I was selected as a 2020 Thiel Fellow
TLDR: I was paid $100k to drop out by the Thiel Foundation.
Exactly one year ago, I withdrew from my college program. It followed an off-season internship on Xbox at Microsoft where I realized that although I enjoyed the work I was doing, my fit was not going to be in big tech. I enjoyed building my side projects much more than building the scoped down intern projects.
This was not the first time that I had withdrawn from school to work on a side project. I had taken off two previous semesters, only to return after the projects fizzled out. Nonetheless, this was the only time that I withdrew with the conviction that I wasn’t going to return. That last internship had strengthened my resolve to figure it out until I made it work, enough to turn down my full-time offer at Xbox.
I was doing around $600 in MRR at the time and had less than 50 lives that were paying monthly so things were far from certain, but I was confident that there was some variation of the idea that would work, and with enough experimentation, I’d figure it out.
A year later, and dropping out remains the best decision that I’ve personally made. While college was great for a few things, I had been stuck taking classes I loathed, paying tens of thousands of dollars, just so I could get a piece of paper to certify that I was hireable. None of the classes I took had any practical application during my internships or side projects so they always felt like a waste of time and a huge drain on my creativity.
I’d stumbled upon the Thiel fellowship during one of my first times withdrawing from school. The fellowship always stood out as a place where ambitious young people were given permission (not that they needed it) to be creative, build, and dream big.
I applied twice over three years and after a few rounds of interviews (might write about this later if enough people care), I’m thrilled to be a 2020 Thiel Fellow.
This is an especially meaningful moment for me. Reading about the caliber of earlier fellows like Dylan at Figma, Ritesh at Oyo, and Vitalik at Ethereum, had made the fellowship feel aspirational and almost out of reach - similar to how I’d felt about YC, but I suppose part of what 2020 has taught me is that with enough luck, anything is possible.
Despite 2020 being a trajectory defining year for me, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention all the other things I was rejected from. Dorm Room Fund (2x), Rough Draft Ventures (2x), Contrary Capital (2x), and Human Capital (1x). This doesn’t include the VCs that passed to invest. The list would likely double or triple. I just included the things I was able to apply for without a warm intro. I don’t need every door to open for me. One is enough. And if I knock on a thousand doors, one is likely to let me in.
Congratulations! I wonder if you could write about the application/interview process! Congrats once again!
Love it, keep going!