Keith Rabois

Keith Rabois
Born March 17, 1969
Edison, New Jersey
Occupation Entrepreneur, Investor, Lawyer
Known for Paypal, LinkedIn, Square, Yelp, Xoom, YouTube, Yammer, Palantir, Lyft, AirBnB, Eventbrite and Quora.

Keith Rabois is an American technology entrepreneur, executive and investor. He is widely known for his early-stage startup investments and his executive roles at PayPal, LinkedIn, Slide and Square. Rabois invested in Yelp and Xoom prior to each company's initial public offering ("IPO") and sits on both companies' board of directors.[1][2] He is considered a member of the PayPal Mafia, a group that includes PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Elon Musk.[3][4][5]

Life and career

Childhood

Rabois was born on March 17, 1969 and raised in Edison, New Jersey.[6]

College and law school

Rabois studied political science as an undergraduate at Stanford University. He received his B.A. from Stanford in 1991 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1994.[7]

While at Stanford, he became acquainted with Peter Thiel, then editor and co-founder of The Stanford Review. Rabois contributed to the libertarian newspaper known for challenging campus beliefs and mores.[8] Rabois came to Thiel's attention after he was found outside an instructor's home, shouting homophobic slurs and the suggestion that the instructor "die of AIDS." [9][10][11] A few of the contributors went on to join PayPal, a company Thiel co-founded in 1998.

PayPal

Rabois served as Executive Vice President, Business Development, Public Affairs, and Policy at PayPal from November 2000 to November 2002.[12]

LinkedIn

Between January 2005 and May 2007, Rabois worked at LinkedIn, a social network for people in professional occupations, as its Vice President for Business and Corporate Development.[12] LinkedIn was founded by Reid Hoffman, also a former employee at PayPal and a member of the PayPal Mafia.

Slide

Between May 2007 and August 2010, Rabois worked for Slide, a company headed by Max Levchin that focused on slideshows and animations in social networks.[12] Levchin, one of the co-founders of PayPal, knew Rabois from their time together at PayPal. Rabois left Slide around the time that the company was sold to Google Inc.

Square

In 2010, Rabois joined Square, a company that provides an electronic payment service, as its Chief Operating Officer (COO).[4][12] He left Square in January, 2013 due to the threat of a lawsuit over sexual harassment claims by an employee who obtained a job at Square after beginning a relationship with Rabois.[10][13][14][15]

Khosla Ventures

In March 2013, Rabois joined venture capital firm Khosla Ventures.[16][17]

Scribd

In January 2015, Rabois joined the Board of Directors of Scribd after Khosla Ventures led a new investment round in the company.

Politics

In April 2013, a lobbying group called FWD.us was launched, with Keith Rabois listed as one of the "major contributors" on the "Our supporters" page of the website.[18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Xoom:Management:Executive Officers and Directors". 2013-01-11.
  2. ↑ "Yelp:Management:Executive Officers and Directors". 2011-11-17.
  3. ↑ "Meet the PayPal mafia".
  4. 1 2 latimes.com
  5. ↑ gigaom.com
  6. ↑ "Keith Rabois: Did you really grow up in Edison, NJ?".
  7. ↑ "Keith Rabois - CrunchBase".
  8. ↑ "Masters of Their Domain". Mother Jones.
  9. ↑ "Officials condemn homophobic incident; no prosecution planned". 1992-02-12.
  10. 1 2 "Keith Rabois, COO Of Square, Resigns After Relationship With Employee, Harassment Allegations". 2013-01-26.
  11. ↑ Packer, George. "No Death, No Taxes: The libertarian futurism of a Silicon Valley billionaire.". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2011-12-07.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Keith Rabois' LinkedIn page".
  13. ↑ "A note from Keith". 2013-01-25.
  14. ↑ "Interview: Keith Rabois Talks About Sexual Harassment Claim, Becoming a "Distraction" at Square and What's Next". 2013-01-25.
  15. ↑ "Keith Rabois Is Silicon Valley's Hottest Commodity Right Now", SFGate, February 23, 2013
  16. ↑ "Former Square COO Keith Rabois Joins Khosla Ventures". 2013-02-26.
  17. ↑ "Keith Rabois on Khosla Ventures website".
  18. ↑ "Our supporters". FWD.us. Retrieved 2013-04-17.

External links

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