Peter Thiel: Capitalism Isn’t Working for Young People

Investor & Founder Takeaways from a Wild Week in AI and Venture

Hey everybody, I’m trying a new format this Sunday.

I thought it would be cool to do a recap of some of the resources & relevant things I built or read during the week.

Let’s get to it 🔥

The content:

1. Peter Thiel: Capitalism Isn’t Working for Young People

2. Brad Gerstner just interviewed Sam Altman & Satya Nadella

3. The VC game is broken (for most VCs)

4. Josh Kushner turned a $5M fund he started at 24 into a $25B monster backing OpenAI

5. Elad Gil on which AI markets don’t have winners yet

6. Seven Years After the Exit – 10 Things I Wish I Had Known

7. The AI Unicorn Angel List: Angel Investors from Lovable, Cursor, Mercor, Polymarket, Synthesia & ElevenLabs

8. Synthesia: inside the $1M cold email to Mark Cuban & the $180M Series D Pitch Deck

9. Michael Burry shorted 1 billion USD to Palantir’s stock. Alex Karp reacts to it

1. Peter Thiel: Capitalism Isn’t Working for Young People

Peter Thiel: “If you graduated in 1970 with no student debt, compare that to the millennial experience: too many people go to college, they don’t learn anything, and they end up with incredibly burdensome debt. Student debt is a version of this generational conflict that I’ve talked about for a long time.

The rupture of the generational compact isn’t limited to student debt, either. I think you can reduce 80 percent of culture wars to questions of economics—like a libertarian or a Marxist would—and then you can reduce maybe 80 percent of economic questions to questions of real estate.

It’s extremely difficult these days for young people to become homeowners. If you have extremely strict zoning laws and restrictions on building more housing, it’s good for the boomers, whose properties keep going up in value, and terrible for the millennials. If you proletarianize the young people, you shouldn’t be surprised if they eventually become communist.”

Want to know your thoughts about this one!

2. Brad Gerstner just interviewed Sam Altman & Satya Nadella

Brad Gerstner just interviewed Sam Altman & Satya Nadella , probably the 2 most influential people in AI right now.

They talked about the initial OpenAI investment, the restructure, IPO, circular financing, layoffs, AGI and more.

So I decided to breakdown the whole interview into the most valuable points for investors and founders worldwide.

3. The VC game is broken (for most VCs)

   Venture Capital is not what you think it is. I break the game from inside.

   

4. Josh Kushner turned a $5M fund he started at 24 into a $25B monster backing OpenAI

   Josh Kushner turned a $5M fund he started at 24 into a $25B monster backing OpenAI 🔥
   What I find fascinating:
   - He built Thrive in New York, far from Silicon Valley’s echo chamber.
   - He turned patience and concentration into Thrive’s edge: few bets, big conviction.
   - He quietly earned the trust of founders like Sam Altman and Patrick Collison, while avoiding the spotlight.
   
   So I broke down how he did it!

   

5. Elad Gil on which AI markets don’t have winners yet

   Elad Gill (≈$3B AUM solo GP) is one of the investors I admire the most & follow. He’s invested in many of the companies that define this generation.

   He recently talked about his view on where the future of AI is so I broke it down!

   

6. Seven Years After the Exit – 10 Things I Wish I Had Known

   Last week in Stockholm I had one of the most inspiring chats I’ve had in a long time with Johan Nordenström.

   He shared his life and I ended up inviting him to write in the Newsletter.
   
   Check it out if you haven’t, it got great apprecitation!

   

7. The AI Unicorn Angel List: Angel Investors from Lovable, Cursor, Mercor, Polymarket, Synthesia & ElevenLabs

   I compiled the list of early angel investors of Lovable, Cursor, Mercor, Polymarket, Synthesia & ElevenLabs 🔥

   

8. Synthesia: inside the $1M cold email to Mark Cuban & the $180M Series D Pitch Deck

   Synthesia just rejected a $3B takeover bid from Adobe and another from Meta

   Earlier this year, they raised $180 million in a Series D round led by NEA, with Google Ventures, Atlassian Ventures, WiL, and PSP Growth also joining.

   I got access to their pitch deck & explore the insides of the Cold email that got them Mark Cuban to invest $1M in the company.

   

9. Michael Burry shorted 1 billion USD to Palantir’s stock. Alex Karp reacts to it

Let me know what you thought of this recap and please share so it finds more people!

PS: Lot’s of cool things coming soon!

Best,

Guillermo