Question 1

True or false: Peter Thiel co-founded PayPal and later sold it to eBay for $1.5 billion.

Accepted Answer

True. Thiel co-founded PayPal in 1998, which was acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion in stock, making him a billionaire.

Question 2

True or false: Thiel authored the book 'Zero to One,' which became a New York Times bestseller.

Accepted Answer

True. 'Zero to One,' published in 2014, compiles notes from his Stanford startup course and was a #1 bestseller.

Question 3

True or false: Peter Thiel founded Palantir Technologies, which originally developed software for the CIA.

Accepted Answer

True. Thiel co-founded Palantir in 2003; its early funding came from the CIA’s venture arm, In-Q-Tel, for data analysis tools.

Question 4

True or false: Thiel secretly funded lawsuits against Gawker Media, leading to its bankruptcy in 2016.

Accepted Answer

True. Thiel financed Hulk Hogan’s privacy lawsuit against Gawker, which resulted in a $140 million verdict and Gawker’s closure.

Question 5

True or false: Thiel was the first outside investor in Facebook, investing $500,000 for a 10% stake.

Accepted Answer

True. In 2004, Thiel gave Facebook its first major investment—$500,000 for about 10.2% of the company, later worth billions.

Question 6

True or false: Peter Thiel was a Rhodes Scholar and studied philosophy at Oxford University.

Accepted Answer

False. Thiel studied philosophy at Stanford for undergrad and law at Stanford Law, but he was never a Rhodes Scholar.

Question 7

True or false: Thiel holds a gold medal in Olympic fencing from the 2000 Sydney Games.

Accepted Answer

False. Thiel competed in fencing as a junior but never won an Olympic medal; he was a nationally ranked fencer in the U.S.

Question 8

True or false: Peter Thiel is a licensed pilot and owns a private jet that he flies himself.

Accepted Answer

False. While Thiel is known for eccentric hobbies, he is not a licensed pilot and does not fly his own plane.

Peter Thiel Trivia Questions