• Fortune Magazine, Thursday, November 15, 2007 11:16 AM

PayPal co-founders Peter Thiel and Max Levchin cashing out to eBay five years ago and have put their money and energy into everything from investment firms to solar-power companies. Thiel's early $500,000 investment in Facebook is now worth an estimated $1 billion. Levchin, meanwhile, founded Slide, a company that develops mini-programs (or widgets) for Facebook, which has quickly become the social network's biggest third-party developer.

Thiel in particular "displays the relaxed self-confidence of Michael Corleone." In fact, Thiel and Levchin even refer to themselves as "the PayPal mafia." Indeed, many hot Web properties can trace their ancestries to PayPal.

Aside from Facebook and Slide, former PayPal-ers are also involved in Yelp, Digg, YouTube, and several other Web 2.0 startups. Companies with PayPal roots are collectively worth around $30 billion and growing. In many ways, the so-called PayPal mafia is the quintessential example of the Silicon Valley dream. Dreamers used to head to New York City or L.A. looking for fame and fortune, now it's San Jose.

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