Entrepreneurs of the Week: The Paypal Mafia

They’re the hidden powerhouse behind the vast majority of the networks you use everyday. Respectfully known as the ‘Paypal Mafia’ by Fortune magazine, the powerhouse is responsible for the rise of LinkedIn, Youtube and Facebook. The group initially began its domination by launching the most popular online payments company and has gone on to fund and launch a remarkable group of companies reviewed at hundreds of billions.

Their undeniable success would appear to be calculation over luck. As the old saying goes, once you’re lucky, twice you’re good. In PayPal’s case, there’s way too much “good” to be written off as “lucky.” These guys are gods among businessmen.

Eric Jackson is the CEO of CapLinked and PayPal’s first marketing director and also the author of the