Thiel Fellowship Update

There was some interesting data in Peter Thiel’s interview in the WSJ in December that I just wanted to share along with my experience thus far. Of course these opinions are purely my own.

When I meet Thiel Fellowship skeptics I sometimes find they can be ill-informed in one of two ways, they stopped researching the fellowship after the initial announcement and have just missed many of the stories. The other is that they don’t know the breadth of the work completed as the information just isn’t out there yet and some fellows haven’t shared their successes, continued work or soft landings. That’s up to them, as they may have no reason to right now. None of that is the fault of the observer of course but I know that this is going to improve over time.

Skepticism is important but I don’t doubt the fellowship based on my experience so far because of my incredible peers, the community and financial freedom along with other benefits it offers. There is definitely much more work to do (from fellows, foundation and mentors alike), to keep adding more value and building accountability/communication.

I’m trying to improve on that last note and hope to start sharing (partly in an effort to improve) my monthly updates.

Now for the interesting (but not surprising) data from the interview!

So far, 64 Thiel Fellows have started 67 for-profit ventures, raised $55.4 million in angel and venture funding, published two books, created 30 apps and 135 full-time jobs, and brought clean water and solar power to 6,000 Kenyans who needed it.

Not a bad start. There’s an incredible group of driven individuals in the current 2012 and 2013 groups and I’d expect to see the needle move much further as their projects get off the ground.

Regardless of the numbers most fellows would say they’ve learned a hell of a lot and grown as people in their 6 months (2013), 1.5 years (2012) or their completed 2 years (2011).