Chamath Palihapitiya
Chamath Palihapitiya is a highly-influential venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and tech firebrand. Chamath is the Founder and CEO of Social Capital, a venture capital fund that incubates and invests in breakthrough companies. Prior to launching Social Capital, he was a member of the senior executive team at Facebook and a key driver in making it one of the most important companies in the world. Before that, he held leadership positions at Mayfield Fund, AOL and Winamp. Chamath is known as the "SPAC King" and for his role in the SPAC boom in 2020. He has used special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) to make big bets on early stage companies such as personal finance firm, SoFi, and space-tourism firm Virgin Galactic. Chamath is also a Minority Owner and an Executive Board Member of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
Chamath Palihapitiya Professional Experience / Academic History
Professional Experience
-
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
-
Vice President, User Growth, Mobile and International
-
Associate, Interest Rate Derivatives Group
Academic History
-
B.A.Sc., Electrical Engineering, First Class Honors
Under his leadership, Social Capital is aligned with a number of the world's most influential entrepreneurs in highly disruptive sectors.
Social Capital is a technology holding company that backs companies in areas including healthcare, artificial intelligence, climate change and space.
The company makes bets on potentially transformational ideas, technology, and people.
Chamath was the longest-tenured original member of Facebook's Senior Management team.
He served in various roles during his four-year stint at Facebook, including Vice President of User Growth, Mobile and International.
He was a superior force in the launch and remarkable growth of the social media platform, overseeing monetization products and helping increase the user base to over 750 million individuals worldwide.
SPACS & INVESTMENTS
Chamath is a proponent of SPACs - a kind of investment vehicle that allows private companies to go public with less scrutiny from the SEC.
He has helped a number of thriving online ventures during their formative stages.
He is also an influential figure in the SPAC space who helped take Virgin Galactic, Clover Health, Opendoor Technologies, and others public through SPACs.
He is also known for backing companies such as Slack Technologies in their infancy.
EARLY CAREER
Chamath was Vice President and General Manager of AOL, where he led the resurgence of two of the internet's most visible and popular brands.
He was also responsible for AOL's Product and Premium Services for multiple entertainment categories including games, music, movies, TV, and sports.
At Winamp, he was responsible for product and business development at Spinner, a pioneering media player and online radio company.
He started his career as an Associate at the Interest Rate Derivatives Group at BMO, responsible for creating and trading interest rate derivatives.
MEDIA & APPEARANCES
He has been profiled, featured, or quoted in various financial media outlets and publications, including Forbes, The New York Times, CNBC, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Business Insider, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Yahoo! Finance, The Economic Times, and more.
He has also been quoted in TechCrunch and CoinDesk.
He has appeared as a guest on Real Vision.