Mike Solana | |
|---|---|
 Solana in 2024 | |
| Born | July 1, 1985 Toms River, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Boston University |
| Occupation(s) | Venture capital, public relations |
| Employer | Founders Fund |
| Organization | Pirate Wires |
Michael Solana (born July 1, 1985) is an American venture capitalist [1] [2] and marketing executive. He is the chief marketing officer of Founders Fund, and owner of the digital media outlet Pirate Wires. [3]
Michael Solana was born on July 1, 1985 in Toms River, New Jersey, [4] [5] [6] where he was raised. [7] [8] His grandmother was an immigrant from Spain and his father was a veteran of the Vietnam War. [9] He attended Boston University. [8]
After graduating university, Solana interned at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and then worked as an editorial assistant at Penguin Books' occult imprint TarcherPenguin under editor Mitch Horowitz. [8] Solana met Peter Thiel in 2009 while volunteering for The Seasteading Institute and eventually relocated to San Francisco to work at Thiel's venture capital firm Founders Fund as its chief marketing officer. [8] [10]
In 2020, he started a podcast, Problematic, and shortly thereafter an email newsletter on Substack, Pirate Wires. [8] Backed by Founders Fund, Pirate Wires expanded with the hiring of several full-time reporters and, according to Business Insider , moved from Substack to "a splashy website reminiscent of Vice ". [11] [8] The coverage of Pirate Wires has been described as "left-critical," and Solana has been called Thiel's protégé. [8]
In 2022, and in subsequent years, Solana has organized Hereticon, [12] an annual Founders Fund-backed conference that Reason described as something that was "focused on ideas and arguments that have largely been shut out of mainstream discourse". [13]
Solana lives in Miami, Florida. [8] He sits on the board of directors of the Foundation for American Innovation. [14] He is gay. [15]
Peter Andreas Thiel is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. As of July 2024, Thiel had an estimated net worth of US$11.2 billion and was ranked 212th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Matthew Colin Taibbi is an American author, journalist, and podcaster. He has reported on finance, media, politics, and sports. A former contributing editor for Rolling Stone, he is the author of several books, former co-host of the Useful Idiots podcast, and publisher of the Racket News on Substack.
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Jack Patrick Dorsey is an American Internet entrepreneur, philanthropist, and programmer, who is a co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Inc. from 2015 until 2021, as well as co-founder, principal executive officer and chairman of Block, Inc., which is the developer of the Square financial services platform. As of October 2023, Forbes estimated his net worth to be $3.1 billion.
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Nate Diana "Indy" Stevenson, known professionally as ND Stevenson, is an American cartoonist and animation producer. He is the creator, showrunner, and executive producer of the animated television series She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which ran from 2018 to 2020. He is also known for the science fantasy graphic novel Nimona, as co-writer of the comic series Lumberjanes, and The Fire Never Goes Out, his autobiographical collection.
William LeGate is an American businessman, Thiel Fellow, computer programmer and activist.
Vitaly Dmitrievich Buterin, better known as Vitalik Buterin, is a Canadian computer programmer and co-founder of Ethereum. Buterin became involved with cryptocurrency early in its inception, co-founding Bitcoin Magazine in 2011 and Dark Wallet in 2013 together with Amir Taaki and Cody Wilson In 2015, Buterin deployed the Ethereum blockchain with Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin.
Barstool Sports is an American blog website and digital media company headquartered in New York City that publishes sports journalism and pop culture-related content. It is owned by David Portnoy, who founded the company in 2003 in Milton, Massachusetts.
Michael James Lindell, also known as the My Pillow Guy, and Mike Pillow is an American businessman, political activist, and conspiracy theorist. He is the founder and CEO of My Pillow, a pillow, bedding, and slipper manufacturing company.
Candace Amber Owens Farmer is an American political commentator and pundit. She is mostly described as conservative or far-right.
Taylor Lorenz is an American journalist. She is a podcaster for Vox Media, hosting a show called Power User, and founded the Substack publication "User Mag". She was previously a columnist for The Washington Post, a technology reporter for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, and Business Insider, and social media editor for the Daily Mail. She is particularly known for covering Internet culture. In 2023, she published a book called Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet.
Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters. It allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers. Founded in 2017, Substack is headquartered in San Francisco.
Casey Newton is an American technology journalist, a former senior editor at The Verge, and the founder of, and writer for, the Platformer newsletter.
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