Renowned U.S. venture capitalist and entrepreneur Peter Thiel will teach a 1-credit 16-hour elective course “Startup Thinking” at Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (Tsinghua SEM) in March 2016. Divided into 6 sessions, the course is open to both undergraduate and graduate students in Tsinghua University. It provides fundamental but leading academic and practical guidance on startups and venture capital for aspiring entrepreneurs.
U.S. Venture Capitalist and Entrepreneur Peter Thiel to teach a course “Startup Thinking” at Tsinghua SEM
In 2012, Peter Thiel taught a course “Startup” at Stanford University in U.S. In the course he shared his entrepreneurship journey and experience along with insightful advice from his many years of investment such as how to avoid competition, how to create a monopoly, how to discover new markets, etc. In 2014, the contents of his class were included in a book named “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future” that was published and caused a big stir, becoming one of the best sellers of the year. Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook, commented: “This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world.”
Peter Thiel’s course in Tsinghua SEM is named “Startup Thinking”. The course will not only present the essence of his Stanford course, creating opportunities for in-depth interaction with Tsinghua students through sharing of his ideas and experiences, but also integrate some of his newest thoughts and theories. Moreover, Peter will work with JIA Ning, Associated Professor of Accounting at Tsinghua SEM, Director of Centre for Globalization of Chinese Enterprises, to compare and analyze the differences between entrepreneurship and VC in China and U.S. on the class. By bringing forward both the more refined theories from Peter’s Stanford course and newer relevant ideas regarding innovation and entrepreneurship, the course will serve to inspire Tsinghua students to gain deeper understandings of the creative thinking, entrepreneurship journey and venture capital process in China and U.S.
Peter Thiel is a renowned venture capitalist and entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. He co-founded PayPal and served as its CEO, bringing e-commerce into the millennium. After selling PayPal for $1.5B to ebay in 2002, Thiel entered the investment realm and set up global macro hedge fund Clarium Capital Management. In 2004 he made a $500K angel investment in Facebook and became its first outside investor. On the same year he helped launch the analytical software company PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES, which provides data analysis for national defense and the global financial sector. Peter Thiel also cofounded the Founders Fund, which raises venture capital for dozens of innovative technology companies such as Linkedin, SpaceX and Yelp. By having his PayPal employees to help run these companies, Peter Thiel and his colleagues earned the reputation of the “PayPal Mafia”. He also set up the Thiel Fellowship to encourage youngsters to take part in learning and entrepreneurship outside of schooling and also the Thiel Foundation to promote technological improvement and long term thinking for the future.
Peter Thiel’s contributions to technology, entrepreneurship, and finance have been widely recognized, including by the World Economic Forum, which honored Peter as a “Young Global Leader” in 2007, and by BusinessWeek, which named him one of the “25 most influential people on the Web” in 2008.
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