Peter Thiel on pivoting and PayPal’s early failure “When we started PayPal, the initial product was an infrared-beaming device on Palm Pilots for sending money. It was voted one of the 10 worst business ideas in 1999. And 1999 was a year when there were many bad ideas in technology… But the team was good… It’s not like you only get one chance. You get many chances so long as you keep trying. If you get hung up on failure, and if you think you don’t have another chance, that’s when you really don’t.” One lesser-known fact about the PayPal pivot is that the idea didn’t come from the cofounders, Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. It came from David Sacks who was fresh out of Stanford Law School and a one year stint at McKinsey. Sacks was the one who finally persuaded a reluctant Levchin that beaming money between Palm Pilots was a bad idea. Instead, he argued, they should focus on sending money via email. A talented team and getting multiple shots on goal turned out to be the difference between startup failure and a $1.5 billion exit to eBay. Video source: @CBSNews (2012)