Chamath Palihapitiya is the founder and CEO of Social Capital, a private equity firm that invests in digital entrepreneurs. He was born in Sri Lanka but reared in Canada and has spent much of his career in Silicon Valley. Dave Goldberg, former Yahoo executive and CEO of SurveyMonkey, praised him as a person who sincerely wants to make a difference in the world. Due of its core concentration on financial services, healthcare, and education, as well as providing software as a service, Chamath’s company has been called as strategically stunning. He has made investments in a variety of small businesses and online projects. Chamath believes that the mentality and goal of people nowadays is to start businesses with the express intention of making a lot of money, and that this approach has destroyed the industry and the quality of services.
Childhood and Adolescence
Chamath Palihapitiya was born in Sri Lanka on September 3, 1975. When he was six years old, his family moved to Canada.
He earned an electrical engineering degree from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, in 1999.
Following graduation, Chamath worked as a trader at BMO Nesbitt Burns, an investment firm. He went to California in 2000 after working there for a year.
Chamath began his career with AOL and rose through the ranks to Vice President and General Manager of AIM and ICQ in 2004.
He left his job at AOL in 2005 to work for Facebook. His job’s initial goal was to increase Facebook’s user base.
He was a member of Facebook’s Senior Management Team and was instrumental in the company’s growth and technological advancement.
Prior to joining Facebook, he held positions at Mayfield Fund, Winamp, and Spinner.com.
While at Facebook, Chamath began investing in tiny businesses such as Palantir, Pure Storage, Playdom, which was acquired by Disney, and Bumtop, which was acquired by Google.
He left his employment at Facebook in 2011 to launch his own fund, ‘The Social+Capital Partnership.’
The organization began as a strategic investment fund, focused on healthcare and education and investing in ventures that no major companies would sponsor.
Many people admired Chamath’s technique because of its creative implementation. He’s since invested in a number of important startups, including Yammer, which was acquired by Microsoft, and Imperium, which was acquired by Google.
The company’s name was changed to Social Capital in 2015.
He is also a co-owner of the NBA team Golden State Warriors LLC.
Chamath is one of the founders of FWD.us, a lobbying group focused on promoting education and immigration changes that was founded in 2013.
Major Projects Chamath Palihapitiya
Facebook’s user base grew from 50 million to 700 million during his tenure.
He has openly questioned the lack of diversity in the venture capital industry in multiple interviews. He wrote an article about the necessity of accepting diversity in capital firms and the value of varied experiences in broadening one’s perspective.
Chamath’s organization, Social Cash, raised $500 million in capital for their capital fund endeavor in 2015.
He has spoken out against the US government, describing it as absolutely ineffective. Many individuals criticized him and questioned the purpose of private company endeavors in general as a result of this.
He’s also spoken out against the gender gap in numerous industries and publicly chastised Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Chamath has spent the most of his professional life in Silicon Valley, and he has frequently expressed his dissatisfaction with the growing number of young and inexperienced entrepreneurs. Investors, he believes, need to be more smart in order to put the youth’s potential to good use.
He also advocated that the city of San Francisco provide subsidized housing to low-income citizens.
Personal Experiences of Chamath Palihapitiya
Brigette Lau is Chamath Palihapitiya’s current wife.
He traces his outlook to his upbringing in all three nations, having lived in Sri Lanka, Canada, and the United States.
Chamath is a very family-oriented individual who enjoys spending time with his loved ones.
He is an ardent blogger who has contributed to ‘A Medium Corporation’ with various technical and personal pieces.
Chamath was embroiled in a contentious dispute with Ron Conway over his strong opinions on San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s proposal to provide dwellings at a subsidized rate to Americans with below-average incomes.
Chamath Palihapitiya’s current net worth is close to one billion dollars as of April 2017.
Estimated Net Worth
Chamath Palihapitiya has a $1 billion net worth as a Sri Lankan Canadian venture capitalist and entrepreneur. Chamath Palihapitiya is the founder and CEO of Social Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. He was once AOL’s youngest Vice President. He was in charge of AOL’s Instant Messenger service. He first joined Facebook in 2005, when the social media platform was just a year old. From 2007 through 2011, he worked for Facebook as a senior executive.
Chamath left Facebook in 2011 to start his own fund, The Social+Capital Partnership, which later became known as Social Capital. Social Capital now manages well over a billion dollars in assets. In 2015, Social Capital was the primary investor in a round of investment for Slack Technologies. Palantir, Paydom (which was purchased by The Walt Disney Company), Bumptop (which was purchased by Google), and Pure Storage were among the other investments that grew in value.
Trivia
Chamath believes that one’s main ideas should be strong to the point of extremism at all times. This, he claims, makes it easier to weather bad times while also appreciating the good ones!