Michael Gibson on Peter Thiel and Starting a Renaissance

Danielle Newnham Podcast

Today’s guest is Michael Gibson, co-founder of 1517 – a venture fund he started in June 2015 with Danielle Strachman which backs, and I quote, “dropouts, renegade students, and deep tech scientists, at the earliest stages.”

Prior to starting 1517, Michael worked with Peter Thiel, and alongside, Danielle Strachman, they ran The Thiel Fellowship for five years. For those who don’t know, The Thiel Fellowship was set up to fund students who were 22 or under, giving them a total of $100k over two years so that they could dropout of the traditional education system and pursue important work. The Fellowship guided them through this process which would often involve scientific research, creating a startup, or working on a social movement. Past founders backed by the Fellowship include Vitalik Buterin who was still a teenager when the fellowship allowed him to drop out and work on Ethereum full time, as well as Laura Deming, the founder of The Longevity Fund and Iddris Sandu, co-founder of Spatial Labs.

Michael is also the author of Paper Belt on Fire: How Renegade Investors Sparked a Revolt Against the University which I absolutely loved.

It’s a book about startups, creating a fund with Peter Thiel, founders, reimagining education to empower the young to create great companies without the limitation of credentials, and it also tells the story of identity, specifically, Michael’s own challenging path to finding out who he is after his father - a suspected CIA agent was found murdered when Michael was still a toddler.

Honestly, I can’t tell you how good the book is but trust me, it’s well worth your time as is this episode so please enjoy my conversation with Michael Gibson!

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Michael on Twitter / 1517 Fund / Buy the book here

Danielle on Twitter @daniellenewnham and Instagram @daniellenewnham / Newsletter