

Peter Thiel Opens a New Venture Capital Firm - sew
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/peter-thiel-opens-a-new-venture-capital-firm/?hpw

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gatsby
Should be noted that they've raised $402m out of a planned $1b total fund
size:
[http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1552273/0001552273120...](http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1552273/000155227312000002/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml)

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sakai
Hmm... an unfortunate name choice given that Google currently auto-populates
to tell you all about this Mauritius-based asset management firm:
<http://www.mithrilassetmanagement.com/>

And, does anybody know if they have a site up?

Edit: Added question.

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gatsby
To your question - yes: <http://www.mithril.com/> (pulled from Ajay's
LinkedIn)

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confluence
I find Peter Thiel intriguing. He is either inconsistent in thought or he is a
great practitioner of double think (he may even be somewhere in between).

This fund appears to be a global credit bubble surfer focusing on the influx
of macro capital into Silicon Valley. He has argued against doing things that
were akin to "globalization", yet this entire fund is essentially providing
capital to do just that (scaling out things that have already been proven). He
asks everyone to do "0 to 1" companies (develop new technology), whilst
simultaneously investing in "1 to many" companies which require simple scaling
out to be rather profitable (or sold to another company).

I think Peter Thiel is boundedly rational (aren't we all?
-<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounded_rationality>).

He is akin to an entrepreneur who realizes that things are just about to get
crazy, calls out the crazy, but still raises massive amounts of money and
levers up just because he knows he can benefit from it.

I respect that. That is flexibility in thought. I should practice double think
more often.

> _Mithril .. will seek “growth” opportunities — start-ups that have already
> raised some venture capital and are looking to ramp up significantly.
> According to Mr. Royan, the firm is looking globally but is not interested
> in pre-I.P.O. companies or companies on the verge of going public._

> _“We’re looking for inflection points,” Mr. Royan said. “We’re not looking
> for companies that are a done deal; we want companies that are about to hit
> a growth stage.”_

This sounds like a tulip broker where one takes a levered spread on the delta
between the credit of today and that of tomorrow.

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samstave
How much did he make on the facebook IPO?

Also, while I admire his position and do have a bit of envy for that position,
I would call his actions entirely obvious.

Anyone well connected with the current pulse of not only the tech industry,
but the world in general would be doing the same thing.

Frankly, I am actually surprised there are not more people like him. I am also
surprised there are not more celebrities like Ashton Kutcher.... (Yes, I am
aware of others, but the group is still rather small.)

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ispivey
What happens to his relationship with Founders Fund?

A venture investor can't sustainably direct opportunities to multiple vehicles
that have the same/overlapping mandates.

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amirmc
from the article: _"...predicts Mithril’s average investment will be north of
$20 million"_

That doesn't sound like overlapping mandates to me. A more interesting
question would be around the (potentially confusing) signalling issues if
Founders Fund didn't follow-on in a later investment but Mithril did come in.

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maxko87
On the other hand, it allows Thiel to stay involved in every stage of
fundraising, coming in and leaving as early and as late as he wants. Really,
sounds like a good way to hedge his bets, and open up a new arena for him.

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api
I wonder if he'll put his money where his mouth is and fund people with no
college degrees, or even people with degrees from non-Ivy-League colleges.

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rayiner
It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. He thinks degrees don't add value to
smart people. However, those smart people are smart enough to know that nobody
hires people without college degrees, and are thus in college.

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pbreit
I suspect you both know you're not representing Thiel's views correctly. What
he's said is fairly non-controversial: 1) college is over-priced and 2) some
people might be better off on a different track, such as starting a company.

