The Unconventionl Thiel Fellowship — What is it About?

The Thiel Fellowship — a fellowship for those who intentionally drop out of school.

This is a fellowship created by billionaire Peter Thiel of the PayPal fame.

The fellowship is intended for students under the age of 23 and offers them a total of $100,000 over two years, as well as guidance and other resources.

The fellowship selects 20–25 fellows annually requiring them to drop out of school and pursue other work, which could involve scientific research, creating a startup, or working on a social movement.

Larry Summers, former Chief Economist of the World Bank and president of Harvard University called it “the most misdirected piece of philanthropy” ever.

But the results have been staggering. Set up in 2011, the fellowships has selected 226 Fellows with their projects and companies now worth $70 billion.

When these fellows were asked about this fellowship, 99% say they learned more during their Fellowship than they have or would have in a classroom.

In 2020 alone, 2013 Fellow Austin Russell and 2011 Fellow Paul Gu led their companies, Luminar and Upstart, through successful public offerings and are now valued at $8.5 billion and $4.8 billion, respectively; 2018 Fellow Robert Habermeier launched Polkadot, a blockchain-connecting platform that facilitates digital asset interoperability and now has a market cap of $6.6 billion; and 2018 Fellow Tara Bosch sold her company, SmartSweets, for $400 million.

For the new cohort, the Thiel Foundation just named 24 people into the 2020 class of Thiel Fellows.

The new class includes 24 entrepreneurs in Software, Healthcare, and Blockchain. One of them is a Kenyan entrepreneur based in Nairobi.

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