Luke Nosek
Polish-born American entrepreneur; co-founder of PayPal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Łukasz Nosek (/ˈnoʊsɪk/;[2] born June 1, 1975) is an entrepreneur, notable for being a co-founder of PayPal.
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Luke Nosek | |
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Nosek in 2013 | |
| Born | Łukasz Nosek June 1, 1975[1] |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (BS) |
| Occupations | Venture capitalist, Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Co-founder and VP of marketing at PayPal |
| Website | Forbes profile |
Biography
Łukasz Nosek was born in Tarnów, Poland. After emigrating to the US, he earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.[3]
In the summer of 1995, while still in college, he co-founded SponsorNet New Media, Inc., along with fellow Illinois students Max Levchin and Scott Banister. Nosek then worked for Netscape. In 1998, with Max Levchin, Peter Thiel and Ken Howery, Nosek co-founded PayPal, serving as vice president of marketing and strategy, creating the company's "instant transfer" product.[4][5]
In his first conversation with Thiel, he told Thiel he had just registered to be cryonically suspended, in other words, that he would be subject to low-temperature preservation in case of his legal death in hopes that he might be successfully revived by future medical technology.[6] Thiel himself would later follow Nosek's example.[7]
After PayPal went public and was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002, Nosek left the company to travel and pursue angel investing. In 2005, with Thiel and Ken Howery, he started Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm with over $1 billion under management.[1]
In July 2017, Nosek left Founders Fund to launch Gigafund, an investment fund focused on space exploration.[8]
Nosek was the first institutional investor in Elon Musk's SpaceX, and sits on the company's board. He also sits on the board of ResearchGate.[9] Nosek was also an early investor in DeepMind and served on its board of directors.[10]
