities and get busy.
via TechCrunch
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/117446/
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